South Korea’s second-largest conglomerate plans to redevelop a Plano, Texas building into a new EV charger manufacturing facility that will create up to 183 jobs by 2026.
SK Signet expects the project to produce the first U.S.-made ultra-fast chargers above 350 kilowatts. The company is planning for the 136,200-square-foot facility to be operating at full capacity by July 2023, producing more than 10,000 EV fast chargers a year.
This will be the company’s first U.S. manufacturing facility, which will be supported by its existing U.S. office in McLean, Va. SK Signet hopes its products will help EVs become more mainstream in America, SK Signet CEO Jung Ho Shin said in the announcement.
“For the transition from traditional combustion engines to battery-powered vehicles to be successful, access to reliable and efficient EV charging is a necessity,” the CEO said.
SK Group, which has companies in the semiconductor, energy and life sciences spaces, bought 55.5% of Signet EV’s shares in April 2021 for $263 million. It relaunched the company under the new name SK Signet this July, saying it was prepping for global expansion of its EV chargers.
SK Signet’s website claims it has more than 21,000 EV chargers in use worldwide, including about 5,850 in North America and about 14,700 in Korea.
It’s the second EV charging manufacturing facility to be unveiled in Dallas-Fort Worth in recent weeks. Last month, Barcelona-based Wallbox opened its first North American facility in Arlington. The 130,000-square-foot factory is expected to produce over one million units by 2030.
Wallbox, whose North American headquarters are in Mountain View, Calif., said the facility is a $7 million project that is expected to bring 250 jobs to the city by 2025 and about 700 jobs by 2030.
“Today, only 3% of the chargers required globally for the next decade have been installed, showing the magnitude of the need for innovative and reliable charging solutions,” said Enric Asunción, CEO of Wallbox, in the announcement.
