| | MAY 20238IN FOCUSSOUTH KOREA INKS MOU WITH THE US FOR ONSHORING EV BATTERY PRODUCTIONJAPAN'S HONDA, GS YUASA TO VENTURE US$3 BILLION FOR BATTERY DEVELOPMENT AND BUILD PLANTQAD Inc., a leading provider of next-generation manufacturing and supply chain solutions in the cloud, announced today that the President of KIAT (Korean Institute for Advancement of Technology), Vice Chairman of KBIA (Korean Battery Industry Association) and President of KETI (Korean Electronics Technology Institute), and Executive Director of NAATBatt have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to facilitate the onshoring of Korean battery manufacturers in the United States. The signing took place at the Waldorf Astoria in Washington, DC in conjunction with US President Biden and South Korean President Yoon Suk Ye's intergovernmental meeting. QAD is a member of the NAATBatt Association and QAD's Head of EV and Mobility Andreas Bareid serves as a Co-Chairman of the NAATBatt Onshoring Committee and Board Member.QAD's Andreas Bareid, NAATBatt's James Greenberger and others at the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between the US and South Korea.This MoU is a critical step in furthering efforts to bring battery manufacturing to the United States and was developed with support of the NAATBatt Association, a non-profit trade association that is composed of companies, associations and research institutions involved with commercializing advanced, electrochemical energy storage technology for emerging, high-tech applications."Korean companies today are world leading experts within manufacturing of lithium based batteries," said James Greenberger, founder and executive director of NAATBatt. "If we want to build a vibrant North American supply chain for lithium based batteries as quickly as possible, we need to use the best available manufacturing technology to achieve this. Today, this technology is largely with Korean companies. Hence we should integrate these Korean experts and companies to be part of that supply chain and the North American business community." Japanese automaker Honda Motor Co Ltd and battery manufacturer GS Yuasa Corp will collaborate and invest more than 400 billion (US$2.99 billion) to build batteries for electric vehicles (EVs) and residences.The corporations will begin by con-structing a new facility in Japan with a minimum 20 gigawatt hours (GWh) of production capacity, according to sources.A joint venture that the businesses announced in January will be crucial in the development of batteries, materials, and capital investment.The publication also stated that a subsidy of roughly 150 billion yen will be provided by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry, without mentioning if this would simply be for the factory's construction.A ministry official and a Honda spokeswoman both stated that the report was unrelated to anything they had previously announced and that there was nothing more they could say at this time. GS Yuasa could not be reached right away after regular business hours.Both a Ministry representative and a Honda spokesperson said they had nothing further to add at this time and that the report had nothing to do with anything they had previously revealed. It was impossible to immediately contact GS Yuasa outside regular business hours.GS Yuasa Corporation is a Japanese business with headquarters in Kyoto that specialises in the development and manufacture of lead acid and lithium-ion batteries used in cars, motorbikes, and other uses in the aerospace and defence industries.
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