General Motors (GM) surprised the EV world with an announcement of a new battery component partnership with POSCO Chemical.
POSCO Chemical and General Motors will build a North American factory to manufacture materials for battery cathodes as a joint-venture.
The announcement did not disclose the location of the plant. However, GM did note they would announce the site in early 2022.
The cathode materials plant will supply the battery cell manufacturing plants that GM is building with LG Energy Solutions. The two LG Energy solutions plants are in Ohio and Tennessee.
In addition, GM and LG Energy Solutions are planning to build two additional battery cell plants in North America, according to a report from Barron’s.
POSCO is no stranger to supplying cathode materials. In fact, the company currently provides cathode materials to LG and other manufacturers in Korea.
This move allows GM to continue to move to a vertical supply chain without the need to utilise outside contracts or companies. It will also enable GM to shift more of its supply chain to North America, which should help reduce time and cost with an overseas supply chain. No other details were part of the announcements.
GM’s stock price rose in response to the announcement, but has since settled to being up less than 1% in afternoon trading.
