Manufacturer With Facility in Ohio Receives $2.5 Billion

By Terry Troy

Ultium Cells, LLC, the joint venture of General Motors and LG Energy Solutions which has a facility in Warren, will receive a loan from the U.S. Energy Department of $2.5 billion to help finance the construction of new lithium-ion battery cell manufacturing facilities. In addition to Warren, Ultium also has production facilities in Tennessee and Michigan. The conditional commitment for the loan is for facilities at all three locations.

The funds are coming from the government’s Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (ATVM) loan program, which has not funded a new loan since 2010. This is the first loan that would be used exclusively for battery cell manufacturing, according to published reports. Previously, Tesla, Ford and Nissan received loans, some funds of which were used for battery manufacturing.

Ultium said in a statement the “facilities will create more than 5,000 new high-tech jobs in the United States. We are grateful for the consideration and look forward to working with the Department of Energy on next steps.”

In total, GM and LG are investing more than $7 billion via the venture to build three battery plants. Production is set to begin at its Tennessee plant in late 2023 and in Michigan in 2024.

In 2020, Ultium started ground prep activities for the Warren site, with product development work continuing to progress through the pandemic. Ultium Cells are planned to 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 other industries including: rail, aerospace, heavy trucking and marine industries.