(Reuters) – Franco-Italian carmaker Stellantis and South Korean battery maker Samsung SDI said on Monday they plan to open a second joint factory in the United States to build electric vehicle batteries, with the goal of starting production in 2027.
Both companies said the deal still needs to be finalized, and where the plant will be located is under review. Also, the amount that will be invested in the site and the number of people to be employed will be announced later. The plant will have an initial production capacity of 34 GWh.
“This new facility will contribute to our aggressive goal of delivering at least 25 new battery electric vehicles to the North American market by the end of the decade,” Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares said in a statement.
Stellantis, whose brands include Peugeot, Jeep, Ram, Alfa Romeo, Citroen and Opel, has announced plans to reach 100% electric passenger car sales in Europe and 50% electric car and light truck mix in the US by 2030. To achieve this, it said it wants to secure about 400 GWh of battery capacity.
In 2021, Stellantis said it plans to pump $35 billion into electric vehicle production and software globally through 2025. The second battery plant in the US will be the sixth to support the company’s goals, Stellantis said.
“The second plant will accelerate our market penetration in the United States,” Yoon Ho Choi, CEO of Samsung SDI, said in the release.
In May 2022, Stellantis and Samsung SDI said they will invest more than $2.5 billion to build their first joint battery plant, to open in the first quarter of 2025 in Kokomo, Indiana. The initial capacity of this plant will be 23 GWh, eventually rising to 33 GWh.
The companies said the Indiana plant would then employ 1,400 people and the investment could gradually rise to $3.1 billion.
Stellantis is also building a joint venture battery plant in Windsor, Ontario, in Canada with LG Energy Solution of South Korea. This plant is scheduled to open in 2024, which will create 2,500 jobs and an annual production capacity of more than 45 GWh.
In April, Samsung SDI and General Motors said they would invest more than $3 billion to build a joint battery plant in the US, to open in 2026 with an annual capacity of 30 GWh. This plant will also be built in Indiana and employ 1,700 people.
The United Auto Workers union, which opened negotiations with Stellantis for a new labor agreement covering the automaker’s hourly workers in the United States, wants employees at these joint plants being built by GM, Stellantis and Ford Motor to be union representatives and paid higher wages.
Shares of Samsung SDI extended gains after Monday’s announcement, rising to 4.1% against a 0.8% increase in the KOSPI.
(Reporting by Ben Kleiman in Detroit and Haekyeong-yang in Seoul; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
