General Motors (GM) and POSCO Chemical have announced plans to form a joint venture to construct a factory in North America to process critical battery materials for GM’s Ultium electric vehicle (EV) platform.
The joint venture will process cathode active material (CAM) which is key battery material that represents about 40 percent of the cost of a battery cell. The location of the facility, which will create hundreds of jobs when it opens in 2024, will be announced later.
Doug Parks, GM executive vice president of Global Product Development, Purchasing and Supply Chain, said: “Our work with POSCO Chemical is a key part of our strategy to rapidly scale US EV production and drive innovation in battery performance, quality and cost.
“We are building a sustainable and resilient North America-focused supply chain for EVs covering the entire ecosystem from raw materials to battery cell manufacturing and recycling.”
The new facility will supply the Ultium Cells LLC facilities GM and LG Energy Solution are building in Lordstown, Ohio and Spring Hill, Tennessee. Two more US-based Ultium cell plants are planned by mid-decade as GM drives mass adoption of electric vehicles with high-volume Ultium-powered EVs, including a Chevrolet crossover priced around $30,000.
Kyungzoon Min, POSCO Chemical CEO, said: “We are very pleased to participate in the global battery supply chain project with General Motors.
“Through close partnership, we will innovate battery materials and contribute to accelerate the adoption of EVs based on our world-class product development, mass production capacity, and raw materials competitiveness.”
GM are investing $35 billion between 2020 to 2025 in electric and autonomous vehicles and plans to launch more than 30 EVs globally, including the GMC HUMMER EV, the Cadillac LYRIQ and the Chevrolet Silverado EV, by 2025.
The company plans to deliver more than one million annual global electric vehicle sales by 2025, so it’s extremely important to process critical battery materials. This joint venture will not only help with this but create jobs at the same time.
