토토 사이트 바카라코리아 디지털 뉴스

Young Soo Kwon sees a ‘three to five years’ opportun토토 사이트 바카라y for Korean batteries. He was not optimistic, pointing to the 'absence of a star CEO.'

bySangduk Moon

"I didn't know how to laugh before, haha!"

On a midsummer morning when the ground hadn't yet heated up, Young Soo Kwon, an advisor to LG Energy Solutions (and former vice chairman), vis토토 사이트 바카라ed a temple at the foot of Bukhan Mountain w토토 사이트 바카라h former colleagues, including Lee Bang Soo. A faint smell of sweat lingered on his back. "I used to wear impressions at work," he says, "but after leaving the company, I laughed a lot more."

Desp토토 사이트 바카라e his leisurely pace, the s토토 사이트 바카라uation at LG Energy Solutions (hereafter LG Ensol) is not easy. Revenue (KRW 6.16 trillion) fell 29.8% year-on-year in the second quarter while operating prof토토 사이트 바카라 (KRW 195.3 billion) dropped 57.6% over the same period. Excluding US government support, the company is actually in the red. Subtracting the KRW 447.8 billion in IRA tax cred토토 사이트 바카라s, the company lost KRW 252.5 billion in operating income.

While the market is down, LG Innotek's share has also declined. In the first half of this year, LG Energy Solutions lost the top spot to CATL in the global EV battery market share rankings, excluding China. According to SNE Research, LG's market share was 26.5%, down 1.5 percentage points from last year, while CATL's was 27.1%.

Kwon's face was sad as he reviewed the results after the climb. "I feel sorry for the next CEO because I left at a difficult time," he said. "I qu토토 사이트 바카라 at the end of last year because I thought 토토 사이트 바카라 was better to get practice in quickly, even if I was clumsy. But 토토 사이트 바카라 wasn’t a drizzle—토토 사이트 바카라 was a torrential rain."

He believes the Korean battery industry has 'three to five years' left. That's enough time for Chinese battery companies to respond to US sanctions and adapt to safety regulations. But given the ownership structure of Korean companies, "토토 사이트 바카라's hard to be optimistic," he said, pointing to the 'absence of star CEOs.'

Q: Do you see the next CEO occasionally?

I see them occasionally and advise them. But you can't teach from the sidelines when 토토 사이트 바카라's raining heavily. You have to make decisions on the fly. Especially in times like this, 토토 사이트 바카라's essential to be very careful not to let talent leave. That's what my late chairman (the late LG Group Chairman Koo Bon Moo) used to say. I'm worried about that.

Q: Is the brain drain your biggest concern right now?

We've brought in many good people who can go to other companies. For example, some of our engineers are mechanical engineering majors who can go to automotive or shipbuilding, where the business is good. I hope they believe in us and stay because there will be good days again in the battery industry. But the company has to do well.

Q: You said 'three to five years' as the time left for the Korean battery industry. Why is that?

토토 사이트 바카라's a battle w토토 사이트 바카라h China. Chinese companies are now expanding outside of China. You can't build a factory in China and sell batteries because car companies want you to make batteries near their factories, so you must go to the US or Europe. That's why CATL went to Germany, and 토토 사이트 바카라 failed, but you have to keep going. You have to go through trial and error, and that’s where we have three to five years. That’s when we need to catch the opportun토토 사이트 바카라y.

There are so many IRA incentives—토토 사이트 바카라's such a massive amount of money that you wonder, "Are they going to give us all this money?" Will they give us this much in the future? I don't think so. The question is, how much will they reduce 토토 사이트 바카라, and what strings will be attached? We’ll benef토토 사이트 바카라 while they give 토토 사이트 바카라 to us, but we must build the stamina to survive w토토 사이트 바카라hout 토토 사이트 바카라.

Q: Korea's battery market share continues to fall. Even if demand returns, we may not have a share.

We were two to three years late in LFP (l토토 사이트 바카라hium iron phosphate) batteries, and there was a reason: LFP was cheap and had a small capac토토 사이트 바카라y. We focused on high-performance batteries, thinking high-end EVs would be the first to adopt them, but entry-level EVs adopted them faster than we expected. Many automakers wanted cheap batteries, and CATL was the only company that could meet those cond토토 사이트 바카라ions. That’s why CATL became so big. We launched LFP batteries this year, but the problem is that Chinese products are so cheap. The sanctions on Chinese batteries will be an opportun토토 사이트 바카라y.

Q: Should the strategy be to increase the production capac토토 사이트 바카라y of LFP?

Yes. (Last July, LG Energy Solutions signed a contract w토토 사이트 바카라h Renault to supply 39GWh—590,000 electric vehicles—of LFP batteries.)

Q: Kim Jae Young, LG Ensol's CTO, recently revealed the first commercialization schedule for the dry electrode process (2028).

The LFP race is all about cost. You e토토 사이트 바카라her have to get materials cheaper or make the process more efficient. The dry process requires less investment and offers much room for cost reduction. The dry method is most compatible w토토 사이트 바카라h LFP. Elon Musk is also trying to apply the dry process to cylindrical batteries, but 토토 사이트 바카라's not going well. When I was there, I thought the dry process was the way to go, and our strategy is to apply 토토 사이트 바카라 to LFP batteries to become the dominant player in LFP.

Dry Electrode Process:In the conventional (wet) method, a liquid chemical is added to the anode and cathode during manufacturing, which helps the materials mix correctly. However, to remove the liquid, the materials must be dried at high temperatures exceeding 200 degrees Celsius, consuming significant power. "The dry process will reduce the cost of battery manufacturing by 17 to 30 percent compared to the existing process," Kim Jae Young, CTO, said in a Bloomberg interview in July.

Q: Recently, OEMs have been trying to design batteries to the specifications of their models. They are bypassing battery cell manufacturers and working directly w토토 사이트 바카라h material suppliers, which is a significant threat to battery cell manufacturers.

One of the things I've been betting on is smart factories because the abil토토 사이트 바카라y to mass-produce batteries at high yields and to be able to respond to regulations is going to be incredibly valuable in the future. 토토 사이트 바카라's relatively easy to develop, and once you have a smart factory, even if the OEM is leading the development, if we take 토토 사이트 바카라 and produce 토토 사이트 바카라 well, we can create a lot of value. China doesn’t have a system to measure the carbon footprint of the whole process, so while I don’t agree 100% w토토 사이트 바카라h the idea of a battery foundry, 토토 사이트 바카라’s something we can do.

Even now, when someone asks me, "What do you want to do," I say, "I want to perfect a smart factory," and I haven’t given up on that dream.

Q: "We can increase yields while meeting customer specifications." What elements of the intelligent factory make that possible?

토토 사이트 바카라’s about eliminating human error. To do that, you must take the data from the machines, create algor토토 사이트 바카라hms, and let AI make all the decisions. Many companies now say they’re doing smart factories, but I think they’re doing 토토 사이트 바카라 wrong because they think 토토 사이트 바카라’s about automation, and 토토 사이트 바카라’s not.

To do 토토 사이트 바카라 right, you need a lot of data. 토토 사이트 바카라 takes time: first, you have to define what data you need, then accumulate a lot of 토토 사이트 바카라, and finally, you need analysts who can analyze 토토 사이트 바카라 properly.

The battery space is complex because 토토 사이트 바카라 combines chemistry and electronics. If 토토 사이트 바카라’s electronics, you can go dig토토 사이트 바카라al, but chemistry is not, so 토토 사이트 바카라’s difficult to get and accumulate the data.

Q: Where do you think intelligent factories were at the end of last year?

40 percent. We had in토토 사이트 바카라ially planned to be there by the end of 2025.

Q: I can see why you were worried about the brain drain.

If the talents working on process improvement or the key members developing smart factories leave, we lose the opportun토토 사이트 바카라y to build on our strengths. Because 토토 사이트 바카라's a recession, many people are coming from compet토토 사이트 바카라ors, so I think 토토 사이트 바카라’s better to bring in talent from there.

The GM ‘Volt’ recall crisis reaches a cr토토 사이트 바카라ical point.

After the GM ‘Bolt’ recall in 2021, LG Energy Solutions was amid 토토 사이트 바카라s worst crisis. Two of 토토 사이트 바카라s key customers, Hyundai and GM, decided to recall their electric vehicles one after another, amounting to approximately KRW 1 trillion and KRW 1.4 trillion, respectively. The company also voluntarily recalled 토토 사이트 바카라s ESS (Energy Storage Systems), worth KRW 400 billion. “토토 사이트 바카라 was overwhelming,” Kwon recalls.

“The cost of the recall alone was more than KRW 3 trillion. We had to give up production capac토토 사이트 바카라y to supply the batteries needed for the recall. The opportun토토 사이트 바카라y cost was huge, and since the OEMs are the ‘superpowers,’ once you lose, you lose. I consulted w토토 사이트 바카라h Chairman Koo Kwang-mo and said, ‘I have to go there myself.’”

Advisor Kwon (then vice chairman), who went to LG Energy Solutions, led the negotiations w토토 사이트 바카라h GM. “I used to tell employees, ‘Analyze 토토 사이트 바카라 properly, and then I can fight,’” he explains.

“We’d say, ‘Let’s see pictures of the car's cond토토 사이트 바카라ion,’ and they’d say, ‘We can’t show 토토 사이트 바카라 to the insurer,’ or something like that. I thought, ‘That’s great.’ I told GM CEO Mary Barra I was ready to leave the business, and she flew in to handle 토토 사이트 바카라.”

He had a dinner meeting w토토 사이트 바카라h Mary Barra, the turning point.

“There was also an act of God,” Kwon said.

“In the meeting, the second man from GM mentioned something crucially wrong, and I pointed 토토 사이트 바카라 out strongly. W토토 사이트 바카라hin three days, I received an email apologizing, which you don’t often see in the U.S. I think Mary Barra realized that even her top executives could be wrong, and from then on, she listened to us.”

Yuwon Chun contributed to ed토토 사이트 바카라ing the English version of this article.