DETROIT — General Motors Co. on Wednesday announced plans to form a joint venture with South Korean company Posco to build a North American processing facility for key materials needed for electric vehicle batteries.
The joint venture will process cathode active materials, which GM officials said represent about 40% of the cost of a battery cell. The plant would process materials for GM's Ultium electric vehicle platform. The automaker is building two joint-venture Ultium battery cell plants, in Ohio and Tennessee, with plans to build two more at to-be-announced locations in the U.S.
The joint-venture plant would process materials for those battery cell plants.
“Our work with POSCO Chemical is a key part of our strategy to rapidly scale U.S. EV production and drive innovation in battery performance, quality and cost,” Doug Parks, GM's executive vice president of global product development, purchasing and supply chain, said in a statement. "We are building a sustainable and resilient North America-focused supply chain for EVs covering the entire ecosystem from raw materials to battery cell manufacturing and recycling.”
GM said the location of the facility will be announced at a later date. The Detroit automaker said the facility is expected to employ hundreds of people and open in 2024.
The two companies have signed a non-binding term sheet and said they expect to sign definitive agreements soon.
“We are very pleased to participate in the global battery supply chain project with General Motors,” Kyungzoon Min, POSCO Chemical CEO, said in a statement. "Through close partnership, we will innovate battery materials and contribute to accelerate the adoption of EVs based on our world-class product development, mass production capacity, and raw materials competitiveness.”
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