Honda and LG announce a $4.4 billion car battery plant in Ohio, USA

CTOnews.com, Oct. 11 (Xinhua) Honda and LG Energy Solutions said Tuesday that they will build a joint venture in Ohio at a cost of $4.4 billion (about 31.416 billion yuan) to build a car battery plant.

The two companies announced the plan in August, but had not previously identified a location in the United States. They said they had made an initial commitment of $3.5 billion (about 24.99 billion yuan) to create 2200 jobs, but expected the total investment to reach $4.4 billion.

Honda will invest a separate $700 million (about 4.998 billion yuan) to revamp electric vehicle production machines at several existing factories. Honda will restructure three engine plants in Ohio, including the world's largest, and add 300 new jobs. Honda plans to start producing and selling Honda electric cars in North America in 2026.

At present, the joint venture is awaiting approval from US regulators. Construction of the new plant is scheduled to begin in early 2023, about 40 miles southwest of Columbus, and is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2024.

CTOnews.com learned that the plant aims to start mass production of lithium-ion batteries by the end of 2025, with an annual capacity of about 40GWh. Electric car batteries produced by the new joint venture plant will be supplied to Honda Motor Plant to produce electric vehicles sold in North America. Honda aims to account for 100 per cent of its car sales by 2040.