On March 23, LG New Energy and Stellantis said they would invest more than $4.1 billion to build a new electric vehicle battery factory in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Among them, LG New Energy will invest about 1.5 billion US dollars and will hold a 51% stake in the joint venture, and Stellantis will hold a 49% stake.

　　SES Power is no stranger to LG. On the contrary, we have used LG's lithium batteries for the manufacture of customized lithium batteries for a long time. Frankly speaking, LG and Samsung are the top leaders in the lithium battery industry, but most of their product lines focus on ternary lithium batteries or high-nickel lithium batteries, and they have been less interested in lithium iron phosphate batteries. We think this is an option, not a mistake, maybe they think the EV market is more attractive. Of course, LG is also involved in lithium battery energy storage systems, but they are not as interested as electric vehicles. For example, they rarely have products with a single cell exceeding 100ah or even 200ah.

　　"LG Energy Solution" has previously supplied electric vehicle batteries to well-known electric vehicle manufacturers such as Tesla, Lucid Motor, General Motors, and Proterra. This investment is a clear signal for "LG Energy Solution" to expand the U.S. market. "LG Energy Solution" said in January this year that it plans to invest $2.1 billion in a joint investment with General Motors to build a third joint venture plant for electric vehicle batteries in the United States. The company also struck a deal with Stellantis last year to produce battery cells and modules in North America. The plant is expected to start operations in 2025 with a capacity of approximately 45 GWh, will create 2,500 jobs, and supply the Stellantis Windsor plant and other plants in North America.

　　In a statement, Stellantis said details of the plant project are "commercially confidential" and will only be disclosed as circumstances warrant. Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares said in a statement, "The battery joint venture with LG Renewables is an important step in our electrification in North America. Our goal is to achieve 50% of the U.S. and Canada by 2030. Sales come from pure electric vehicles.”

　　On March 24, LG New Energy said in a separate statement that it would spend 1.7 trillion won (about $1.4 billion) to build its own battery plant in Queen Creek, Arizona, with a production capacity of 11 GWh for electric start-up vehicles. The company provides cylindrical batteries. Construction of the plant will begin in the second quarter of this year, with mass production expected in the second half of 2024.

　　The investment of "LG Energy Solution" in Arizona is influenced by the strong market demand in North America. The North American market's demand for cylindrical batteries used in power tools or mobile devices such as electric vehicles and electric bicycles has increased significantly in the past two years. According to a spokesman for "LG Energy Solution", the reason for the strong market demand is that these batteries are relatively small in size but have high energy density. LG New Energy said that if additional factories are added in Ontario and Arizona, LG New Energy's total battery production capacity in North America will reach at least 200 GWh in 2025, which is enough for about 2.5 million electric vehicles.

　　In North America, competition among battery makers to increase capacity is intensifying. It is reported that CATL is considering a new battery factory worth 5 billion US dollars in North America, and Panasonic is also negotiating the location of the new battery factory in the United States.

　　Stellantis North America chief operating officer Mark Stewart said the company will announce the location of its second U.S. battery factory in the coming weeks. In October, Stellantis announced it would form a joint venture with South Korean battery maker Samsung SDI to build a new battery factory in the United States. The plant will be operational in 2025 and is expected to have a capacity of 40 GWh.

　　As part of the plan, Stellantis will build five new large-scale battery factories in North America and Europe that will have a capacity of 400 GWh by 2030. The extremely dynamic market situation in the electric vehicle industry in the past two years has prompted more and more companies to turn to the processing and manufacturing of automotive batteries. Japan's Panasonic has tried to set up factories in Oklahoma or Kansas. It is worth noting Yes, Panasonic was also one of the suppliers of Tesla's battery products.

　　SES Power believes that the giants in the lithium battery industry have been increasing their investment in North American manufacturing capacity in recent times, because they are optimistic about the prospect of converting traditional fuel vehicles in North America to electric vehicles. In addition, North America has many preferential or incentive policies for investment in lithium battery factories, which is also an important factor.