(Bloomberg) — LG Energy Solution and Stellantis NV said they will invest more than $4.1 billion in a joint venture to build a new electric-vehicle battery plant in Windsor, Canada.
The 40 gigawatt-hour plant, which will be operational in 2025, will supply Stellantis’ assembly plant in Windsor and others across North America, the companies said in a statement Wednesday. The South Korean battery maker will invest about $1.5 billion, it disclosed in a filing in Korea earlier Wednesday.
“Our joint venture with LG Energy Solution is yet another stepping stone to achieving our aggressive electrification roadmap in the region aimed at hitting 50% 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 from General Motors Co. to Ford Motor Co. electrify their fleets and President Joe Biden looks to encourage the technological shift. China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., or CATL, is said to be considering sites across North America for a massive $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.
The Windsor plant represents the bulk of about $2 billion in investments LG announced Wednesday. In another filing, the company said it will spend some $542 million to build its own plant in the U.S. to supply local electric-car startups.
Read more: LG Wins Subsidies for $1.7 Billion Plant Expansion in Michigan
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.
Stellantis also 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.
Bloomberg reported earlier Wednesday that LG Energy is also planning on supplying cylinder-type batteries for startups in the U.S. from a new plant in Arizona. The new Arizona plant, along with a separate expansion of output in Michigan, were reported earlier by Korean media.
(Updates with location and total value of joint venture starting in first paragraph)
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