GM CEO and President GM Barra speaks during an “EV Day” on March 4, 2020, at the company’s technology and design campus in Warren, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit
GM
General Motors and LG Chem of South Korea will invest more than The companies announced on Friday, $ 2.3 billion in a second US battery factory for electric vehicles in Tennessee.
The plant for their joint venture Ultium Cells LLC will be to support the production of the future GM Cadillac Lyriq crossover and other future electric vehicles at a nearby assembly plant.
The supply and production of battery cells are crucial for automakers that are pivoting to electric vehicles. The joint venture for the new plant, while its first is still under construction in Lordstown, Ohio, points this out.
Construction of the facility of approximately 2.8 million square meters will begin immediately. The plant is scheduled to open at the end of 2023 and will create 1,300 jobs, the companies said.
“The addition of the second new Ultium battery cell plant in the United States with our joint venture partner LG Energy Solution is another major step in our transition to a fully electric future,” said Mary Barra, CEO. -a statement.
The announcement comes amid a 100-day review commissioned by US Supply Chain President Joe Biden for advanced batteries, pharmaceuticals, critical minerals and semiconductors. He ordered the review amid a continuing global shortage of semiconductor chips that significantly affected U.S. car production in 2021.
GM confirmed last month that it is evaluating a second location in the US to produce batteries for electric vehicles with LG. Reuters reported details of the announcement on Wednesday.
LG Energy Solution President and CEO Jong Hyun Kim said the new facility will allow companies to “build strong, stable US supply chains that enable everything from product research, development and production to purchasing. raw components ”.
Some analysts, especially Adam Jonas of Morgan Stanley, have warned of a potential shortage of cellular capacity compared to the number of new electric vehicles expected to hit the market in the coming years.
“In our view, GM’s formation of Ultium / Ultium Cells LLC will prove to be a critical point of strategic differentiation that will ultimately lead to value creation for shareholders,” he said in a note on Wednesday. investors.
Ultium is the new generation of GM batteries and platform, which is expected to debut this year in the GMC Hummer EV pickup. The first vehicles are not expected to include Ultium battery cells from the Ohio plant that is under construction.
An undated photo shows the new Cadillac Lyriq, one of the electric vehicles that General Motors Co. said on October 20, 2020 that the Spring Hill, Tennessee plant will begin production.
General Motors Co. | Reuters
GM expects to continue to build or turn factories into US batteries as it becomes an automaker that offers exclusively electric vehicles by 2035. This includes at least 30 new electric vehicles by 2025 in an investment plant of $ 27 billion in electric and autonomous vehicles during that time.
Most batteries, such as semiconductors, are manufactured in Asia and Europe. Tesla operates a massive battery and cell manufacturing facility with Panasonic in Nevada. Tesla also told investors in September that it had begun producing its own cells at a pilot plant in Fremont, California.
GM and LG first announced a joint venture in December 2019.