Hyundai Steel said Wednesday it has developed a premium 1.5 GPa martensitic steel plate to be used on electric vehicles.

According to South Korea’s No. 2 steelmaker, the new plate is flatter and has higher crack resistance than any other in the same product category, allowing it to be used on battery containers for EVs, bumpers, and roof sides.

Usually, a 1.5 GPa martensitic steel plate is not flat enough and cracks easily due to hydrogen penetration.

But Hyundai Steel used a heat technology that replaces rapid cooling normally used when manufacturing the plate, allowing it to be made flatter. It also minimized hydrogen penetration in the process to reduce cracking.

“With this development, we can now enter the ultrahigh-strength cold rolled steel plate market dominated by European or American steelmakers,“ an official said. ”By supplying the product to not only Hyundai Motor and Kia but to other global carmakers, we hope to take the lead in the EV-related material market."