As part of a joint venture with a South Korean chemical maker, POSCO Chemical, General Motors is building a brand new factory in Bécancour, Quebec, between Montreal and Quebec City. The new factory will reportedly play an integral role in Michigan’s EV production moving forward.
Construction on the new facility is set to begin immediately, and will cost upwards of $500 million. From an economic perspective, the new factory should create 200 jobs when it becomes operational sometime in 2024, and it will “eventually feed critical battery materials to several U.S. battery plants, including one to be built in Lansing.”
In a statement, Doug Parks, GM executive vice president of Global Product Development, Purchasing and Supply Chain, explained the vision the automaker has with this new partnership and factory. “GM and our supplier partners are creating a new, more secure and more sustainable ecosystem for EVs, built on a foundation of North American resources, technology and manufacturing expertise,” he said.
GM’s partnership with POSCO also promises to help the automaker save money in battery cell development, with Parks explaining previously that GM hopes to “yield significant cost reduction in this space” from processing cathode active material with POSCO versus buying it from a supplier.
The new Quebec facility will reportedly make cathode active material (CAM), for GM’s Ultium batteries, and will allow for “future expansion” as GM looks to ramp up EV production and delivery. After all, GM has promised to invest US$35 billion through 2025 to develop EVs and self-driving cars, and has revealed plans to introduce 30 new EVs globally by mid decade.
The automaker currently has a number of anticipated EVs poised to enter the market, including the Chevrolet Silverado EV pickup and SUV and Cadillac Lyriq SUV. All of these EVs will be powered by the Ultium platform.
