LG Energy Solution is on track with Arizona battery factory
According to the Korean battery manufacturer, the construction work, which began in November 2023, is on schedule and should be completed by the end of 2025. The press release mentions “thousands of new jobs” that are to be filled in the second half of 2025. The first round of recruitment is due to start at the end of this year, with the majority to be completed in 2025.
LGES cites these figures and measures in an update to which important political representatives from Arizona came to the construction site in the town of Queen Creek. The Korean company is building two production plants on the complex in San Tan Valley. The first plant, called LG Energy Solution Arizona, will produce 4680 cylindrical cells for the automotive industry (presumably with Tesla as the main customer). “As the company plans the first mass production of 46-series batteries at its Ochang plant in Korea in the second half of this year, which is the earliest among major global battery manufacturers, LG Energy Solution Arizona is expected to continue the momentum and increase manufacturing capacity,” LGES said.
The second facility will be called LG Energy Solution Arizona ESS and will produce pouch cells with LFP cell chemistry used for stationary energy storage – according to the company, it is the first “ESS-exclusive battery production facilities in the world”. “By situating its stand-alone ESS battery facility in North America, the world’s biggest ESS market, LG Energy Solution aims for a timely response to the fast-growing needs for locally manufactured batteries on the back of the U.S. clean energy policies, providing ESS batteries with enhanced competitiveness in cost, battery life, and safety,” the press release states.
When fully built out, the factory will have an annual capacity of 53 GWh, of which 36 GWh is planned for cylindrical battery cells for electric vehicles and the remaining 17 GWh for LFP pouch cells for use in stationary energy storage systems. LFP production is also scheduled to start in 2026, but after the plant for the 4680 cells.
When the factory was announced in 2022, production of the smaller 2170 cylindrical cells was still planned. The project was later expanded to include LFP production, before 4680 production was officially decided in October 2023 to replace the 2170 cylindrical cells.
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