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LG Chem, one of the leading producers of Li-Ion battery cells for electric cars, is currently working on the construction of a new $ 1 billion US battery cell factory.
The Korean battery producer is already operating a battery plant in Michigan and is now looking to expand to support the growing market for electric vehicles.
Reuters reports that LG is currently looking for locations for a $ 1.7 billion plant:
"LG Chem, one of the world's leading manufacturers of electric vehicle batteries, which counts both General Motors and Volkswagen among its customers, plans to invest around 2,000 trillion won ($ 1.70 billion) in The plant that could go into production in 2022, said one of its leaders, Kentucky and Tennessee are among the candidates for the factory site, said the person.
LG confirmed they were looking for ways to meet global demand, but they have no specific plan to announce.
Volvo, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and potentially Hyundai Motor, GM and Volkswagen are all on the potential customer list of LG's new potential battery plant in the United States.
The new plant would come as competition between LG Chem and another Korean battery manufacturer, SK Innovation, was intensifying.
SK Innovation is currently building a new gigafactory of electric vehicle batteries in the United States. It will supply batteries to Mercedes-Benz and Hyundai-Kia Motors.
Meanwhile, LG Chem has filed a lawsuit for allegedly stealing trade secrets from the battery of electric cars.
Electrek's Take
They did not report production capacity for the potential new plant, but $ 1.7 billion is expected to easily produce more than 10 GWh of battery cells.
The industry will need much more than that, but it would be a significant addition to the battery production capacity in the United States.
However, LG Chem also worries me about its lawsuit against SK Innovation, which seeks to prevent them from importing products into the United States, which could be a problem for electric vehicles equipped with SK cells.
I hope that the problem will be solved without slowing down the production and adoption of electric vehicles.
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