GM and LG Chem invest $2.3 billion to produce a massive number of advanced battery cells in a new factory with ground breaking set for mid-2020. Wayne Gerdes – CleanMPG – December 5, 2019 Cadillac Electric SUV GM’s future EV platform with the Cadillac moniker will be the first to use new cells produced at the new joint venture between GM and LG Chem. Just 10-months after shuddering its assembly plant of 52-years and 16-million vehicles produced in Lordstown, Ohio, GM announced that it and LG Chem plans to mass-produce battery cells for future battery-electric vehicles. Together, the companies will invest up to a total of $2.3 billion through a new 50/50 joint venture. The venture will establish a battery cell assembly plant in the Lordstown area of Northeast Ohio that will create more than 1,100 new jobs after dropping 1,300 employees that were producing the slow selling Cruze earlier this year. The plant will use the most advanced manufacturing processes under one roof to produce cells efficiently, with little waste, and will benefit from strong economies of scale. GM and LG Chem will attempt to make the production process flexible in case advances in technology and materials change faster than one can foresee. The collaboration brings together two leaders in battery science to develop and produce advanced battery technologies, with the goal of reducing battery costs even lower than the $100/kWh GM is building too today. GM’s next gen all-electric pickup is scheduled to arrive next fall and should be the perfect platform to absorb some of the first cells off the line. This investment builds on GM’s manufacturing investments in Ohio announced earlier this year totaling approximately $700 million that will create about 450 jobs in Toledo, Parma and Brookville, Ohio. Groundbreaking is expected to take place this coming summer.
