According to Yonhap News Agency, MBC and other South Korean media reports, the Korea Trade Association today released a statistical report, the data show that South Korea’s imports from China in January-August this year, the total amount of electric vehicle batteries reached 4.47 billion U.S. dollars, a year-on-year increase of 114.6%.
To date, Korea’s imports of electric vehicle batteries from China have surpassed last year’s total of $3.49 billion. According to the report, South Korea imported 4.63 billion U.S. dollars worth of power batteries from all over the world this year, and 97% of the proportion came from Chinese companies.
During the same period, South Korea’s power battery exports reached 66 million U.S. dollars, half of last year’s total exports.
Industry analysts say that most imports from China are lithium iron phosphate batteries, which have the advantages of high safety and relatively low cost, but their domestic production scale in South Korea is very small.
Currently, automakers such as Hyundai Motor and KG Mobility have begun to use Chinese-made power batteries to lower product prices. For example, Hyundai Kona Electric and locally popular entry or economy models such as the Kia Niro EV and Kia Ray use batteries made by manufacturers such as Ningde Times.
▲ Source Kia
Most South Korean battery companies are currently working on Li-ion ternary batteries, and have gradually invested in the development of lithium iron phosphate batteries, although mass production is still a long way off and will remain stagnant until 2026.
