SK Innovation breaks ground on lithium-ion battery plant in Korea

Recently, SK Innovations – formerly known as SK Energy – held a groundbreaking ceremony for its automotive lithium-ion battery manufacturing facility in Seosan, South Korea. Slated for completion in 2012, the Seosan site will be capable of pumping out enough li-ion batteries to propel some 25,000 plug-in vehicles a year.

One of the electric vehicles packing SK Innovations' li-ion technology is the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG E-Cell. M-B's E-Cell can reportedly sprint from 0-60 miles per hour in a scant 3.7 seconds. The vehicle's advanced temperature management system keeps the SK Innovation-supplied li-ion cells in check. The SLS AMG E-Cell is expected to hit the market, in limited quantities, of course, sometime in 2013.

In addition, SK Innovations supplies lithium-ion batteries to Mitsubishi Fuso, a Japanese subsidiary of Daimler AG, and to Hyundai for its electric BlueOn subcompact.

[Source: Chosun Ilbo]