The South Korean government and private sector will invest a combined 8.4 trillion won ($6.1 billion) to develop sodium-ion and solid-state battery technologies. With China stepping up its push into low-cost batteries, the strategy is to broaden Korea's technology portfolio by building up budget and high-performance batteries at the same time.
The Ministry of Trade and Industry announced its Battery Industrial Technology Roadmap on the 22nd at the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Seoul, with battery makers LG Energy Solution, Samsung SDI and SK On in attendance along with materials suppliers POSCO Future M, L&F and EcoPro BM. Moving away from a strategy centered on high-nickel (NCM) batteries, the plan calls for the government to launch about 400 billion won in new research and development spending from 2027 to 2031, while the private sector invests roughly 8 trillion won in R&D and facilities through 2030 to secure a lead in future technologies.
Sodium-ion batteries will target the budget market. The goal is to develop a 160 Wh/kg battery next year, then secure 220 Wh/kg technology by 2030 for full commercialization. Sodium is more abundant and cheaper than lithium, making it suitable for budget electric vehicles and energy storage systems. For solid-state batteries, a prototype is planned for 2027, development of a 400 Wh/kg cell is to be completed in 2028, and full commercialization is targeted for 2030. Applications will extend beyond high-performance EVs to robots, drones and urban air mobility.
Joint development among companies will also expand. The three cell makers will jointly propose dimensional standards for pouch-type and prismatic batteries and will draw up shared material specifications in non-competitive areas such as next-generation current collectors. Starting in 2027, a joint R&D program will link materials suppliers that develop products meeting target performance and price levels with cell makers that verify and then purchase them. Battery management system data collected from automakers will be provided to cell and materials companies to improve battery performance. After establishing evaluation procedures, the government plans to set next-generation battery standards reflecting requirements by application by 2030.
Efforts to secure price competitiveness will run in parallel. The government is pursuing a plan to apply a previously announced domestic production tax credit from 2027 and will present recycling targets on par with those of the European Union to encourage a circular battery ecosystem.
Behind the shift in strategy is a widening competitiveness gap with China. Electric vehicle sales in Europe rose 30% last year from a year earlier, but the European market share of Korean battery makers fell to 35% in 2025 from 55% in 2023. Over the same period, Chinese companies climbed to 61% from 42%. Hwang Kyung-in, a research fellow at the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade, said the root cause of the crisis facing Korean batteries is not the EV chasm itself but the weakening competitiveness of the country's core markets and core products.
A strategic shift is also needed to tap markets beyond electric vehicles. The Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade projects global demand for energy storage systems will grow at an average annual rate of 19%, from 185 GWh in 2023 to 1,449 GWh in 2035. Batteries for uninterruptible power supply systems used in artificial intelligence data centers are expected to grow 40% a year over the same period.
Lee Min-woo, head of the ministry's industrial growth office, said the government will provide all-out support through large-scale R&D funding and institutional incentives so that Korean batteries can regain leadership in the global market.
