Tennessee Governor Bill Lee and Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner Stuart McWhorter announced on Friday that Ultium Cells LLC, a joint venture of LG Energy Solution and General Motors, will expand its Spring Hill, Tn., battery cell manufacturing operations.
The project represents a $275 million investment by Ultium Cells, which is in addition to the $2.3 billion investment announced in April 2021, and is expected to create 400 additional jobs. Once the facility is fully operational, Ultium Cells is expected to employ a workforce of 1,700 in Maury County.
Ultium Cells will increase battery cell production by more than 40 percent, from 35 gigawatt-hours to 50 GWh. The Tennessee facility will supply battery cells to General Motors’ Spring Hill assembly plant for production of the Cadillac LYRIQ, the first electric vehicle produced at the plant, and other GM Ultium Platform-based electric vehicles. Production at the 2.8-million-square-foot facility will begin in late 2023.
The Tennessee site joins two other Ultium Cells battery cell manufacturing sites in Ohio and Michigan. The Warren, Ohio, facility began battery cell production in August, and the Lansing Delta Township facility in Michigan is under construction and will begin production in late 2024.
Once all three facilities are at full production capacity later this decade, Ultium Cells expects to have more than 130 GWh of battery cell capacity in total. Ultium Cells will provide battery cell capacity to support GM’s North American electric vehicle assembly capacity of more than one million units by mid-decade, while supporting GM’s plans to supply other automotive companies and industries including rail, aerospace, heavy trucking and marine customers.
Tennessee has made significant strides in electric vehicle manufacturing with investments from companies like General Motors and LG Energy Solution. Since 2017, companies have committed to create nearly 12,000 new jobs and invested $16 billion in Tennessee through EV-related projects. Additionally, with more than 180,000 electric vehicles produced in the state since 2013, Tennessee ranks No. 1 in the Southeast for electric vehicle manufacturing.
Tennessee is also quickly becoming a leader in the domestic manufacturing of critical materials used to make lithium-ion batteries, such as lithium, cobalt, nickel and graphite. Since 2018, Tennessee has landed seven projects related to EV battery manufacturing or the EV battery supply chain, representing more than 1,700 new job commitments and roughly $4.3 billion in capital investment.