Hyundai, Kia and LG Energy Solution start 200 kWh used-battery storage trial at Wonik PNE plant
Hyundai and Kia have joined forces with LG Energy Solution on a Korean pilot that turns retired E-GMP battery packs into 200 kWh of storage feeding EV fast chargers.
- 200 kWh
What Happened
Hyundai and Kia are working with LG Energy Solution, Hyundai Engineering and Wonik PNE on a demonstration of a used-battery energy storage system known as UBESS. The setup gives retired electric-vehicle packs a second life as stationary storage on the carmakers' dedicated E-GMP electric platform. LG Energy Solution assembles the storage units from packs the two carmakers hand over, and the group says the trial is now under way in earnest.
200kWh
Total size of the demonstration storage system built for the UBESS pilot
The equipment has been placed at a Wonik PNE factory in Dongtan, part of Hwaseong, which lies south of Seoul, and it is linked to DC fast-charging equipment. Its job is to shift power from cheap hours to expensive ones: the system banks electricity when off-peak tariffs are low, then feeds the fast chargers when demand and prices climb. Hyundai Motor Group says this is the first case in Korea of a storage project using used battery packs from E-GMP platform EVs.
- Electricity is cheap, so the UBESS takes in and holds energy
- The linked fast chargers draw on that stored energy to recharge EVs
- Hyundai and Kia: hand over used battery packs and work on technical checks plus a business model for safe, efficient reuse.
- LG Energy Solution: builds the UBESS units and checks system performance and safety, drawing on its diagnostics and operations expertise.
- Hyundai Engineering and Wonik PNE: join the project as partners, with the demo hosted at Wonik PNE's facility.
Why this matters
Second-life battery projects matter because they test whether packs pulled out of EVs can keep working, and earning, after their driving days end. That affects carmakers, battery suppliers and the cost of running a charging site. This trial is also a chance for LG Energy Solution to prove its diagnostics and operations skills on reused cells.
Terms in This Story
- E-GMP
- Electric-Global Modular Platform, the dedicated electric-vehicle architecture used by Hyundai and Kia.
- UBESS
- Used Battery Energy Storage System, a stationary storage unit assembled from battery packs retired from electric vehicles.
- second-life battery
- A battery pack removed from a vehicle that is reused in another application instead of being recycled or scrapped.
A brief summary; details can be imperfect — always verify against the original source.