LG Energy Solution will invest 1.7 trillion won (US$1.39 billion) in Queen Creek, Arizona to build a new cylindrical battery plant with a total capacity of 11 GWh. Construction is scheduled to start in the second quarter of this year and mass production is targeted for the second half of 2024.

The Arizona plant will be LGES’ second standalone facility in the US after one in Holland, Michigan. LGES earlier announced $1.7 billion to quintuple the capacity of its base plant in Holland by five times. (Earlier post.)

Among Korean battery makers, LG Energy Solutions is the first to build an independent production plant for cylindrical batteries in the North American market.

LG Energy Solution plans to supply major customers such as electric vehicle startups that have adopted cylindrical cell formats and power tool companies in the United States through the new plant. LGES is a supplier to Tesla and Lucid. In October 2021, LGES also signed a long-term battery supply contract with Nikola, which has an electric truck factory in Coolidge near Phoenix.

With LG’s plant in Michigan and JV plants with GM (earlier post, earlier post) and Stellantis (earlier post), the company’s total capacity in North America will reach more than 200 GWh.