Steel construction began in the nearly 3 million square foot factory that will mass-produce cells and Ultium battery packs, the cornerstone of General Motors' strategy to bring 20 electric vehicles to market by 2023.
The Ultium Cells LLC battery cell manufacturing facility in Lordstown, Ohio is part of a joint venture between GM and LG Chem, announced in December. At the time, the two companies pledged to invest up to $ 2.3 billion in the new joint venture, as well as to set up a battery cell assembly plant at a greenfield production site in the North Lordstown area. east of Ohio, which will create over 1,100 new jobs. The factory will be able to produce 30 gigawatt-hours of capacity per year. To put this into perspective, the Tesla factory in Sparks, Nevada, which is part of a partnership with Panasonic, has a capacity of 35 GW now.
The batteries and an underlying electrical architecture will be used in a wide range of products through its Cadillac, Buick, Chevrolet and GMC brands, as well as the Cruise Origin autonomous shuttle which was revealed in January. The Cadillac flagship Lyriq EV and a fully electric Hummer GMC, which will be revealed this fall and which will go into production in the fourth quarter of 2021, will use the Ultium battery system. GM plans to reveal Lyriq in a virtual event on August 6th.
This modular architecture, called "Ultium", (equal to the battery) will be capable of 19 different battery and drive unit configurations, 400 volt and 800 volt packs with storage capacities ranging from 50 kWh to 200 kWh and front, rear - and all-wheel drive configurations. At the heart of the new modular architecture will be the large format pouch battery cells produced in this new facility.
GM pioneered the factory site in May and has since poured the concrete foundations for the plant. Steel construction will continue in autumn 2020, according to GM.
GM has been using LG Chem as a lithium ion and electronics supplier for at least a decade. The companies started working together in 2009. The relationship deepened with the development of GM and the launch of the Chevy Bolt EV.
The latter joint venture marks a decisive change for GM and a means of accelerating its EV plans, which could also involve spinning operations in a separate company.
"We are open to looking at and evaluating everything we think will drive long-term shareholder value, so I would say nothing is off the table," said GM chairman and CEO Mary Barra during a Wednesday earnings call.
GM reported a $ 758 million loss in the second quarter to $ 16.78 billion in revenue on Wednesday. The loss and drop of 53% year-on-year in revenue was mainly caused by factory shutdowns related to COVID-19 in the United States. However, the results still managed to beat analyst expectations.
