GM adds new partner to build its 4th battery cell plant in US

In its drive to offer all-electric vehicles by 2035, General Motors has an added partner in the battery business and will build a fourth plant to make battery cells in the United States.

On Tuesday, GM said it will partner with South Korean-based Samsung SDI to invest more than $3 billion to build a new battery cell factory, targeted to start running in 2025, somewhere in the United States.

“GM’s supply chain strategy for EVs is focused on scalability, resiliency, sustainability and cost-competitiveness. Our new relationship with Samsung SDI will help us achieve all these objectives,” said CEO Mary Barra in a statement. “The cells we will build together will help us scale our EV capacity in North America well beyond 1 million units annually.”

GM's new corporate logo to reflect its move to electrification in the future.

The companies are not announcing the location for the new plant yet nor are they saying how many jobs the construction of a new factory or the work inside the plant will create other than it will number “in the thousands.”

The move was to be expected to some degree. In January, GM and LG Energy Solution called off plans to build a fourth battery cell plant in the U.S. together as part of their joint venture Ultium Cells LLC after the two sides failed to reach an agreement. But a GM spokesman said then that the automaker remained committed to building a fourth battery cell plant.

GM and LG formed Ultium Cells in 2019. The first of its U.S. plants was built in Warren, Ohio, and is running. It supplies batteries to GM’s newest EVs such as the Cadillac Lyriq and the GMC Hummer EV and Hummer SUV. Ultium is also spending $2.3 billion to build a plant in Tennessee near GM’s Spring Hill Assembly plant, where GM assembles the Lyriq. That plant will open later this year. Ultium Cells is also spending $2.6 billion to build a plant in Lansing Delta Township in Michigan to start production in 2024.

Ultium Cells, a joint venture of LG Energy Solution and GM, will spend $2.6 billion to build its third battery cell plant in the United States in Lansing. It will create 1,700 new jobs and is scheduled to open in late 2024. This is a rendering of what it will look like.

Samsung SDI CEO Yoon-ho Choi said the partnership with GM is long-term.

“We will do our best to provide the products featuring the highest levels of safety and quality produced with our unrivaled technologies to help GM strengthen its leadership in the EV market,” Choi said in a statement.

GM and Samsung SDI will jointly operate the facility, and it is projected to have production lines to build nickel-rich prismatic and cylindrical cells. The new joint venture will leverage the capital and technology of both companies to create new competitive advantages for GM, said Doug Parks, GM executive vice president of Global Product Development, Purchasing and Supply Chain, in a statement.

“The introduction of new cell form factors will allow us to expand into even more segments more quickly and integrate cells directly into battery packs to reduce weight, complexity and costs,” Parks said.