Honda is late to the game in terms of electric vehicles
LG already supplies manufacturers such as Tesla, Volkswagen and GM
Honda will use GM’s Ultium batteries, which are also built by LG
Honda currently has no electric vehicle for sale in North America and only two hybrid models in Canada, making it late to the EV game in this part of the world.
In order to remedy this, the Japanese automaker is planning a joint venture with LG Energy Solution in order to build electric vehicle batteries in a new American factory.
LG has already committed to invest up to $4.7 billion in North America by 2024 in order to increase its production capacity on the continent up to 160 GWh. This investment includes three new factories, two built with GM and one built with Stellantis.
The battery manufacturer is already engaged in partnerships with other automakers, since it is a major supplier to many automakers such as Tesla, Volkswagen and General Motors and it accounts for more than 20 percent of the global EV battery market.
This last partnership is important because Honda will use General Motor’s Ultium platform and batteries in two jointly developed upcoming models. These batteries will be manufactured by LG for GM from 2024.
The Honda-LG joint venture will cost around US $3.4 billion and it will have an annual production capacity of 40 GWh, which is enough to power 600,000 electric vehicles.
Honda had previously said that it was looking for partners in order to facilitate its electrification and LG revealed they are open to create more joint ventures with automakers.
Honda didn’t comment on this project and there is no official timeline for the joint venture as of yet, so we don’t know when the factory will be built or when production of the batteries will begin
