South Korea’s government and electric vehicle (EV) battery makers have decided to invest approximately $15.1bn to strengthen the country’s advanced battery manufacturing sector.

The investment will be used through 2030 to support the development of solid-state batteries.

According to a Reuters’ report, the South Korean industry ministry said that this investment help three local battery companies to establish new pilot production plants in the country.

The production units will serve as the ‘product and manufacturing innovation centres’ for the three companies.

In addition, the production plant will support the manufacturing and assessment of advanced products before their bulk production starts at the oversea production facilities.

These advanced products mainly include cylindrical 4680 cell batteries, solid state batteries as well as cobalt-free batteries.

Compared to the traditional lithium-ion batteries, the new advanced batteries are expected to offer enhanced safety, longer driving range and higher energy density.

In a statement, South Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said: “The joint investment will allow South Korea to start commercial production of solid state batteries ahead of others.”

Furthermore, the industry ministry said that another major objective behind the latest investment is to ‘quadruple domestic production capacity’ in terms of cathode materials.

This will boost the export of equipment related to battery production by at least three times.

South Korea houses world’s five major EV manufacturing giants, including LG Energy Solution, Samsung SDI Co, and SK On.

The three firms are responsible for supplying batteries to automotive giants such as Volkswagen, Tesla, Ford Motor, and General Motors.