Home » Business » Hyundai Motor Group, SK and LG, and others join forces for’half-price’ electric vehicles

Hyundai Motor Group, SK and LG, and others join forces for’half-price’ electric vehicles

[서울=뉴스핌] Reporter Ki-Rak Kim = Hyundai Motor Group is expanding its battery reuse demonstration business with battery companies such as LG Energy Solution following SK Innovation. This is a strategy to develop the industrial ecosystem by establishing a virtuous cycle system for electric vehicle battery resources.

In the future, it is expected that consumers will be able to purchase electric vehicles more cheaply. The’half-price’ electric car becomes a reality because the battery price, which accounts for about 50% of the electric car price, can be reduced in the form of rental.

On the 18th, Hyundai Motor Company signed a business agreement (MOU) with the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, Hyundai Glovis, LG Energy Solutions, and KST Mobility at the Hyundai Motor Company and Kia Research Institute in Hwaseong-si, Gyeonggi-do for the rental of electric taxi batteries and the use of used batteries.

[화성=뉴스핌] Reporter Jeong Il-gu = Prime Minister Jeong Sye-gyun visits Hyundai Motor’s Namyang Technology Research Center in Hwaseong-si, Gyeonggi-do on the morning of the 18th and greets Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Eui-sun Eui-seon. 2021.02.18 [email protected]

◆ Electric car taxis are getting cheaper

The MOU signing ceremony was attended by government and industry officials, including Prime Minister Jeong Sye-gyun, Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Sung Yun-mo, Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Eui-sun Eui, Hyundai Motors President Gong Young-woon, Hyundai Glovis President Kim Jong-Hun, LG Energy Solution President Kim Jong-hyun, and KST Mobility CEO Haeng-ryul Lee.

According to the MOU, the taxi platform operator sells the ownership of the battery to the leasing operator immediately after purchasing the electric vehicle. After that, the operator will pay the battery lease on a monthly basis during the period of the electric vehicle holding. Taxi operators are buying electric cars at a price without the battery price.

Accordingly, it is expected that a virtuous cycle ecosystem can be established throughout the entire electric vehicle use cycle by lowering the initial cost burden of electric vehicle purchase and providing eco-friendly services by reusing and recycling batteries.

It also demonstrates a battery reuse model. This is a method of using the used battery as an energy storage device (ESS), which is secured when replacing the battery installed in an electric taxi with a new battery, for rapid charging of electric vehicles. You can save money by charging the ESS during the late-night time when electricity is cheap, and charging the electric vehicle by using the ESS during the daytime when electricity is expensive.

Hyundai Motor Company decided to sell the electric car’Kona Electric’ to the taxi platform operator KST Mobility while overseeing the demonstration project. Along with the battery warranty, it will also sell replacement batteries.

The idea is to produce an ESS by analyzing the safety and residual value of the batteries used in electric vehicles purchased by LG Energy Solutions. After that, it was installed in a rapid charger for electric vehicles, and the charger was decided to be sold to the vehicle operator KST Mobility. LG Energy Solutions has been supplying batteries to electric vehicles such as Kona. Following delivery, the waste batteries are recovered and recycled.

Prime Minister Jeong Sye-gyun said, “We will expand the support necessary for the R&D of dedicated platforms, localization of parts, and lease of batteries and fuel cells so that eco-friendly vehicles can be competitive in terms of performance and price.” “We will focus our capabilities on the stable transition to an eco-friendly vehicle industrial ecosystem, such as supporting business reorganization of primary and secondary suppliers.”

[서울=뉴스핌] Reporter Ki-rak Kim = Rendered image of IONIQ brand product lineup (Ioniq 6, Ioniq 7, Ioniq 5 from left) [사진=현대차] 2020.08.10 [email protected]

◆ Battery rental service, expanded to general consumers after demonstration

If the electric vehicle battery rental service is commercialized in the future, the supply of electric vehicles is expected to increase significantly. This is because customers can purchase electric vehicles at a price excluding battery costs. Generally, the battery cost is known to be 40-50% of the electric vehicle price.

The Hyundai Motor Group has been trying to collaborate in various business areas such as battery reuse and recycling to expand the spread of electric vehicles. In September of last year, SK Innovation decided to verify sales of electric vehicle batteries such as leases and rentals, battery management services, and reuse and recycling of electric vehicle batteries.

Unlike the existing mobility-battery company cooperation centered on battery supply, the goal is to use a virtuous cycle that takes into account the battery life cycle called BaaS (Battery as a Service).

To this end, SK Innovation collected and verified the battery pack installed in the vehicle from the Kia Niro electric vehicle. As a vehicle battery, it is considered to use a battery that has reached the end of its life for other purposes such as ESS, while extracting metals of economic value such as lithium, nickel, and cobalt from the battery is representative.

The Hyundai Motor Group is also promoting the ESS demonstration project to solve the problem of OCI and the disposal of waste batteries in electric vehicles from September 2019.

ESS is a device that stores generated power and supplies it when it is needed. It is used in various ways such as transmission and distribution, home and industrial use, thereby enhancing the efficiency of the power system and contributing to the stabilization of power supply and demand.

To this end, the Hyundai Motor Group installed its own developed electric vehicle waste battery recycling energy storage device at OCI’s solar power plant located in Gongju City and Texas, USA, and the two companies are verifying the empirical analysis and business feasibility together.

An official from Hyundai Motors said, “This is an example where the government and industry have joined forces to supply electric vehicles and to expand reuse of batteries after use. We hope that the electric vehicle ecosystem will be built early through the demonstration of new innovative models. Even in countries that do not have subsidies for electric vehicles in the future, internal combustion engines It is expected that it will spread as a business model that can reduce the price gap with cars.”

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