While there has been skepticism in some quarters about Stellantis’ commitment to getting to 50% of its North American sales being battery electric by the end of the decade, the company’s latest announcement seems to reinforce the plan. Stellantis and South Korea’s Samsung SDI have announced plans for a second joint venture cell manufacturing plant in North America and expansion of another that is already under construction.
In May 2022, Samsung and Stellantis announced plans for a joint venture cell factory in Kokomo, Indiana with a capacity of 23 GWh per year. The capacity of that facility has now been increased by 43% to 33 GWh per year. In addition, the two companies have now announced plans for another plant with 34 GWh of capacity with production targeted for early 2027. No site has been announced for the new factory although somewhere in the southern US or Mexico is a possibility to supply the company’s three assembly plants there.
This marks the third cell plant for each company. Stellantis also has a joint venture with LG Energy Systems with a 45 GWh plant currently under construction in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Stellantis has two vehicle assembly plants in Ontario in Brampton (near Toronto) and Windsor, each of which are expected to begin production of electric vehicles after 2024. Stellantis also has several other assembly plants in the Detroit area, just across the river from Windsor, along with the Toledo, Ohio plant that produces the Jeep Wrangler. Several or all of these plants are likely to add EV production in the next several years.
The other Samsung plant is a joint venture with General Motors. GM has three other JV plants with LG Energy Systems, but shelved plans for a forth and instead opted to partner with Samsung.
This makes 10 joint venture cell plants between Detroit area automakers and South Korean cell suppliers LG, SK On and Samsung SDI. In addition Hyundai Motor Group is building two more plants in Georgia with LG and SK On. In total there are now announced plans for 31 EV cell manufacturing plants in North America by early 2027 with a combined capacity of nearly 900 GWh.
The challenge for all of these factories over the next several years is to actually get them all up and running smoothly and supplied with a steady stream of the necessary raw materials, neither of which is guaranteed. GM has had a very difficult time getting its first LG joint venture plant in Lordstown, Ohio up to speed since beginning production last fall and has had to pause or limit production of several models including the Brightdrop Zevo 600 delivery van, GMC Hummer EV and Cadillac Lyriq. All of these plants will face significant challenges, but if the various companies can produce a steady supply of cells, they will well positioned to at least hit their EV production targets this decade.
Then they just have to convince consumers to buy them.
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