[THE INVESTOR] SK Innovation said on Oct. 10 it will put a bigger focus on its battery business to achieve a 30 percent share of the global car battery market by 2030.

In the January-August period, SK Innovation churned out a total of 428.9MWh of car battery products, sharply up from 160MWh a year earlier, the company said in a statement.

The battery figures do not include car batteries that are produced in China and will be used for electric vehicles launched in the world‘s biggest automotive market, it said.

“In August, SK Innovation temporarily grabbed a market share of 3 percent in the car battery market, but this falls far short of bigger rivals such as LG Chem due to lack of output capacity,” a company spokesman said over the phone.

SK Innovation has increased its investments in battery plants as it seeks to diversify its refining-focused business portfolio and grow the battery business as a new growth driver.

An ongoing expansion of the existing car battery plant in Seosan, 150 kilometers southwest of Seoul, will bring its total capacity to 4.7 GWh by the end of this year, the statement said.

If a 7.5GWh plant in China and another 7.5 GWh factory in Hungary are completed by 2022, SK Innovation’s car battery capacity will rise to about 20GWh a year. The 20GWh of batteries can be used to equip 670,000 electric vehicles, it said.

By Song Seung-hyun and newswires (ssh@heraldcorp.com)