In the global EV battery race, Korea makes big bet on Sun Belt.
Korea is moving rapidly to position itself as a leader in the global electric vehicle (EV) battery supply chain, with the three largest battery companies scrambling to pour billions into the North American region.
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and financial aid from the U.S. government are accelerating the trend, with a growing number of global automakers considering Korean battery makers as a major alternative as the law tries to take China out of the equation.
The construction of a total of 11 joint battery factories worth billions of dollars was announced by battery makers and automakers in the North American region over the past three years, and of those, Korean battery companies are involved with nine.
Earlier in the week, the U.S. Energy Department said it has confirmed a $2.5 billion loan to Ultium Cells to finance its three battery manufacturing facilities in Ohio, Tennessee and Michigan. Ultium Cells is a 50-50 joint venture between LG Energy and General Motors.
The interest rate of the loan is on par with the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield of about 3.6 percent, approximately two percentage points lower than the rate a company with an AA rating would receive in the Korean bond market.
The three factories will give Ultium 145 gigawatt-hours of production capacity by the end of 2025, which is enough to produce 2 million EVs. The company ramped up the capacity by 25 gigawatt-hours from what it...
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