LG Energy Solution, Ford scrap plan to build EV battery plant

SEOUL: LG Energy Solution Ltd (LGES), South Korea's top battery maker, said on Saturday its plan to build a battery plant in Turkey with Ford Motor has been scrapped as a Turkish partner revoked its participation in the project.

In February, LG Energy Solution signed a non-binding agreement with Ford and Turkey's Koc Holding to push for a joint venture to build an EV battery in Baskent, a city near the Turkish capital of Ankara.

But Koc decided to revoke its participation, citing its consideration of EV adoption and inappropriate timing for battery investments, reports Yonhap news agency.

Their decision came amid a growing concern that demand for EVs may dwindle down the road amid an economic slump and rising costs.

LG Energy Solution said at that time that the factory initially will have a production capacity of 25 gigawatt hours (GWh) in 2026 before its annual output is expanded to 45 GWh.

The output from the plant will be supplied to Ford for its commercial vehicles, mostly the electric version of Transit vans. Ford and Koc have a joint venture in Turkey that produces 450,000 commercial cars annually, and most of them are being sold in Europe.

LG Energy Solution said its supply of batteries to Ford will not be affected following the rupture of the Turkish EV battery project.

LGES, the world's second-largest battery maker, has a global production capacity of 200 GWh a year, with its global production sites under operation in six countries. As of end-2022, it had an order backlog of 385 trillion won ($294.8 billion).