"Investment Target and Scale Still Undecided"
Considering a Chinese Electric Vehicle Joint Venture as the First Investment Destination
[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Yoon-joo] SK is jointly establishing a fund with Chinese automobile company Geely. It is known that the fund will be used to consider investments in hydrogen business or electric vehicle joint ventures.
SK Inc. announced on the 25th, "We have decided to establish a joint fund with China's Geely Automobile for a large-scale hydrogen project," adding, "The investment scale and targets are still under review." It is reported that Chinese companies such as Baidu may additionally participate in this project.
SK Group is seriously considering establishing a joint venture within China as an investment target. SK Innovation, which operates an electric vehicle battery business, established a battery manufacturing joint venture with Beijing Automotive in 2013. Global automakers are forming joint ventures with Chinese companies to target the Chinese electric vehicle market, as China is the largest electric vehicle market in the world.
SK's strategy is to strengthen competitiveness in the hydrogen industry through collaboration with Geely Automobile. The hydrogen industry is one of the new growth engines that SK Group is focusing on. SK Inc., which has declared its identity as an investment specialist company, is expected to actively invest in new growth sectors including hydrogen and mobility in the future. Geely Automobile and Baidu have also entered the autonomous electric vehicle business through their joint venture Baidu Automotive.
Meanwhile, SK launched a hydrogen business promotion team directly under the CEO at the end of 2020. Recently, SK also invested about 1.6 trillion KRW in the U.S. hydrogen energy company Plug Power.
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