Ultium Cells looks to build fourth battery factory in the USA
Ultium Cells, the battery cell joint venture between General Motors and LG Energy Solution, is considering New Carlisle in the US state of Indiana as the site for its fourth factory, according to a company spokesperson.
The joint venture has filed a tax abatement application there, which it hopes will be approved this month, she said. The fourth plant is expected to be very similar to the other three battery factories and will require an investment of more than two billion US dollars.
Production at Ultium Cells’ first US battery cell plant in Ohio is expected to begin this month. Ultium Cells’ second factory is reportedly being built next to GM’s vehicle plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee. In January 2022, another battery cell manufacturing facility was announced in Lansing, Michigan, where General Motors also operates two vehicle plants. At the end of July, it became known that the US Department of Energy would grant the battery joint venture of General Motors and LG Energy Solution a loan of 2.5 billion dollars.
According to Reuters, the loan is still a “conditional commitment” that is expected to be finalised in the coming months. Interesting detail: the money comes from the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (ATVM) loan programme, which has not funded a new programme since 2010. The last AVTM borrower was Tesla, but the – then – very small start-up had repaid the loan early in 2013. Ford and Nissan had also previously benefited from the favourable loan conditions from the programme. According to Reuters, if the loan is finally approved and disbursed, it would be the first loan from the US Department of Energy to exclusively fund a project for the production of battery cells for electric cars.
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