Facilities Supervisor 2 - Facilities

GM and LG will mass-produce LMR battery cells in Tennessee and add 500 jobs. Published On: October 9, 2026 at 6:33 PM Elegir eco Leer Noticias Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and his deputy governor, Stuart McWhorter, announced on Tuesday, September 29, 2026, that the battery plant in Spring Hill, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of Nashville, will be retooled to mass-produce prismatic LMR battery cells for future GM electric vehicles. GM's version of the news began with "Spring Hill, Tennessee is blazing a new trail in battery technology," and the company expects the site to be the first anywhere to make these cells commercially. It is run by Ultium Cells, a joint venture of GM and LG Energy Solution, and the work is due to start later this year and finish in 2028, with 500 jobs added to the 1,200 people already there. GM says the lithium manganese-rich cells are designed to offer 33 percent greater energy density than lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cells, which it calls "today's leading, low-cost battery technology," at "a comparable cost." GM's battery chief explains the bet. "High-nickel batteries will continue to give customers the highest range in our portfolio, while adding LMR positions us to leapfrog today's more affordable chemistries and deliver lower costs with better performance," said Kurt Kelty, GM's vice president of battery and sustainability, in a statement the state released with the news. At a media event on GM's tech campus outside Detroit in May 2025, Kelty had put it in plainer words. "LMR unlocks the premium range and performance at an affordable cost," he said, as CNBC reported. "It's a game-changing battery for electric trucks." What the manganese is doing. Cathodes, the positive side of a lithium-ion cell, require "materials like cobalt, nickel and manganese, with cobalt being the most expensive," GM wrote in 2025. LMR cells, the release went on, "use a higher proportion of more affordable manganese." Noticias medio ambiente Vida saludable consejos Proyectos verdes GM battery engineer Andy Oury told journalist John Voelcker that the cells are 60 to 70 percent manganese, 30 to 40 percent nickel and less than 2 percent cobalt, Charged EVs reported. GM's current Ultium cells lean the other way, at roughly 85 percent nickel. "Manganese is dirt cheap, so at a raw materials level, it gives you that benefit to start with," Kushal Narayanaswamy, GM's director of advanced battery-cell engineering, told IEEE Spectrum in 2025. GM started work on the chemistry in 2015, and LG Energy Solution's first LMR patent goes back to 2010. Wonjoon Suh, who then led LG Energy Solution's Advanced Automotive Battery division, called the new cell "the culmination of our decades-long research and investment in the technology." Somewhere between LFP and nickel. IEEE Spectrum's Lawrence Ulrich summed up the competition. LFP batteries "are notably safe and durable," he wrote, but "the trade-off for all that is mediocre energy density." Those cheap, long-lasting LFP packs are the chemistry that "jump-started the explosive growth of EVs in China," in his words. By his numbers, the latest Blade LFP battery from BYD stores roughly 350 watt-hours per liter, a measure of how much energy fits into a given space, against more than 600 for GM's nickel-rich Ultium cells. The trade outlet electrive says GM and LG Energy Solution view LMR "as a middle ground between cost-effective LFP cells and energy-dense high-nickel chemistries." Other carmakers are chasing cheaper options too, and China has already introduced an electric car with a sodium-ion battery. Bigger cells and fewer parts. Prismatic cells come in hard rectangular cases. GM's LMR cell is "about the size of a coffee-table book," according to IEEE Spectrum, and the larger format leaves room for more active battery material. That can cut the components inside each module by 75 percent and in the full pack by 50 percent, the magazine reported, so a Silverado EV or Escalade IQ "could replace their double-stacked pack of 24 NCMA (nickel, cobalt, manganese, aluminum) modules with just six LMR modules." GM's stated goal is "more than 400 miles of range in an electric truck" (about 644 kilometers) with "significant battery pack cost savings compared to today's high-nickel pack." Electrek notes that the high-nickel Chevrolet Silverado EV already has an estimated range of up to 478 miles (769 kilometers) and starts at $55,895. Making the new cells should not require brand-new lines, either. "In fact, the processing steps for making LMR actually get reduced by a couple of steps," Narayanaswamy said. Tennessee officials count the jobs. The Spring Hill site covers 2.8 million square feet (about 260,000 square meters) next to a GM assembly plant, IndustryWeek reported. It drew more than $2.3 billion and a pledge of 1,300 jobs in 2021, then $275 million and 400 more jobs in 2022. Ultium says the LMR program, the LFP cells it began making in June for energy storage customers of LG Energy Solution Vertech, and facility improvements will together reach $1 billion by 2030. "When GM and LG Energy Solution announced their joint venture in 2021, we knew it would create new opportunities for more than 1,000 Tennessee families," Gov. Bill Lee said in the state's announcement. "I'm grateful for Ultium Cells' continued investment in our state and the confidence they've placed in Tennessee's highly skilled workforce and look forward to building on our partnership in the years ahead." "This marks Ultium Cells' second major investment in Spring Hill and reflects the company's continued growth as a diversified battery cell manufacturer," said Injae Pahk, president of Ultium Cells. State Sen. Joey Hensley, a Republican from Hohenwald, put it in local terms. "Producing this new battery technology here will strengthen our community's role in automotive manufacturing and help drive Tennessee's economy forward," he said. The math GM cares about. GM chief financial officer Paul Jacobson told the Morgan Stanley Laguna Conference in September that LMR would cut costs by "thousands of dollars per vehicle at the pack level." EV progress, he said, is now "not about expanding the portfolio per se." "It's really about going after the architecture, going after the makeup, going after the battery cell technology to bring down the cost," Jacobson said in remarks reported by IndustryWeek's Geert De Lombaerde. In June, Kelty had already told Reuters that "there is a possibility where LFP does not earn its way into our portfolio," and he called LMR GM's "workhorse" chemistry. "That's where we're going to be using the big volume," he said. Sam Abuelsamid, vice president of market research at the auto advisory firm Telemetry, estimated in 2025 that GM's LMR packs would likely cost around $80 to $90 per kilowatt-hour, the usual yardstick for battery prices, compared with at least $125 per kilowatt-hour for its current batteries, CNBC reported. Durability is still the open question. Abuelsamid told CNBC that LMR batteries have existed for decades and have usually worn out much sooner, which reporter Michael Wayland called "a problem GM believes it has solved." Charged EVs wrote that LMR cells "have historically been plagued by a short lifespan and voltage attenuation over time," meaning the cell's voltage sags as it ages. "It could be aluminum or tungsten or boron that helps prevent the contact of manganese with the electrolyte itself," Narayanaswamy said of the coatings GM uses, adding that GM's Wallace Battery Cell Innovation Center had built 300 prototype cells in 18 varieties and tested them to the equivalent of 1.4 million miles (2.25 million kilometers) of driving. "The result is that our new LMR cells can match the lifespan of current generation high-nickel cells, with comparable performance but much lower cost," GM said in 2025, according to Charged EVs. The outlet electrive still lists durability, capacity loss and limited fast charging as weak spots, and Electrek expects the first GM vehicle with LMR batteries in 2028. The announcement was published by General Motors on September 29, 2026. "Ultium Cells has been a valued community partner in Maury County for many years, and I'm excited they have decided to continue investing here," said state Rep. Kip Capley, a Republican from Summertown. Photo: Ultium Cells / General Motors

LG Energy Solution sets sales record on EV, ESS growth. Published: Oct. 8, 2026 - 14:52:15 Byun Hye-jin Battery maker doubles down on North America with ESS expansion, localized supply chain LG Energy Solution posted record quarterly revenue in the third quarter, fueled by stronger electric vehicle battery shipments in Europe and rapidly growing demand for energy storage systems in North America. The battery maker said Thursday that preliminary revenue reached 9.64 trillion won ($7.21 billion), up 59 percent from a year earlier and 27.6 percent from the previous quarter. Operating profit rose 25.7 percent on-year and more than sixfold from the second quarter to 756 billion won. Excluding an estimated 416.9 billion won in US Inflation Reduction Act tax credits, operating profit stood at 339.1 billion won. LG Energy Solution attributed the record sales to steady EV battery growth and a sharp expansion in its North American ESS business. European demand for mid-nickel batteries remained solid, while production increased following the restart of its General Motors joint venture and the launch of its Hyundai Motor Group joint venture. Cylindrical battery shipments also remained steady. Profitability improved as surging North American ESS shipments lowered the burden of fixed costs, while increased deliveries of mid- and lower-priced EV pouch cells lifted utilization rates at the company's European plants. One-off compensation payments from automakers also supported earnings. The company expects momentum to continue as North American ESS production ramps up and EV battery demand recovers in the second half. LG Energy Solution previously forecast that its North American ESS output would double in the second half, helping keep its target of 20 percent annual revenue growth within reach. Analysts also see ESS as an increasingly important growth driver. DB Financial Investment said LG Energy Solution's expanding US ESS footprint aligns with Washington's push to strengthen grid security, putting the Korean battery maker in more direct competition with companies such as Tesla and Fluence Energy. Shinyoung Securities said rapid North American expansion and US Advanced Manufacturing Production Credit benefits should continue to support earnings. It pointed to steady shipments of high-voltage mid-nickel and lithium iron phosphate batteries for Volkswagen and Renault as helping raise utilization at LG Energy Solution's Polish plant. The battery maker is also strengthening its North American supply chain as it expands production. LG Energy Solution recently signed a four-year agreement with Canada-based Elevra Lithium to secure 240,000 tons of lithium spodumene concentrate from late 2026. The material will be sourced from a mine in Quebec. The volume is equivalent to about 30,000 tons of lithium hydroxide, enough for high-performance batteries for roughly 700,000 electric vehicles, according to the company. LG Energy Solution said securing lithium at the upstream stage gives it greater flexibility to respond to shifting demand between EV and ESS applications. The strategy supports a growing North American manufacturing network as AI data centers, renewable energy and grid investment drive demand for energy storage. LG Energy Solution operates or is developing five key manufacturing hubs in the region, including two plants in Michigan and one in Ontario, as well as joint venture facilities with Honda in Ohio and GM in Tennessee. The company plans to expand its North American production capacity for lithium iron phosphate cells used in ESS applications to more than 50 gigawatt-hours by the end of this year. [email protected]