General Motors is taking a look at constructing a second plant within the U.S. to provide battery cells for electrical automobiles by a three way partnership with LG Chem.

The automaker confirmed the plans Thursday morning after the Wall Street Journal reported the businesses had been near a call to find the plant in Tennessee, however a last choice hadn’t been made. GM stated it hopes “to have a call on the potential challenge” by June.

Via their Ultium Cells LLC three way partnership, GM and LG are at the moment spending $2.3 billion for a brand new battery cell plant in Ohio. The plant is predicted to be accomplished in 2022, permitting the automaker to decrease prices and convey automobiles to market extra rapidly. The plant is taken into account a lynchpin to GM’s plans for its next-generation EVs to be worthwhile.

GM is predicted to launch 20 new or redesigned EVs as a part of its $27 billion investment plan from 2020 by 2025.

Ultium is GM’s next-generation batteries and platform, which is predicted to debut later this yr within the GMC Hummer EV pickup. The primary automobiles will not be anticipated to incorporate Ultium battery cells from the plant that is at the moment underneath building.

Outgoing GM Chief Sustainability Officer Dane Parker final yr stated the automaker would want to make extra funding in battery manufacturing capability. He stated the rise would probably be a mixture of new services and retrofitting current vegetation.

“We’re capable of, in lots of circumstances, retrofit current propulsion vegetation to do this,” he stated throughout a Goldman Sachs convention in December. “In some circumstances, we’ll be constructing new ones.”

Amid an ongoing semiconductor chip shortage that is impacting car manufacturing globally, there was a rising curiosity in restructuring car provide chains, particularly for greater tech elements, together with battery cells. The White Home final week ordered a overview of the U.S. battery provide chain.

“We want to carry battery manufacturing to the U.S.,” Ford CEO Jim Farley stated final month throughout a Wolfe Analysis convention. “We cannot go by what we’re doing with chips proper now in Taiwan. It is simply vital.”

Ford has not introduced any plans for investing in U.S. battery manufacturing. Most batteries at the moment are manufactured in Asia and Europe. Tesla at the moment operates a large battery and cell manufacturing facility with panasonic in Nevada. Tesla additionally instructed traders in September that it began producing its personal cells at a pilot plant in Fremont, California.