Part 2: The Starting Point of SK Battery — The Seosan Plant Groundbreaking

September 18, 2012.
On an autumn day in Seosan, South Chungcheong Province, the completion ceremony for SK Innovation’s first electric vehicle battery plant took place inside a local industrial complex.

At the time, the SK Group had identified batteries as a core future growth engine. The key figure driving this push was Choi Jae-won, then Senior Executive Vice Chairman. During the ceremony, he formally declared SK’s commitment to entering the electric vehicle battery market.

The event was attended not only by SK executives, but also by overseas partners with whom future cooperation was being discussed. Among them was Continental AG, as the possibility of strategic collaboration was openly mentioned. Plans to pursue a joint venture (JV) between SK Innovation and Continental were publicly referenced.

At that moment, it was clear this was more than a simple technical partnership. The envisioned cooperation extended beyond battery cells to include battery modules and Battery Management System (BMS) integration.

JUGO recalls being struck by one key insight:
The Seosan plant was not intended to be merely a production base. It was positioned as a foundation for global collaboration.

The announcement of the JV plan became the starting point of SK’s broader global expansion strategy. Even in the early stage of the EV industry, SK had already drawn a strategic roadmap—seeking partnerships with major component suppliers and system companies to accelerate its entry into the global market.

The Seosan plant was not just a factory.
It marked the true beginning of SK Battery’s global ambition.