General Motors is expected to announce Thursday that it will enter a joint venture to build batteries for electric vehicles in a factory to be located near Lordstown, Ohio.
South Korea’s LG Chem said Thursday it would invest $916 million in its U.S. subsidiary by 2023 to set up the joint venture with GM, according to a Reuters report.
The report did not list details but GM has scheduled a news conference with CEO Mary Barra for 9 a.m. at its Technical Center in Warren. It had contacted Ohio media regarding the announcement.
GM, responding to questions about the Reuters report, said, “Talks occur on a regular basis in the auto industry between a variety of partners on different topics, but as a matter of policy we don’t discuss who, where or when those discussions might occur.”
In its 2019 UAW contract talks, GM said it will bring battery cell production to Mahoning Valley in Ohio, which would create 1,000 jobs. A GM spokesman told the Free Press Wednesday the company was still on track to proceed with that plan.
GM has been making lithium-ion battery packs at its Brownstown Battery Assembly Plant in Brownstown, about 20 miles south of Detroit. There it assembles battery packs for its Chevrolet Malibu Hybrid. Brownstown also makes the roof module for all of the GM Cruise self-driving cars.
GM and LG Chem are expected to invest more than $1 billion each for a total investment of about $2 billion, Reuters said. The venture is likely to be signed on Thursday.
A GM spokeswoman declined to comment to Reuters saying, “Talks occur on a regular basis in the auto industry between a variety of partners on different topics, but as a matter of policy we don’t discuss who, where or when those discussions might occur,” she said.
GM sold its 6.2 million-square-foot Lordstown Assembly plant in Ohio last month. It idled the plant in March. GM sold the facility to investment group Lordstown Motors, which is backed by electric truck maker Workhorse Group in Cincinnati.
Lordstown Motors will build the Endurance electric pickup starting next year. It will initially create 450 jobs. The truck uses components licensed from Workhorse. The Endurance, designed for fleet sales, is a lightweight, all-wheel drive vehicle with a low center of gravity.
The price of the factory sale was not disclosed. But the Tribune Chronicle of Warren, Ohio, reported that U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, said the price was $20 million. Lordtown Motors CEO Steve Burns said he didn’t know where Portman got the number, but he didn’t dispute it.
Burns told the Free Press that hiring for the bulk of the first 450 production jobs will take place in September 2020 before production starts in November. Wages will be competitive and they will be union jobs, Burns said. That 450 is a far cry from the 5,000 people who once worked at the factory when GM owned it and built the Chevrolet Cruze there, but Burns said “our goal is to exceed that.”
“We’re making this our headquarters, so we want sales and marketing and as much engineering as we can to come out of that facility,” Burns said.
He described a vision of an electric vehicle hub for the Midwest and a plant where electric motors, battery cells, battery packs and ancillary products are built.
The Endurance is among many electric pickups in the works:
- Tesla debuted its electric pickup dubbed “Cybertruck” on Nov. 21.
- Rivian, which is partnered with Ford and Amazon, is building an electric truck due in late 2020.
- GM has said it will invest $3 billion in Detroit-Hamtramck to build an electric pickup and other electric vehicles, possibly reviving the Hummer brand there. It will created some 2,225 jobs.
To prepare for it, GM said on Tuesday that it is laying off 814 hourly and salary workers at Detroit-Hamtramck starting Feb. 28. The 753 hourly workers impacted will be offered buyouts or jobs at other GM facilities in Michigan and Ohio, GM said.
More: GM sells its Lordstown Assembly plant to electric truck start-up
More: Lordstown Motors CEO says workforce will be union
GM has been making electric cars since 2011 when it launched the Chevrolet Volt electric-hybrid. GM ended production of the Volt this year. Since 2016, GM has built the all-electric Chevrolet Bolt sedan and in 2017 it started building the GM Cruise autonomous test vehicles in its plant in Lake Orion.
Contact Jamie L. LaReau at 313-222-2149 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @jlareauan. Read more on General Motors and sign up for our autos newsletter.
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