Korea’s LG Energy Solution plans to invest 4 trillion won ($3.1 billion USD) into its Ochang plant between now and 2026 to develop electric vehicle (EV) batteries, according to a statement from the company on Monday (via Reuters).
The investment will go toward developing an R&D department and production facilities for EVs at the Ochang LG factory, and the company expects the improvements to add around 1,800 employees.
“We plan to set up a diversified product portfolio including pouch-type and cylindrical batteries to respond to customer needs in a timely manner, and differentiate production capabilities based on a ‘smart’ factory,” a company spokesperson said.
LG Energy Solutions to Invest $450 Million into Tesla’s 4680 Battery Production https://t.co/2GEiYAZBG5
— TeslaNorth.com (@RealTeslaNorth) June 14, 2022
LG has announced partnerships with several automakers, as well as plans to build an EV battery plant in the U.S. alongside Honda. A report in March held that LG also planned to construct an Arizona battery factory for Tesla and other automakers.
Additionally, LG is partnering with Stellantis to build a $4.1 billion EV battery factory in Ontario, Canada, according to reports that also surfaced in March.
In January, some said that Samsung and LG were competing to supply Tesla’s camera modules, before Samsung was said to have been awarded a multi-billion dollar contract for the U.S. automaker’s cameras by Korean Economic Daily.
