SK Signet betting on 'hockey stick' growth in US with world's fastest EV charging

• Published date: 26 February 2023
• Publication title: The Korea Times

The rapid adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) in the United States is a boon unseen before for related industries, and SK Signet is at full throttle to seize on the momentum with its advanced charging technology, its CEO has said.

The unit under Korea's energy-to-telecom conglomerate SK Group has mainly supplied its products to EV charging station operators, like Electrify America and EVgo, in the U.S. market.

SK Signet is stepping up to solidify its presence in America as the No. 1 player and expand its foothold in Europe with the planned release of its most up-to-date 400-kilowatt ultrafast V2 chargers set for June.

"The U.S. market has always been our primary focus, given the size and rapid growth. Korea and Europe are next, and we're approaching Asia and Japan selectively by project," Shin Jung-ho, chief of the Korean EV charger manufacturer, said in an interview with Yonhap News Agency on Friday.

With more electrified car models on the way, the EV charging industry is experiencing very rapid changes, with the demand for faster charging with a higher power output expected to surge as the capacity of EV batteries is getting bigger and bigger, Shin said.

"We believe we are at an inflection point where the ultrafast EV charging market is really starting to take off," he said. "We expect the demand will grow like a hockey stick, especially starting next year."

The V2 charger is designed to power an EV from 20 percent to 80 percent in 15 minutes, the fastest charging speed offered by an EV charging company to date. The local release in Korea is set for the second half.

Shin revealed that it recently signed a new supply contract with TeraWatt Infrastructure, a U.S. unicorn startup that develops EV charging centers for commercial fleets like long-haul trucks, a new partnership that he hopes will further expand in the long term.

TeraWatt, a San Francisco company co-founded by former Google energy head Neha Palmer, took the industry by storm last year by pooling more than $1 billion from investors for its build-out of EV charging systems across America.

SK Signet CEO Shin Jung-ho poses in this photo provided by the company on Feb. 24. Yonhap

This photo, provided by SK Signet on Feb. 24, shows its ultrafast electric vehicle charger V2, set to be released later this year, starting in the United...