General Motors and LG Energy Solution battery cell joint venture company Ultium Cells announced today a $2.6 billion investment to build a 2.8 million-square-foot battery cell manufacturing plant in Lansing, Michigan. The facility will be the company’s third battery factory in the U.S.

With a planned 50 gigawatt hours of battery cell capacity, the plant will support GM’s all-electric vision, including the company’s goal to eliminate tailpipe emissions from new light-duty vehicles by 2035. GM announced last year plans for $35 billion in EV and AV investments from 2020 through 2025.

GM’s EV development is focused on its Ultium battery platform, which provides the building blocks for everything, from mass market to high performance vehicles. The platform utilizes large-format, pouch-style cells can be stacked vertically or horizontally inside the battery pack, enabling batteries to be optimized for energy storage and layout for each vehicle design. The second-generation Ultium chemistry, expected to be available mid-decade, is projected to deliver twice the energy density at less than half the cost of today’s chemistry.

According to GM, the new plant, slated to open in late 2024, will supply battery cells to Orion Assembly in Michigan and other GM EV assembly plants.

Mary Barra, GM Chair and CEO, said:

“This significant investment demonstrates our commitment to strengthen our Michigan and U.S. manufacturing presence and grow good-paying jobs. We will have the products, the battery cell capacity and the vehicle assembly capacity to be the EV leader by mid-decade.”

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