South Korea's SK Innovation announced the construction of a second battery plant in northwest Hungary on 112,000sqm from a HUF239bn (€754mn) investment, it was announced on February 27. 

Construction will begin in March and production could start late in 2021 or early in 2022, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto said.

SK Innovation is an important player in petrol production and processing, but also in the chemical and electronic field. SK Innovation has been producing lithium-ion batteries since 2006, among other companies like Hyundai-KIA, Volkswagen and Daimler. 

The company announced the establishment of its very first location in Europe in Komarom from €100mn last year. Komarom also is the host to Chinese BYD, which manufactures electric buses in the city’s industrial park.

SK Battery Hungary will produce state-of-the-art lithium-ion batteries for fully electric, plug-in and hybrid vehicles on 430,000sqm floor space. 

Serial production of the first plant is expected to start in the first half of 2020 when the capacity of the batteries manufactured will be around 7.5GWh which will be able to serve 250,000 cars. The two plants will employ some 1,400 staff.

Hungary's government will contribute to the investment, but the scale of the grant is still under negotiation, Szijjarto said at the ceremony. SK Innovation picked Hungary for the investment amid fierce regional competition, drawn by the quality of the local labour force, he added.

Three of the big five Asian battery makers - SK Innovation, Samsung and GS Yuasa - have manufacturing capacity in Hungary, which aims to be a regional hub in the field of electromobility. 

Last year Samsung SDI started production of EV batteries from an investment of HUF100bn near Budapest. Audi has also started the serial production of electric engines. These investments will propel Hungary to become the largest EV car battery producer in Europe after 2020, according to state investment agency HIPA.