By Redação AutoIndústria | 5/26/23 | Translated by Jorge Meditsch
The Hyundai Group and LG Energy Solution created a joint venture to produce electric vehicle battery cells in the United States. With equal participation from the two Korean companies, the partnership will supply the manufacturer’s current and future assembly lines in North America.
Announced this Friday, 5/26, at LG headquarters in Seoul, Korea, the project will receive a US$ 4.3 billion investment, the equivalent of about R$ 20 billion, almost half of the investment programs from 2018 through 2026 of all manufacturers operating in Brazil.
The resources will be used to install a plant in Bryan, Georgia, aside from the Hyundai electric vehicle plant already under construction. The group has another plant in Georgia for Kia models and one more in Alabama, which makes Hyundais for the regional market.
The future plant of the joint venture – LG’s seventh battery plant operating or under construction in the US – will have a yearly installed capacity of 30 GWh. According to the partners, it could supply up to 300 thousand vehicles a year, the same volume as the automobile plant being built.
The battery plant construction is scheduled to begin in the second half of this year, to be concluded by the end of 2025. One year before, the partners should inaugurate a similar project in Indonesia.
The cells made in Georgia will be supplied to Hyundai Mobis, a manufacturer’s components arm that will assemble the batteries to be used in Hyundai, Kia and Genesis models.
With local production, Hyundai will meet the supplying requirements demanded by the United States for electric vehicle batteries and critical minerals and ensure a US$ 7.5 thousand fiscal credit for its vehicle buyers, which does not happen today.
