SK Innovation has started construction of an electric vehicle battery factory with its Chinese joint ventures, state-run automaker BAIC and Beijing Electronics Holding, at the Changzhou Jintan Economic Development Zone in Jiangsu, north of Shanghai, the company said Friday.

The factory is run by BESK, an electric vehicle battery joint venture between SK Innovation, BAIC and Beijing Electronics Holding established in 2013, in which the Korean firm had invested 1 billion yuan ($145 million). 

SK Innovation said the electric vehicle battery factory is the first to be jointly operated by a Chinese automaker and foreign battery maker. It sits on roughly 300,000 square meters of land, with the capacity to produce 7.5 gigawatt hours of batteries annually, which equate to batteries for some 250,000 electric vehicles, added the company.

“According to the company’s China insider strategy, which aims to achieve mutual growth with effective cooperation with China, we have decided to construct a factory there with China’s No. 1 player,” SK Innovation said.

Upon completion slated for the second half of 2019, SK Innovation’s total annual battery production capacity would amount to about 20 GWh.

By Kim Bo-gyung (lisakim425@heraldcorp.com)