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Hyundai Motor Group and General Motors on Tuesday separately announced plans to build battery plants for electric vehicles in the US in partnership with South Korean battery manufacturing companies.
Hyundai will set up a $5 billion battery cell production joint venture in the US with SK On, the company that is also working with Ford to set up battery plants. GM will partner with Samsung SDI to jointly invest $3 billion in an EV battery plant.
The partnerships come as EV battery competition intensifies in the US, with domestic and foreign automakers vying to build battery supply chains nationwide to be eligible for the vehicle tax credit. electricians of the Biden administration. New battery sourcing rules went into effect in April restricting the full $7,500 tax credit to vehicles with battery materials purchased and processed in the US or by trade deal partners.
The announcements also come as South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol travels to Washington to meet with President Joe Biden. South Korean automakers have rejected the administration’s new rules that prohibit vehicles built outside the US from receiving the credit.
Hyundai’s partnership with SK On follows the signing of a memorandum of understanding in November 2022. Both companies will have a 50% stake in the $5 billion investment, according to Hyundai.
Hyundai-SK JV will establish a battery cell plant in Bartow County, Georgia, which is close to Hyundai’s US production facilities in Alabama and Georgia. Hyundai says the plant will start manufacturing battery cells in the second half of 2025 with an annual output capacity of 35 GWh, which should support production of 300,000 EVs.
Hyundai Mobis, the automaker’s parts and services division, will assemble battery packs from cells from the plant and supply them to the automaker for use in upcoming Hyundai, Kia and Genesis EV models. SK On has previously worked with Hyundai to build batteries for models like the Hyundai Ioniq 5, Kia EV6 and Genesis GV60.
The GM-Samsung factory is expected to start production in 2026 and will have more than 30 GWh of capacity. This should bring GM’s total battery cell capacity in the US to approximately 160 GWh. The automaker is building four more battery factories in the US It is not yet clear where this new plant will be built.
GM said production lines at its new plant will build “nickel-rich cylindrical and prismatic cells.” Prismatic and cylindrical cells are two of the three types of EV battery cells. GM’s Ultium battery platform currently uses the third style, bag, for most of its vehicles.
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