LG Energy Solution and Ford cancel EV battery plant plans

Seoul (Uttam Hindu News): South Korea’s top battery maker LG Energy Solutions Ltd (LGES) said on Saturday its plan to build a battery plant in Turkey with Ford Motor has been canceled after a Turkish partner withdrew its participation in the project. In February, LG Energy Solution signed a non-binding agreement with Ford and Turkey’s Koç Holding to pursue a joint venture to make EV batteries in Baskent, a city near the Turkish capital Ankara.

Coke decided to cancel its participation citing inappropriate timing to consider EV adoption and battery investment, Yonhap news agency reported. Their decision came amid growing concerns that demand for EVs could decline amid an economic slowdown and rising costs. LG Energy Solution said at the time that the factory would initially have a production capacity of 25 gigawatt hours (GWh) in 2026, before expanding its annual output to 45 GWh.

Production from the plant was to be supplied to Ford for its commercial vehicles, mostly electric versions of the Transit van. Ford and Coke have a joint venture in Turkey, which produces 450,000 commercial cars annually, and most of them are being sold in Europe. LG Energy Solution said battery supplies to Ford will not be affected following the cancellation of the Turkish EV battery project. LGES, the world’s second largest battery maker, has a global production capacity of 200 GWh per year, with global production sites operating in six countries. By the end of 2022, its order backlog stood at 385 trillion won ($294.8 billion).