Jeep's Stellantis EV battery production ventures with Samsung and LG starting this month
The Stellantis conglomerate behind the Chrysler, Jeep, or Dodge brands in the US, is finalizing the plans to produce its own EV batteries, reports Korean media, with details on the LG and Samsung joint ventures to be hammered out by the end of the month. LG Energy Solutions already announced it will be building a US$4 billion battery plant for Stellantis' electric vehicles in Ontario, with capacity expected to reach 45 GWh in 2026. LG will be supplying wide (600mm) and regular (300mm) cells, while Samsung plans to bring its Gen 5 prismatic battery that offers higher energy density to the mix.
Currently, Samsung SDI can produce and ship them from its Hungarian factory, but it is looking to build a plant in the US specifically for the joint venture with Stellantis, after a similar plan for battery production partnership with Rivian in America didn't pan out. Possible locations it is exploring are the usual suspects Michigan and Illinois which will be close to LG's battery factory in Ontario. Samsung plans to reach 40 GWh annual production capacity which will give Stellantis more flexibility to pursue its ambitious electrification agenda.
The carmaker recently unveiled its Dare Forward 2030 strategy that envisions it "to have more than 75 BEVs on the market by 2030 and to achieve annual global BEV sales of five million vehicles." For North America, it has detailed the first electric Jeep that will be released in 2023, as well as an electric Dodge Ram 1500 pickup truck scheduled to launch in 2024. Jeep also teased a new Magneto 2 electric Wrangler concept with a manual transmission, indicating that the electrification plans for its most iconic off-roaders are being sped up together with the battery-making strategy.
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