GM building $2 billion dollar electric vehicle battery factory in Ohio

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There once was a time when GM was the leader in electric vehicles, they even designed the above skateboard of an electric vehicle in 2002 – and of course, the Chevy Volt is one heckuva a loved electric vehicle. So it feels good to write about this factory.

GM and LG Chem are investing approximately $2.3 billion to build an electric car battery factory in Lordstown, Ohio. The factory is projected to be running by 2023. In South Korea a security filing by LG Chem verified certain details of the investment this morning, in addition to a press release by GM this morning.

Electrek.co reported that on press call this morning the companies see themselves on a $100/kWh trajectory by 2023. The site also reported that this battery facility could build batteries for multiple vehicles, including GM’s reported next electric vehicle – a Cadillac SUV.

Lordstown, Ohio is about a three hour drive from Detroit. Until 2018, GM was manufacturing the Cruze in the city, and last month they sold the facility to electric truck startup Lordstown Motors. Reuters reported the workers at the facility, 1,100 per the GM press release, would be represented by the Auto Workers Union and earn between $15 and $17 an hour.

Left to right – batteries manufactured at the facility include the Gen 2 extended-range electric battery for the Chevrolet Volt, the plug-in hybrid battery for the Cadillac CT6 PHEV, the hybrid electric battery for the Chevrolet Malibu Hybrid and the eAssist battery for the GMC Sierra

Image: GM

Already, GM and LG Chem have a battery relationship between themselves in the Chevy Volt. In GM’s Brownstown Battery manufacturing facility, lithium-Ion battery pack production for Chevrolet Malibu Hybrid is ongoing, which is included in the facilities six unique battery products that fit in nine cars, four of which shown above.

The below images are of the Brownstown Battery facility.

The current leader, by far, manufacturing batteries in the United States is Tesla with their Gigafactory and Panasonic partnership located in Nevada.

A February presentation to US Congress by Benchmark Mineral Intelligence was “tracking 70 lithium ion battery megafactories under construction across four continents, 46 of which are based in China with only five currently planned for the US.” The report also covered the main materials needed to build batteries, breaking down how much of each – lithium, nichel, cobalt, etc – the United States imported.

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