LG Energy Solution and Stellantis NV are to invest more than US$41 billion in a joint venture to build an electric-vehicle battery plant in Windsor, Ontario, they said on Wednesday.
The 45 gigawatt-hour plant, which is expected to begin operations in 2025, is expected to create 2,500 jobs and supply Stellantis’ assembly plant in Windsor and others across North America, the companies said in a statement.
The South Korean battery maker is to invest about US$1.5 billion and own 51 percent of the venture, it disclosed in a filing in South Korea on Wednesday. Stellantis is to control 49 percent, the automaker said.
Photo: AP
“Our joint venture with LG Energy Solution is yet another stepping stone to achieving our aggressive electrification road map in the region aimed at hitting 50 percent of battery electric vehicle sales in the US and Canada by the end of the decade,” Stellantis chief executive officer Carlos Tavares said in the statement.
Competition among battery makers to ramp up capacity is intensifying in North America as auto manufacturers including General Motors Co and Ford Motor Co electrify their fleets, and US President Joe Biden looks to encourage the technological shift.
China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd (新能源科技) is said to be considering sites across North America for a massive US$5 billion plant, and Japan’s Panasonic Corp is in talks over a site for a new US factory that would supply Tesla Inc.
Photo: Reuters
As part of its electrification plan, Stellantis is developing five large factories across North America and Europe to produce 400 gigawatt-hours of capacity by 2030.
Stellantis in October last year announced it would create a joint venture with South Korean battery maker Samsung SDI Co to build a plant in the US that would be operational by 2025, and eventually have 40 gigawatt-hours of capacity.
Stellantis is to announce the location of a second US battery plant in the coming weeks, company chief operating officer for North American Mark Stewart told a news conference on Wednesday.
The Canadian government’s incentives for clean-energy businesses helped lure LG and Stellantis, Bloomberg reported on Sunday. Stellantis declined to comment on any economic incentives it received to build the Windsor plant.
Details of the project “are subject to commercial confidentiality” and would only be disclosed after “due diligence is completed,” Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada said in a statement.
In a separate statement yesterday, LG said it would spend 1.7 trillion won (US$1.4 billion) to build its own plant with 11 gigawatt-hours of capacity in Queen Creek, Arizona, to supply cylinder-type batteries for electric vehicle start-ups.
Construction is to start in the second quarter with an aim for mass production in the second half of 2024, it said.
“With the establishment of our new Arizona plant, LG Energy aims to deliver unparalleled consumer value in the rapidly growing cylindrical battery market,” chief executive officer Kwon Young-soo said in the statement.
With the addition of the plants in Ontario and Arizona, the South Korean battery maker would have at least 200 gigawatt-hours total capacity in North America in 2025, enough to power 2.5 million electric vehicles traveling 500km on a single charge, LG said.
That includes three plants jointly built with GM for pouch-type cells.
The Canadian project is the second one Stellantis released fresh details on in a matter of hours.
The automaker earlier on Wednesday announced that its joint venture with Mercedes-Benz AG and energy giant TotalEnergies SE had reached an agreement with Italy for state support of a third manufacturing site in Europe.
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