Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Citroen parent Stellantis announced today the formation of a joint venture with LG Energy aiming to develop a large-scale battery manufacturing facility in North America to supply the company’s electric vehicles in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
According to Stellantis, the partners are still evaluating the location for the facility, but expects groundbreaking to occur in the first half of 2022, and production to start by the first quarter of 2024. Planned capacity for the battery facility is 40 gigawatt hours annually.
The new venture forms part of Stellantis’ EV global EV strategy, which includes plans to invest over €30 billion through 2025 in electrification and software development, and to reach at least 260 GWh of capacity by 2030.
The announcement comes as global automakers appear poised to dramatically increase investment into the U.S. and North American electric vehicle segment. Last month, Ford announced plans to invest billions in new EV and battery plants, and GM has committed to invest $35 billion in its EV and AV businesses through 2025. Earlier today, Toyota announced plans to invest over $3 billion to grow its EV battery capacity in the U.S.
In August, President Biden signed an executive order setting a new target for zero emissions vehicles – including battery electric, plug-in hybrid electric, and fuel cell electric – to make up half of new vehicle sales in the U.S. by 2030. Along with the executive order, GM, Ford and Stellantis issued a joint statement indicating a “shared aspiration” to raise U.S. electric vehicle sales to 40-50% of annual volumes by 2030.
Carlos Tavares, CEO of Stellantis, said:
“Today’s announcement is further proof that we are deploying our aggressive electrification road map and are following through on the commitments we made during our EV Day event in July. With this, we have now determined the next ‘gigafactory’ coming to the Stellantis portfolio to help us achieve a total minimum of 260 gigawatt hours of capacity by 2030.”
Jong-hyun Kim, President and CEO of LG Energy Solution, added:
“Establishing a joint venture with Stellantis will be a monumental milestone in our long-standing partnership. LGES will position itself as a provider of battery solutions to our prospective customers in the region by utilizing our collective, unique technical skills and mass-producing capabilities.”
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