SK Innovation is planning to carry out a replacement battery business that is a type of battery service business (BaaS) in China.
SK Innovation made an announcement on Jan. 21 that it recently acquired a 13.3% stake in 'Blue Park Smart Energy (BPSE), a battery reuse company under Beijing Motor, and secured its position as a major strategic investor. The amount of investment will not be disclosed through consultations between the two companies.
BPSE is a company that has been approved for battery reuse business and is operating 'battery replacement station' for local taxi and car sharing service (MaaS) businesses.
It is also a major business that leads the establishment of national standards for replaceable batteries and exerts influence on related policies.
The first BaaS business model that both companies are paying attention to is also a battery replacement station. Battery replacement station is a service that replaces discharged battery packs with charged battery packs based on offline stores like gas stations.
It can be replaced in a short period of time, overcoming the limitations of rechargeable batteries that take a lot of time to charge.
With such strong points, this is an area that is expected to grow in the future, with increasing demand especially for mobility vehicles with relatively long mileage such as taxis and vehicle sharing services.
Besides, since the battery swap service can separate ownership of EVs and batteries, it is easy to expand to various service fields such as battery rental and reuse.
The battery installed in the battery swap station can be used as an energy storage system (ESS), so it is expected to help build a power distribution infrastructure in downtown in the future.
Since SK Innovation has the largest number of gas stations in Korea, it is possible to expand into battery swap stations and energy storage systems in Korea in the future.
"We will change the future electric vehicle paradigm through BaaS business model that combines high-quality long-life battery technology and BPSE's interchangeable battery operation technology," said CEO of SK Innovation's battery business Ji Dong-seop. "We will actively utilize the BaaS business in the field of battery reuse and recycling for ESG (environment, society, governance) management in the future."
