Korea’s two EV or electric vehicle secondary battery makers -LG Energy Solution and Samsung SDI- keep revving up their respective growth engine.

The two makers have joined in car maker Stellantis’ EV manufacturing ecosystem as EV secondary battery suppliers, as the 50:50 JV car maker between Fiat-Chrysler of the U.S. and Groupe PSA (Peugeot SA) of France is accelerating its diversification into EVs away from combustion engine vehicle.      

LG Energy Solution said on Oct.18 that it has signed a MOU with car maker Stellantis to establish a 50:50 JV manufacturing company to produce pouch-type EV secondary battery cells.

Under the terms of the deal, ground is to be broken somewhere in North America in the second quarter of 2022 to construct a secondary battery cell manufacturing facility. 

The plant is scheduled to come online in the first quarter of 2024, operating at an annual capacity of 40GWh to supply Stellantis’ North American EV manufacturing operations.   

Once completed, the facility will be the fourth of LG’s U.S.-based EV battery cell factories which are under construction or operating now. LG has been operating its own 100%-owned EV batter cell factory in Holland Michigan, U.S. since 2012.

Two more JV factories with GM are now under construction in Spring Hill, Tennessee and Lordstown, Ohio. The Tennessee factory will come online in 2023, while the Ohio factory will start operation in 2022.  

Reborn in January 16, 2021 as a JV car maker, Stellantis said in earlier January that it will invest about 30 billion euros to speed up its advances into EV market.

As part of the ambitious investment plan, the JV car maker also has signed another MOU with Samsung SDI to set up a JV EV battery cell factory.

The construction site is not yet decided, but Michigan and Illinois states are emerging as candidates for the JV facility.

Once completed, the JV factory will be the first U.S. based battery cell manufacturing facility of Samsung SDI. The company is now operating its own EV battery pack assembly facility in Michigan.

Under the terms of the agreement, the JV factory is scheduled to produce cylindrical EV battery cells.