Turkish corporation Koç Holding has officially cancelled its agreement with Ford Motor Co. and LG Energy Solution Ltd. to co-invest a battery plant in the country for commercial electric transports. The company highlighted that its other cooperation agreements with Ford remained in full force, Reuters reports.
The news comes mere several months after the signing of a trilateral preliminary agreement. Ford first said in March 2022 that it wanted to build Turkey’s largest plant for EV battery production near Ankara. Back then, the company had reckoned that it would be commissioned around 2025 and would churn out between 30 and 45 gigawatt-hours’ worth of battery cells per year. At that moment, it had considered another South Korean company its main partner: SK On Co.
In February this year, Ford struck a trilateral deal with Koç Holding and LG Energy Solution to build a so-called ‘Gigafactory’ in Turkey. The deal has now fallen through due to the declining sales of electric cars.
Commenting on the cancellation, Koç Holding openly stated that the current rates of EV adoption were too slow to justify investing in traction batteries. Later on, if the EV sales numbers go up again, the company may revert its decision.