LG Chem Targets 230 GWh Battery Output Annually By 2023

The company is looking for an additional manufacturing site in Europe.

LG Chem (the top EV battery supplier so far this year) is on a mission to greatly expand its manufacturing capacity within the next few years.

The plan is to expand from about 100-120 GWh annually (level available in the late 2020), to 260 GWh by 2023! That would be enough to equip with batteries some 5 million electric cars (assuming 50 kWh per pack).

The company is looking for a new site in Europe to invest in one more battery plant – on top of the two facilities in Poland, which together are the biggest in the portfolio:

LG Chem plants:

According to the Reuters’ article, LG Chem is in talks with a “couple” of automakers to create joint ventures for cell production. So far two were established – one with Geely in China, and one with GM in Ohio.

Regardless of whether LG Chem will be an independent supplier or JV-partner for a particular automaker, it seems that the expansion is a hot topic these days. One of the largest elements of the growing demand in 2020 was Tesla with its Giga Shanghai plant. LG Chem picked up the opportunity that Panasonic – previously dominant Tesla’s battery supplier – skipped.

“We are in talks to expand cooperation with almost all automakers, and Tesla is one of them,”.

The next chapter would be the split of the battery business to a new wholly-owned subsidiary – LG Energy Solutions. Up to 30% of the company is expected to be listed in an IPO at some point in 2021/2022.

Sources:

Reuters, pushevs.com

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