The Tennessee Ultium Cells LLC joint venture battery facility, which is being built by General Motors Co. and LG Energy Solution, will expand cell output there when it opens in late 2023 thanks to a $275 million investment, the firm stated Friday. In Nashville, with Tennessee Governor Bill Lee present, executives from the two firms announced the Spring Hill expansion. GM and LG first announced a $2.3 billion investment in 2021, and this new investment is on top of that. 400 more employment will be added to the plant's 1,300 projected ones as a result of the development.
Ultium indicated that when the Spring Hill operation is fully operational, the plant's output of battery cells would grow by more than 40%, from 35 gigawatt-hours to 50 gigawatt-hours.
Tim Herrick, GM's vice president of EV Launch Excellence, declared: "Ultium Cells will play a vital role in making GM's promise to an all-electric future a reality." This investment will enable GM to provide consumers the widest selection of EVs of any manufacturer and will further solidify our route to U.S. EV supremacy, according to Ultium Cells Spring Hill.
One of four battery cell production facilities that LG and GM are jointly creating in the United States is the Tennessee Ultium factory. This year saw the commencement of cell production at a battery facility in northeast Ohio, and work has already begun on a third location near Lansing in Delta Township that will start producing batteries in late 2024. New Carlisle, Indiana, is a potential location for the fourth battery facility that GM and LG are evaluating.
Ultium anticipates having a total battery cell capacity of more than 130 gigawatt-hours when three of the plants reach full production later this decade.
The GM Spring Hill Assembly factory, where manufacture of the electric Cadillac Lyriq started this year, is right close to the Spring Hill Ultium plant. The Ultium Tennessee factory plans to start making battery cells the following year.
Less than a week before workers at Ultium's Warren, Ohio, facility vote on unionizing with the United Auto Workers, an announcement was made today at the Tennessee plant.
The National Labor Relations Board will oversee the first election at a joint venture battery cell facility run in part by a Detroit carmaker on December 7 and December 8. The UAW will need to organize the Ultium facilities and other JV battery businesses, and the outcome of next week's election will have an impact on how organizing efforts go elsewhere.