SK On and Ford are set to begin trial operations at their joint venture BlueOval SK plant in Tennessee next month, marking a significant milestone in their joint venture aimed at bolstering electric vehicle (EV) battery production. This trial run is designed to ensure stable quality and yield before the plant transitions to commercial operations in 2025.
The Tennessee plant, part of the $11.4 billion BlueOval SK joint venture launched in July 2022, has already seen the installation of major production equipment. SK On, a subsidiary of South Korea’s SK Innovation, will dispatch domestic production personnel to Tennessee to oversee the trial operation. These personnel are primarily involved in the electrode-related processes, which are critical to the battery manufacturing stages of electrode, assembly, activation, and pack.
Industry sources revealed on July 14 that the Tennessee plant’s operations are expected to begin as early as mid-next month. This early trial run is a strategic move to ensure that the plant can achieve stable quality and yield ahead of its commercial operation next year. SK On aims to start operations at Kentucky Plant 1 and the Tennessee plant next year, with Kentucky Plant 2 slated for operation after 2026.
Although SK On has not disclosed the specific operation timeline for the Tennessee plant, it is generally expected that mass production will commence within a few months after the initial trial production. Early production is anticipated to be possible by the end of this year, with full-scale operations expected in the first half of next year. SK On stated, “BlueOval SK Tennessee plant is scheduled for commercial operation in 2025.”
The BlueOval SK joint venture plans to build three battery plants in Glendale, Kentucky, and Stanton, Tennessee, with a total production capacity of 127 gigawatt-hours (GWh). The Tennessee plant alone is expected to have a battery production capacity of 45GWh. BlueOval City in Tennessee, spanning 15.53 million square meters, will house the BlueOval SK battery plant, Ford’s electric vehicle plant, and various parts production facilities.
Once the two BlueOval SK joint venture plants and the Hyundai joint venture plant (35GWh) in Georgia are fully operational, SK On’s production capacity will increase by an additional 117GWh from the current global total of 132GWh this year. This capacity is sufficient to produce approximately 1.4 million high-performance pure electric vehicles capable of traveling over 500 km on a single charge.
link