SM Vexcel holds battery safety education program for children

SM Vexcel's battery business division, a manufacturing affiliate of SM Group, held a hands-on battery safety education program for children at a kindergarten in Gumi, North Gyeongsang Province, on Tuesday, the company announced Wednesday.

The outreach program — which covers proper battery use and safety practices — is planned, developed and run entirely by the company's "junior board," a group led by MZ generation employees. Now in its seventh session since launching last year, the program combines fresh ideas from younger staff with the company's expertise as a battery specialist to prevent battery-related accidents and promote safe usage habits.

Employees tailored the session to young children, using age-appropriate visuals and hands-on activities to help them learn battery safety rules naturally and easily. Mascot characters "Baekcheolie" (a white tiger-battery hybrid) and "Baekserie" (a white tiger-Seri hybrid) also appeared at the event to keep children engaged and entertained.

The curriculum covered how to replace and store batteries, how to prevent leakage and accidental ingestion, and how to properly sort used batteries for recycling.

"As a battery and cell specialist, producing and selling quality products is important — but helping consumers use those products safely and correctly is an equally vital responsibility," said Chief Executive Choi Se-hwan of SM Vexcel's battery business division. "Battery safety education for children is a meaningful practice that brings the values of safety and environmental awareness into everyday life, and we will develop it into a model case for community-rooted ESG management."

Meanwhile, SM Vexcel's battery business division has been actively working to strengthen its technological competitiveness. The division is collaborating with a US-based global automaker on a project to develop design, manufacturing and evaluation technology for cylindrical secondary batteries using lithium-manganese-rich (LMR) cathode materials — a next-generation cathode — and to build a systematic framework for verifying the performance of new materials.