LG and GM Ohio battery factory

[Jeff N]

The companies will jointly build a new plant similar in output capacity to today’s Nevada Gigafactory.

LG Chem and GM announce major new U.S. battery factory planned for Ohio

LG Chem and General Motors today announced plans to jointly build and operate a major new $2.3 billion battery factory in the city of Lordstown in Northeast Ohio. The new site, with a planned output capacity of more than 30 GWh, is expected to begin construction in the summer of 2020 and would become one of the world’s largest battery factories.

 

[mblakele]

Good. When will production begin? Any production target dates?

 

[Jeff N]

Good. When will production begin? Any production target dates?

I gather they want it to come online around 2022 quickly ramping up to 30 GWh of battery cell output.

 

[BigNick]

GM should just revive Oldsmobile or Pontiac and make it an all-EV division.

 

[wycolo]

Makes no sense to keep on importing batteries from Korea, so hurray!

GM always touts the Holland, MI battery plant but offers no statistics that I've seen, so guessing most get shipped from South Korea.

So the 'don't sell your house' idea does make sense to laid off GM workers since that Sonic plant will soon be cranking out pickups.
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[srs5694]

Makes no sense to keep on importing batteries from Korea, so hurray!

GM always touts the Holland, MI battery plant but offers no statistics that I've seen, so guessing most get shipped from South Korea.

The impression I get is that the Holland plant supplied batteries for the final year or two of the Volt's production, but that most or all Bolt batteries came from Korea. I have no idea what's happening to the Holland production now that the Volt has been axed.

So the 'don't sell your house' idea does make sense to laid off GM workers since that Sonic plant will soon be cranking out pickups.

The figures I've seen suggest that the new battery plant will be employing a fraction of the workers laid off from Lordstown. CNN reports that the Lordstown plant employed 4,500 people, and the new Lordstown Motors EV truck manufacturer that bought the plant will open with just 400 employed. Add the 1,100 employees needed by LG Chem quoted by the article cited at the top of this thread, and that totals 1/3 of the laid-off work force. I seem to recall reading somewhere that LG Chem will be paying far less than GM did, too. Given that it's likely to be a year or two between GM shutting down the plant and the new LG Chem and Lordstown Motors facilities opening, that's a lot of economic pain, even for those who are lucky enough to snag the new jobs. I'm sure many of them will have no choice but to sell their homes and move to greener pastures long before LG Chem and Lordstown Motors begin operations. Maybe some of them will be able to get work on retrofitting the existing plant and building the new LG Chem factory....

 

[Jeff N]

The impression I get is that the Holland plant supplied batteries for the final year or two of the Volt's production, but that most or all Bolt batteries came from Korea. I have no idea what's happening to the Holland production now that the Volt has been axed.

The LG Chem battery cell factory started production of Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid lithium cells in August of 2013. Prior to that, the cells had been imported from South Korea. The Volt ended production in February of this year.

Holland's LG Chem plant built 2 years ago produces first lithium ion batteries

I forget exactly when, but around a year or two ago LG Chem expanded into another building and started at least one manufacturing line making Bolt EV cells. This was not widely publicized. Since then, the Volt has ended production. I don’t know, but it seems like good speculation that LG has since retrofitted one or more of their earlier lines making Volt cells into making additional Bolt EV cells.

I don’t know if all Bolt EV cells are now made in the Holland, Michigan site or if they still supplement some of the production from South Korea.

The figures I've seen suggest that the new battery plant will be employing a fraction of the workers laid off from Lordstown. CNN reports that the Lordstown plant employed 4,500 people, and the new Lordstown Motors EV truck manufacturer that bought the plant will open with just 400 employed. Add the 1,100 employees needed by LG Chem quoted by the article cited at the top of this thread, and that totals 1/3 of the laid-off work force. I seem to recall reading somewhere that LG Chem will be paying far less than GM did, too.

The 4,500 employment figure at Lordstown Assembly is from 2 years ago. Demand for the Chevy Cruz made there was falling so they had been phasing out work shifts between then and now. When the plant closed it was down to one shift (I think) and around 1,600 or so workers. Around 1,200 took positions at other GM plants and around 400 lost their jobs and stayed in Lordstown according to media reports quoting GM and/or the UAW. The new truck startup that bought the assembly plant from GM plans to hire around 450 people for EV pickup production but not until next fall.

The prevailing permanent position assembly job under the latest UAW GM contract pays around $31 dollars an hour. GM estimates that UAW jobs
at the newly build battery factory would likely pay around $15-17 an hour.