LG Energy Solution and Stellantis NV said they will invest more than US$4.1 billion in a joint venture to build a new electric-vehicle battery plant in Windsor, Canada.

The 45 gigawatt-hour plant, which is expected to begin operations in 2025, will create 2,500 jobs and supply Stellantis’s assembly plant in Windsor and others across North America, the companies said in a statement Wednesday. The South Korean battery maker will invest about US$1.5 billion and own 51 per cent of the venture, it disclosed in a filing in Korea earlier Wednesday. Stellantis will control 49 per cent, the automaker said.

“Our joint venture with LG Energy Solution is yet another stepping stone to achieving our aggressive electrification road map in the region aimed at hitting 50 per cent of battery electric vehicle sales in the U.S. and Canada by the end of the decade,” Stellantis Chief Executive Officer Carlos Tavares said in the statement.

Competition among battery makers to ramp up capacity is intensifying in North America as auto manufacturers including General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. electrify their fleets and President Joe Biden looks to encourage the technological shift. China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. is said to be considering sites across North America for a massive US$5 billion plant, and Japan’s Panasonic Corp. is engaged in talks over the site for a new U.S. factory that would supply Tesla Inc.

As part of its electrification plan, Stellantis is developing five large factories across North America and Europe to produce 400 gigawatt-hours of capacity by 2030. 

Stellantis announced last October it would create a joint venture with Korean battery maker Samsung SDI Co. to build a plant in the U.S. that will be operational by 2025, and eventually have 40 gigawatt hours of capacity.

SECOND PLANT

Stellantis will announce the location of a second battery plant to be built in the U.S. in the coming weeks, Mark Stewart, the company’s chief operating officer for North America, said at a news conference Wednesday.

The Canadian government’s incentives for clean-energy businesses helped lure LG and Stellantis, Bloomberg reported March 20. Stellantis declined to comment on any economic incentives it received to build the Windsor plant. 

Details of the project “are subject to commercial confidentiality” and will only be disclosed after “due diligence is completed,” Canada’s Ministry of Innovation, Science and Industry said in a statement.

In a separate statement Thursday, LG said it will spend 1.7 trillion won (US$1.4 billion) to build its own plant with 11 gigawatt hours of capacity in Queen Creek, Arizona, that will supply cylinder-type batteries for EV startups. Construction will start in the second quarter with an aim for mass production in the second half of 2024. 

“With the establishment of our new Arizona plant, LG Energy aims to deliver unparalleled consumer value in the rapidly growing cylindrical battery market,” Chief Executive Officer Youngsoo Kwon said in the statement. 

With the addition of the plants in Ontario and Arizona, the Korean battery maker will have at least 200 gigawatt hours total capacity in North America in 2025, enough to power 2.5 million electric cars traveling 500 kilometers on a single charge, LG said. That includes three plants jointly built with GM for pouch-type cells. 

The Canadian project is the second one Stellantis released fresh details on in a matter of hours. The automaker announced earlier Wednesday that its joint venture with Mercedes-Benz AG and energy giant TotalEnergies SE had reached an agreement with Italy for state support of a third manufacturing site in Europe.