SEOUL — South Korea’s LG Chem announced on Tuesday that it will invest $3.2 billion to build a key material plant for electric vehicle batteries in the U.S., as the administration of President Joe Biden is keen to strengthen the country’s EV sector with tax breaks for buyers.
LG Chem said that it signed a memorandum of understanding with the state of Tennessee on Monday in the U.S. to build a new cathode manufacturing plant in Clarksville. The 420-acre (170-hectare) factory will be the largest of its kind in the country and will target manufacturing 120,000 tons of cathode material annually by 2027 to power batteries for 1.2 million EVs, the company said in a news release.