DETROIT – General Motors and South Korean joint venture partner LG Energy Solution announced on Friday that they are building a second US battery cell manufacturing facility, with plans for a $ 2.3 billion facility in Spring Hill, Tennessee to be announced.
The planned 2.8 million square foot facility, slated to open in late 2023, will employ 1,300 people and have a production capacity of approximately 35 gigawatt hours, similar to the company’s Ultium Cells joint venture facility in Lordstown, Ohio they respond to the growing Demand in the electric vehicle market. The facility’s capacity would enable it to supply battery packs for more than 500,000 electric vehicles per year.
“The addition of our second brand new Ultium battery cell facility in the US with our joint venture partner LG Energy Solution is another important step towards an all-electric future,” said Mary Barra, general manager of GM.
The United Auto Workers called on GM on Friday to ensure that the new plant is staffed with unionized workers, which GM representatives will determine by the employees.
LG Chem announced in a regulatory filing that its LG Energy Solution unit will invest $ 933.5 million in the facility between this year and 2023.
GM and LG Energy Solution will use a different, lower-cost battery chemistry in Tennessee than in the Lordstown facility, which opens next year.
According to sources, the No. 1 US automaker will need more battery systems outside of Tennessee to meet aggressive EV targets, including projected sales of more than 1 million EVs worldwide by 2025. GM’s longer-term goal is to achieve the Sales of light gasoline and diesel will discontinue powered vehicles by 2035.
Most of battery manufacturing is currently concentrated in China and Korea, while Tesla and Janese partner Panasonic controls most of US battery production.
When it opens, GM-LG’s new battery plant will supply batteries for the Cadillac Lyriq Crossover EV, which GM is expected to build at the nearby Spring Hill assembly plant next year. LG is expected to deliver the batteries from Korea by then.
According to supplier information, a second Cadillac electric crossover, called Symboliq, is expected to go into production in 2024, along with two new electric crossovers for Honda and its premium brand Acura.
GM said in October it would invest $ 2 billion in Spring Hill to build electric vehicles. The Detroit-based automaker announced last year it had invested $ 27 billion in electric and autonomous vehicles over the next five years.
GM is expected to build electric vehicles at five North American plants by 2025 – two in Michigan and one each in Tennessee, Ontario, Canada and Mexico, according to research firm AutoForecast Solutions.
LG Energy Solution announced last month that it will invest more than $ 4.5 billion in US battery production over the next four years, including plans to build at least two new facilities.
The expansion of electric vehicles with GM should contribute to the “success of US Green New Deal policies,” said Kim Jong-hyun, CEO of LG Energy Solution, in a statement, adding that LG will be “focusing more on building one.” A stable supply chain system that is differentiated and stable in the US, from research and development to the manufacture of batteries and raw materials. “
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