A New Plant for Ultium Battery Materials Is on the Way

• General Motors and POSCO Chemical will open new plant for processing Cathode Active Material (CAM) for Ultium batteries in North America in 2024.

• The processing plant will supply facilities in Spring Hill, Tennessee, and Lordstown, Ohio, that GM and LG Energy are building.

• GM and several other automakers are taking steps to secure more stages of the battery building in the long term, as battery supply is expected to become a major limiting factor as more vehicles go electric.

GM and POSCO Chemical have revealed plans to create a joint venture that will include the construction of a new plant to process battery materials for Ultium battery cells. The new plant will be aimed at processing Cathode Active Material (CAM), which accounts for approximately 40% of the cost of each battery cell, the automaker says, with a planned opening expected in 2024.

This new plant, the location of which has not been revealed for now, will supply the facilities that GM and LG Energy Solutions are building in Spring Hill, Tennessee, and Lordstown, Ohio.

"Two more U.S.-based Ultium cell plants are planned by mid-decade as GM drives mass adoption of EVs with high-volume Ultium-powered EVs, including a Chevrolet crossover priced around $30,000," the automaker said.

The move by GM and POSCO is seen as another in a series of automakers working to secure more parts of the battery supply chain, instead of relying entirely on third-party suppliers. Control of the battery manufacturing process is increasingly seen as one of the biggest challenges for automakers in the current decade, as battery components and raw materials are expected to become much more sought-after as more automakers turn to EV production.

The fact that the mining and processing of some battery components is already becoming an issue, even as EV adoption rates are still below 5% in most countries, is increasingly seen as a wake-up call to the auto industry to secure as much of the battery manufacturing process as possible.

“Our work with POSCO Chemical is a key part of our strategy to rapidly scale U.S. EV production and drive innovation in battery performance, quality and cost,” said Doug Parks, GM executive vice president, Global Product Development, Purchasing and Supply Chain. "We are building a sustainable and resilient North America-focused supply chain for EVs covering the entire ecosystem from raw materials to battery cell manufacturing and recycling.”

GM's announcement follows the opening of Factory ZERO in Michigan last month that was attended by President Joe Biden. The plant, based on a renovated Detroit-Hamtramck assembly facility, had been producing pre-production versions of the GMC Hummer SUT for weeks before its formal opening, with the first customer deliveries of the electric Hummer model scheduled for later this month.

The GMC Hummer is one of two electric vehicles that use Ultium batteries and motors whose assembly has begun in 2021, with the other being the BrightDrop EV600 that, for now, is being assembled by a GM partner ahead of a full-scale production start in 2022.