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Transportation Technology

GM And LG Chem Plan $2.3 Billion Electric Battery Venture In Ohio (npr.org) 54

Posted by msmash from the quest-continues dept.
General Motors and LG Chemical plan to make battery cells for electric-powered vehicles, unveiling a joint venture that they expect to create more than 1,100 jobs in northeast Ohio. The companies say they'll invest up to $2.3 billion in the venture. From a report: The project is centered around Lordstown, Ohio, where GM shuttered a plant last March that had produced the Chevrolet Cruze. The new plant in the Lordstown area will make battery cells for GM's upcoming all-electric vehicles, from a Cadillac sedan to a new electric truck that's slated for release in late 2021. GM recently sold its idled Cruze plant to a company called Lordstown Motors, which plans to produce electric pickup trucks at the facility, as member station WCBE reported. The new venture will pair GM's manufacturing know-how with LG Chem's battery-cell technology, says GM Chairman and CEO Mary Barra. Construction on the facility will begin in the summer of 2020, the companies say.
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GM And LG Chem Plan $2.3 Billion Electric Battery Venture In Ohio More

GM And LG Chem Plan $2.3 Billion Electric Battery Venture In Ohio

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  • As someone from the area (Score:3)

    by pgmrdlm ( 1642279 ) on Friday December 06, 2019 @02:25PM (#59492106) Journal
    The old GM plant that was sold this year(?) to a start up company that will be making EV trucks. Can't remember the name of the new company. Now GM is opening a plant to make batteries.

    Now that I think about this. Pretty much planned all the time by GM? Sell a plant losing money to a company, to make money. Then open a new plant that will sell needed material to the new owners.

    • Lordstown Motors. Doubtful that will ever happen.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Shotgun ( 30919 )

      Can't remember the name of the company? Really? Even though the summary gives it as Lordstown Motors, which is trying to enter the electric pickup truck market.

      • I guess you miss the fact that I already knew about this. So I didn't have to read the story. I read it locally, DAYS AGO. But then again, I read local news as much as national/international news. You must not.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by vix86 ( 592763 )

      Workhorse Group is the company I believe.

  • The new venture will pair GM's manufacturing know-how with LG Chem's battery-cell technology

    Well, that sounds like the worst of all worlds. They would have been better off pairing LG's manufacturing know-how with whatever chemical process GM managed to buy/steal.

    • GM's manufacturing know-how + battery factory = ugly batteries, made of poor materials and with poor quality control, that fail at incredibly high rates and have a much shorter lifespan than most competitors. That how I understand this.

      As someone not to far from Lordstwon, I know how big this will be for that area, but the ~1100 "new" jobs are only coming because of the 3000+ that GM cut.

    • They'd be better off partnering with just about anyone but LG. Everything they do, they do poorly. All LG hardware I have ever had has been junk. All LG hardware I read reviews of also seems to be junk.

  • Tesla, with its purchase of Maxwell and HiBar Systems, is so far ahead I don't think anyone can catch up. They already have three Gigafactories and have another one planned in Europe.

    • Re:Waste of Time (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Shotgun ( 30919 ) on Friday December 06, 2019 @02:55PM (#59492272)

      With three factories, Tesla would barely be able to keep up with their current growth in cars and Powerwalls. This is such a fresh market that there is room for dozens more factories, and the competition will benefit consumers by ensuring the capacity and costs continue to go in their respectively correct directions.

      • Yeah, but Tesla is going to start making their own batteries soon. They aren't going to purchase GM/LG batteries! And who else is going to buy batteries? Might as well give up now.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by hjf ( 703092 )

        The question is, though, why are they setting up so many factories in the USA? Why can't they set up factories in, you know, south america, where they pull all those minerals from?
        Unfortunately for us, lithium is the new oil. And lithium hungry america will need to liberate our countries soon to keep the status quo.

        And for some reason we're supposed to root for America and not China in this war.

      • If Tesla is barely able to keep up with cars and powerwalls, wouldn't it make sense for them to prioritize cars?

        • Automotive use requires very high quality cells. The rejects from auto line are still good enough for power walls. That is one of the reasons for Tesla's low cost. Its rejects dont end up getting scrapped.

          Old automotive batteries also will get a second life as home energy storage or solar energy storage.

      • With three factories, Tesla would barely be able to keep up with their current growth in cars and Powerwalls. This is such a fresh market that there is room for dozens more factories, and the competition will benefit consumers by ensuring the capacity and costs continue to go in their respectively correct directions.

        It's this same competition and free market capitalism that brought us solar power cheaper than coal, offshore windmills cheaper than natural gas, as well as these electric cars cheaper to own than gasoline burners.

        Did we dismantle the last natural gas power plant and recycle the last gasoline burning car? No, of course not. And we shouldn't destroy all of that just yet, because there is a carbon footprint in these items and destroying them before they reached the end of their natural life is bad for the e

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by cusco ( 717999 )

          It's not a "crisis" because it's now become a fact of life. If somehow we were to stop producing CO2 tomorrow it would still take Earth over a century to process out our current excess.

  • I'm really glad that the summary specified that this will be an electric battery. Otherwise I wouldn't have known what the hell was going on.

    • I'm really glad that the summary specified that this will be an electric battery. Otherwise I wouldn't have known what the hell was going on.

      Artillery battery, anyone?

    • I'm really glad that the summary specified that this will be an electric battery. Otherwise I wouldn't have known what the hell was going on.

      Bah, we've moved on to mechanical batteries around here.

  • Good news, but... (Score:3)

    by ErichTheRed ( 39327 ) on Friday December 06, 2019 @03:18PM (#59492394)

    I grew up in the Rust Belt around the time when most of the factories were really starting to move overseas (early 80s.) Any manufacturing employment is good for this region. It's devastating to suddenly dump thousands of semi-skilled workers into an economy that doesn't have another big employer to soak them up.

    One down-side I can see is that this is a way for GM to outsource more manufacturing. The plant is being set up as a "joint venture." I guarantee this joint venture will be a non-union shop paying minimum wage to its workers. For good or ill, the UAW is the last bastion of good-paying manufacturing jobs in this region of the country. Everything else is "be happy you have a job" slightly above minimum wage work.

    I know my opinion is unpopular, but I feel we need to have something available to the people who can't handle college that's less transient than the trades. Sure, I can become a plumber or electrician without a college degree, but I'm going to be stuck in a bunch of low-pay gig economy type contract jobs and have a variable income as a result. Contrast that with a factory job where you have a fixed schedule, you work your 8 hours and get a steady paycheck with benefits like healthcare and a pension. Union jobs allowed a couple generations of factory workers to have a solid middle-class lifestyle. You can't do that on a factory job anymore...first of all because there are so few manufacturing jobs left, and second because no one is standing up for the workers in the few remaining ones. There just isn't a class of employment to fill the need to employ less-skilled people and this is going to get way worse when automation starts eating up all the knowledge work. Better we fix it now than have a revolution on our hands.

    • I wouldn't call that opinion unpopular, there are quite a few people who feel that way, but nobody knows how to make it happen.
      • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • I know my opinion is unpopular, but I feel we need to have something available to the people who can't handle college that's less transient than the trades.

      I can't think of many people who wouldn't want something like this. The good news is that we can have it just as soon as you figure out how to create those jobs for all of the people you want to help.

      The flip side of all of this automation and moving jobs overseas that people fail to consider (too busy decrying the loss of those factory jobs) is that the situation overall improves for most people even if it really sucks for a few people in the short term as they look for a new job or new vocations, and e

    • Plumbers and electricians do quite well on average. I worry more about the people who are going to be uber drivers, Insta cart shoppers... Most factory workers would not make it as electricians/plumbers. They are fairly high skilled requiring substantial training. As a simple example, how many wall sockets can go on a circuit? (and be code compliant)
      • It depends, if it is a 10 amp circuit or a 20 amp circuit and how many 20 amp outlets(the ones with the horizontal fitting on the hot side) mixed with 10 amp outlets. But that can easily be looked up in what ever district you are in well before you take the test for your license. I just happen to have a low voltage license so I could legally pull cat-5 wiring in the building the company I was working for was in and not needing to rip it out if and when we moved out.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by G00F ( 241765 )

        The big problem with electricians/plumbers is you can't just moved into it no matter how skilled you are.

        You have to spend many years from the ground working your way through the state union like program. Can't even move to other states as you have to start at the bottom.

        So a smart 40 year old making say 60k a year, would have to (after education) get a job near min wage and spend the required years working their way to make $20-$30/hour. Sure some make as much as 80k but with in areas where the cheap ho

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Jodka ( 520060 )

      The plant is being set up as a "joint venture." I guarantee this joint venture will be a non-union shop paying minimum wage to its workers.

      As a point of reference, Tesla is not unionized and runs a joint venture with Panasonic. Glassdoor quotes Tesla factory jobs in the range $77-$123k/year. Minimum wage is $15K/year.

  • Let's go muddin in that 'lectric truck. whadya mean it'll short out?
  • This is going to end up just like NUMMI (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NUMMI ). What happened to NUMMI? Now owned by Elon Musk, at a huge discount.

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