Part 1: SK Battery’s Forgotten First Marriage — and Divorce (JV with Continental, 2012–2014)

July 23, 2012.

On that day, the joint venture between SK Innovation and Continental AG quietly—but decisively—began.

Today, it is barely remembered.
Yet this was the very first “marriage” in SK’s battery business.

Like most strategic marriages, it was built on a clear give-and-take.

SK Innovation would supply battery cells. Continental would provide the Battery Management System (BMS). Their technologies were meant to merge into a unified battery pack system—developed and produced under a single corporate entity. For the first time, the two core pillars of a battery—cells and BMS—were brought together under one roof.

The plan was ambitious.

Over the next five years, the companies intended to invest €270 million—approximately KRW 400 billion at the time. The joint venture would be headquartered in Berlin, Germany. This was not a symbolic partnership. It was a strategic outpost aimed directly at the European electric vehicle market.

SK contributed battery technology. Continental brought its global automotive network.
On paper, it looked like the perfect structure—each side filling the other’s gaps.

But ideal marriages do not always last.

November 28, 2014.
The joint venture was officially terminated.

Ironically, the issue was not technology—it was the market.

Interest in eco-friendly vehicles was clearly rising. Yet Europe’s choice at the time was not electric vehicles, but clean diesel. EVs were considered premature. The market simply was not ready. The sharp drop in global oil prices further weakened the economic rationale for electrification.

The partnership had begun with faith in the future of EVs.
Reality proved to be a higher wall than expected.

And then, not long after, an event occurred that would completely alter the course of history:

Diesel Gate!!!!

Had that scandal erupted just a little earlier, the outcome of this marriage might have been different.

But at the time, no one knew.

And so, SK Battery’s first marriage was left behind—
remembered as a decision that was simply too far ahead of its time.