Plant Construction to Begin This Spring

GM chairwoman Mary Barra (left) and LC Chem vice chairman Shin Hak-chul sign a battery cell joint venture agreement at the GM Global Tech Center in Michigan in December 2019.

General Motors (GM) has purchased a site of 640,000 square meters in Ohio of the United States to set up an electric vehicle (EV) battery joint venture with LG Chem.

GM has recently signed a deal to buy 158 acres (630,900 square meters) of land in Rosetown, Ohio, foreign media outlets reported on Jan. 16.

The site is located near a GM assembly plant complex. GM plans to start factory construction within this spring after receiving approval. Previously, LG Chem and GM signed a contract to establish a 50-50 EV battery cell joint venture on Dec. 5 last year. The two companies will each invest 1 trillion won in the joint venture, which will have a production capacity of 30 GWh a year.

GM plans to set up the battery factory near its Rosetown assembly plant, which will be closed down, and hire some of its workforce for the battery project. LG Chem has been operating a plant in Holland of Michigan in the United States since 2012. Its steady facility expansion has pushed up the plant’s production capacity to about 5 GWh.

With the establishment of the Ohio joint venture, LG Chem will secure two production bases in the United States. It will have a total of seven production bases –- five of its own and two joint ventures -- in China, Europe, and the United States, the world's three major EV markets.

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