General Motors Company (GM) and Samsung SDI (006400) announced on Tuesday that they plan to invest more than $3 billion to build a new battery cell manufacturing facility in the United States that is targeted to be operational by 2026.
Reuters reported in January that GM and LG Energy Solution (373220) would not act for a fourth battery manufacturing facility in the US. GM and LG Energy are building a $2.6 billion facility in Michigan that is scheduled to open in 2024 and is one of three joint venture Ultium Cells LLC facilities.
The new GM Samsung SDI plant is expected to cost more than the Michigan battery plant, but the plant’s location won’t be announced immediately, according to anonymous sources at CNBC. In addition, the number of new jobs in construction and operations is expected to be expressed in thousands.
“GM’s supply chain strategy for electric vehicles focuses on scalability, flexibility, sustainability and cost competitiveness. Our new relationship with GM, Samsung SDI, will help us achieve all these goals.” says Mary Barra, GM Chairman and CEO.
“Birlikte üreteceğimiz hücreler, Kuzey Amerika’daki elektrikli araç kapasitemizi yıllık 1 milyon birimin çok ötesine taşımamıza yardımcı olacak.”
Yoon-ho Choi, President and CEO of Samsung SDI, said: “We are delighted to take the first step towards establishing a long-term industry-leading partnership with GM in the US electric vehicle (EV) market.” he stated.
“We will do our best to deliver products with the highest levels of safety and quality, made with our unrivaled technologies, to help GM strengthen its leadership in the electric vehicle market.”
The companies plan to jointly operate the plant and it is envisioned to have production lines for building nickel-rich prismatic and cylindrical cells. The facility will have a capacity of more than 30 GWh, and when it goes into full production, GM’s total battery cell capacity in the US will increase to approximately 160 GWh.
According to GM vice president Doug Parks, the new partnership will leverage the capital and technology of both companies to create new competitive advantages for GM.
“Using new approaches pioneered at GM’s Wallace Battery Center and our technology partners, we will continue to scale production and optimize the chemistry of our bag cells for performance, range and cost.”
“The introduction of new cell form factors will allow us to expand into even more segments faster and integrate cells directly into battery packs to reduce weight, complexity and costs. With multiple strong cell partners, we can scale our electric vehicle business faster than we could alone.”
GM shares were up 2.80% premarket on Tuesday.
