Ultium battery site gets new funding
GM joint venture will receive extra investment of $275 million and create 400 additional jobs
Ultium Cells LLC, a joint venture of General Motors and LG Energy Solution, will invest $275 million more in the plant it’s building in Spring Hill, Tennessee, to boost battery cell production as GM begins bringing more electric vehicles to market.
Ultium Cells said Friday the investment into the plant will expand battery cell output by more than 40% when it is fully operational. The investment is in addition to the $2.3 billion investment GM and LG announced in April 2021. Production at the 2.8 million-square-foot facility will start late next year. LG built its first U.S. battery plant in Holland, Michigan, in 2010.
“Ultium Cells will play a critical role in making GM’s commitment to an all-electric future a reality,” said Tim Herrick, GM’s vice president of EV Launch Excellence. “This investment will help GM offer customers the broadest EV portfolio of any automaker and further solidifies our path toward U.S. EV leadership.”
Ultium expects to create 400 more jobs with the expansion, bringing the total expected new jobs to 1,700 when fully operational. Ultium, which has already started hiring for the Spring Hill facility, said it will supply battery cells to GM’s Spring Hill assembly plant for production of the Cadillac Lyriq SUV and other GM Ultium-based EVs in the next few years.
Ultium Cells started production at its new plant in Warren, Ohio, in August. That plant is adjacent to GM’s former Lordstown Assembly plant where GM built the Cruze subcompact car until it closed the factory in 2019, then sold it to electric truck maker Lordstown Motors that year.
Ultium Cells is currently spending $2.6 billion to build a plant in Lansing Delta Township to start production in 2024.
The company expects to provide enough battery cells to meet GM’s target to produce 1 million EVs in North America by mid-decade. It will also help GM supply battery cells to other automakers and industries including rail, aerospace, heavy trucking and marine customers. In 2020, GM partnered with Honda to jointly develop two EVs.