SK Innovation has decided to invest US$727 million to build a second electric vehicle (EV) battery plant in Georgia, the United States.

SK Innovation’s board of directors approved on April 28 the company’s plan to invest in SK Battery America (SKBA), an electric vehicle battery subsidiary. SK Innovation additionally acquired 7,270 shares of SKBA, a wholly owned subsidiary, for 894.4 billion won.

SK Innovation started the construction of the first plant, which has an annual capacity of 9.8 GWh, in Georgia, the United States in 2019. The capacity of the second plant is 11.7 GWh per year. Ground will be broken in July 2020, with mass-production scheduled to start in 2023.

The construction of the second plant will cost a total of US$1.5 billion (1.8 trillion won). SK Innovation has thus far finalized 3 trillion won investment in the U.S. battery factories. In the long term, it will invest up to US$5 billion (about 6 trillion won) in its U.S. production base.

SK Innovation will have a production capacity of 21.5GWh in the United States when the two plans are completed in 2023, with its global production capacity expected to rise to 71GWh by then.