SK and LG Chem settle EV battery dispute

The battery affiliates of two South Korean firms, SK Innovation and LG Chem, have settled a trade secret dispute that had posed a threat to the supply of batteries for US-made electric vehicles. SK will pay $1.8 billion in cash and future royalties to LG to settle LG’s claim of trade secret theft. SK had threatened to walk away from a planned battery plant in Georgia after the US International Trade Commission placed import restrictions on the firm’s batteries in an earlier round of the dispute. In a statement lauding the deal, President Joe Biden says the US needs “a strong, diversified, and resilient US-based electric vehicle supply chain.”