[Courtesy of LG Chem]
By Park Sae-jin = swatchsjp@ajunews.com
South Korea's LG Chem has gained the high ground in a global "battery war" with domestic and foreign rivals by winning a deal to supply lithium-ion batteries for space exploration that carried a great symbolic value.
"We have shown the excellence of our battery technologies before the global market," LG Chem's battery business division president, Lee Ung-beom, said, referring to a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to supply batteries for space suits in the second half of this year.
Lithium-ion batteries have passed NASA's internal short-circuit stability test, outlasting Japanese and South Korean competitors, LG Chem said, adding its batteries are cheaper, better in performance, and more reliable along with a longer lifespan than competitors.
"Our batteries feature world's highest level of performance and stability," the company said in a statement.
Currently, Japan dominates the market for silver-zinc batteries widely used in aerospace and military sectors. With the NASA deal, however, LG Chem is confident that its batteries would be used more in next-generation applications, ranging from electric vehicles and electric ships to drones and space equipment.
[Courtesy of NASA]
The NASA deal comes amid growing competition among South Korean and Japanese companies to secure the upper hand in the global battery market especially in the United States. Chinese companies are in a pursuit, hoping to guard its domestic turf in the world's largest auto and EV market.
Battery is considered one of the world's most promising sectors due to rising demands for an alternative to fossil fuels and the fast distribution of electric vehicles (EVs).
Market research company B3 foresees that the global lithium-ion battery market will grow more than 17 percent annually to 169-gigawatt hours in 2020 from 90-gigawatt hours this year.
LG Chem is a strong battery cell supplier to more than 20 carmakers such as GM, Ford, Chrysler, Renault, Volvo and Audi, as well as train manufacturers from South Korea and China. In June last year, the company also won a deal to provide batteries for the world's first eco-friendly hybrid ships to be built by Norwegian shipbuilder Eidesvik.
Last month, however, LG Chem and its domestic rival Samsung SDI suffered a serious setback in China as they failed to get battery certifications from Beijing. LG and Samsung together control one-third of the world’s battery market for electric vehicles,
Beijing aims to have five million electric cars and buses on the road by 2020 as part of efforts to reduce both air pollution and dependency on imported oil.
In an apparent attempt to bypass China's invisible trade barriers, Samsung Electronics last week agreed to buy new shares worth three billion yuan (450 million US dollars) in China's electric vehicle and battery maker, BYD.
Samsung and LG have lost market shares in the US EV market due to robust sales of EVs powered by their Japanese rivals.
Industry data showed the Korean duo's US market share in May fell from a combined 23 percent from 35 percent a month earlier, while Japanese companies, led by Panasonic, saw their shares soaring from 65 percent to 87 percent.
Panasonic forecast its battery sales would double in the next three years. It plans to invest up to 1.6 billion dollars at Tesla's factory, mainly to set up battery cell manufacturing equipment, according to Electrek, an IT specialized media outlet.
Competition is heating up in the US market, as new EV models are expected to come out in the second half.
GM is to launch its first full-electric model Bolt that uses LG Chem batteries in July. German car giant BMW using Samsung batteries plans to release an upgraded version of its i3 compact. Hyundai Motor will sell its ioniq EV powered by LG batteries in the US market in July.
Edited by Aju News Lim Chang-won = limcw34@ajunews.com
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