The next stage of BlueOval SK, a joint venture between SK On and one of the world's largest carmakers, Ford Motor Company, to produce EV batteries, is about to begin. The two businesses successfully established a joint venture and gained a crucial foothold in the electric vehicle sector. Both businesses recently finished their internal and external reviews as they are ready to start a joint venture. As of July 13, BlueOval SK is a legally recognized company (US local time).
A Joint Venture Between Ford & SK
The JV's offices are now in Georgia. It will eventually relocate to BlueOval City, where SK On's production facilities are located. Ford is constructing BlueOval City in Stanton, Tennessee, which will house the battery plant from BlueOval SK, an electric car assembly plant from Ford, and a parts and materials complex. The two businesses announced in the fall of last year that they would invest a combined total of 10.2 trillion won, or 5.1 trillion won for each company, to form BlueOval SK, which would have one battery plant in Tennessee and two in Kentucky. Along with Ford's EV manufacturing facility, the Tennessee plant will be constructed on 15.54 million square meters.
There is a total of 129 gigawatt hours of output capacity. David Hahm, the CEO of SK On, will serve as the company's first CEO, and Jiem Cranney, the CFO of Ford, will do likewise. The posts will be switched between the two businesses after around three years. After serving as a legal and financial specialist for Mayer Brown, Guggenheim Partners, and Goldman Sachs, CEO Hahm joined the legal team at SK Innovation in 2009. He has held a variety of positions, including management and planning. He has managed the creation of the joint venture with Ford and has been in charge of investments, acquisitions, and mergers since 2016.
Before BlueOval SK's formal launch, the two firms have been coordinating opinions on maximizing productivity through several seminars to help ramp up a quality launch. They discussed topics like production, procurement, IT, legal issues, finance, and human resources multiple times to build future operational strategies for the venture's establishment and optimization. In March, the two businesses and Koc Holdings declared their intention to form a Turkish joint venture with a manufacturing capacity of 30 to 45 gigawatt-hours. Including the American market, the two businesses also collaborate on the European market.
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