Dive Brief:
- LG Energy Solution and Hyundai Motor Group struck a joint venture deal to build a $4.3 billion battery cell plant, the companies announced on Friday.
- The factory will be located in Savannah, Georgia, with production slated to begin at the end of 2025, with enough capacity to produce 300,000 EVs a year.
- The two South Korea-based companies will each take a 50% stake in the venture and facility, where Hyundai will assemble battery packs using cells from the plant to be sent to its U.S. manufacturing sites.
Dive Insight:
Hyundai and LG Energy Solution have worked together in the EV battery sector since 2009, when the former introduced its Elantra Hybrid EV. LG Energy Solution provided batteries for the Elantra along with Hyundai’s Kona Electric and IONIQ 6 EVs.
This is also not the companies’ first joint venture. In September 2021, the companies broke ground on a battery cell manufacturing plant in Karawang, Indonesia. The $1.1 billion plant is set to start production in the first half of 2024.
The new memorandum of agreement will strengthen Hyundai’s and LG Energy Solution’s ongoing EV battery partnership, the companies said in the press release.
“Two strong leaders in the auto and battery industries have joined hands, and together we are ready to drive the EV transition in America,” LG Energy Solution CEO Youngsoo Kwon said in a statement. “By further advancing our product competitiveness and global operational expertise, LG Energy Solution will commit our best efforts to offering the ultimate sustainable energy solutions to our customers.”
Hyundai’s upcoming Georgia EV campus has been attracting other South Korea-based auto suppliers to the state. On Tuesday, Georgia announced its eighth Hyundai supplier to set up shop near its EV campus.
