LSIS Co., LS Group’s electric equipment maker, on Monday broke ground for an electric vehicle relay manufacturing plant.

Electric vehicle relay is a core component of electric cars that relays electricity to the vehicle’s powertrain from the battery pack.

The company plans to complete the plant located in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province during the first quarter of the year. The company said that the project will see 54.5 billion won ($50 million) in investment by 2014, and create 160 jobs. 
 

Once complete, the plant will raise the company’s annual electric vehicle replay production capacity from the current 100,000 units to 1 million.

The company said that the capacity will be further increased in stages to 4 million in 2015.

Once the plant goes on line, the company hopes to raise the value of orders for electric vehicle components to 1 trillion won. Last year, the figure came in at about 150 billion won, and LSIS Co. expects to meet the target of 400 billion won this year.

According to the company, the global market for eco-friendly vehicles will grow to be 12 million units in 2020, and that for electric vehicle relay equipment will reach 1.7 trillion won by the same year.

By Choi He-suk  (cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)