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LG Energy Solution Vice President Kim Dong-myung announces a $2.6 billion investment to build a third joint factory with US General Motors in Lansing, Michigan, at a launch ceremony held on Tuesday, US time. (LG Energy Solution) |
LG Energy Solution and General Motors said Wednesday they will invest $2.6 billion to build their third electric vehicle battery manufacturing plant in the US. The facility will be located in Lansing, Michigan.
The factory will begin mass production in early 2025 and produce 50 gigawatt-hours of EV batteries per year once fully operational, which is enough to power 700,000 EVs that can travel more than 500 kilometers in a single charge. The investment is expected to create 1,700 new jobs.
At the moment, LG Energy Solution and GM are together building an EV plant No. 1 in Ohio capable of producing 35 GWh of battery cells and plant No. 2 in Tennessee with 35GWh of battery production capacity. Once completed, the three plants will offer a combined annual production capacity of over 120GWh, as further expansions are planned for the plant No. 1 and No. 2.
“With a shared vision, GM and LG Energy Solution pioneered the EV sector by seizing new opportunities in the market well before anyone else did,” said Kwon Young-soo, CEO of LG Energy Solution. “Our third battery manufacturing plant, fittingly located in America‘s automotive heartland, will serve as a gateway to charge thousands and later millions of EVs in the future.”
On top of the partnership with GM, LG Energy Solution plans to build a 40GWh EV battery plant with Stellantis in the US. Site selection is currently underway and the factory will break ground second quarter this year. Mass production is scheduled for the first quarter of 2024.
As LG Energy Solution has its independent EV battery factory worth 40GWh, its total production capacity -- combined with those of GM and Stellantis -- will reach 200GWh in the US, the biggest scale in the country.
The partnership with LG Energy Solution will allow GM to accomplish its goal become No. 1 EV player by 2025. The largest automaker in the US aims to invest $7 billion for electrification, introduce more than 30 types of EVs by 2025 and sell only zero-emissions vehicles by 2035.
LG Energy Solution and GM are expected to construct EV battery plant No. 4 soon. The location hasn’t been decided yet.
LG Energy Solution’s aggressive expansion in the North American market portrays the firm’s determination to overtake China’s CATL, the world’s No. 1 player by market share. While 75 percent of CATL’s EV sales are concentrated in the domestic market, LG Energy Solution is global, its production bases spread out all across the globe including South Korea, North America, China, Poland and Indonesia.
The LG Energy Solution CEO said in a press conference earlier this month that the firm will “surpass CATL in market share.” The executive added that LG Energy Solution has a bigger order backlog than CATL. LG Energy Solution’s current order backlog stands at 260 trillion won ($218 billion), according to Kwon.
By Kim Byung-wook (
kbw@heraldcorp.com)
