Envision AESC will invest $2 billion to build a large cell and battery pack factory in Bowling Green, Kentucky, to gain a foothold in the growing US electric car market.
The new plant, which will start production in 2025 and employ 2000 workers, will have an initial capacity of 30 GWh by 2027 and will be able to supply 300000 cars a year.
The plant will supply batteries to Mercedes-Benz's new production line of electric cars 300 miles away in Alabama. However, Shoichi Matsumoto, CEO of Vision Power in the United States, revealed that the new plant will also be supplied to other automakers in the future. "We will produce batteries for many electric car manufacturers." Matsumoto said. "We have growth plans in the United States and other parts of the world."
In fact, as early as a month ago, Vision Power announced its intention to build a new plant in the United States to supply batteries to Mercedes-Benz. But at the time, the company was still selecting a site. The plant will produce a new generation of electric vehicle batteries, and Matsumoto revealed that due to innovations in chemical materials and structure, the new generation of electric vehicle batteries will have 30 per cent higher energy density than current batteries.
The auto industry and its electronics and energy suppliers are rapidly investing billions of dollars in preparation for electrification. The Biden administration wants electric cars to account for half of all new car sales in the United States by 2030, so there is an urgent need to increase capacity for batteries and other components needed for electric vehicles.
Vision Power's new plant is the second multibillion-dollar battery manufacturing project for electric vehicles introduced in Kentucky over the past year. Last September, Ford Motor Company and its battery partner SK Innovation said they would invest $5.8 billion to build two battery plants in Glendale, Kentucky. Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear expects there will be no clash over hiring between Vision Power's new battery plant and Ford's battery project.
Meanwhile, Ford and SK will invest an additional $5.6 billion to build a battery production and truck assembly plant in Stanton, Tennessee. In the region, GM and its battery partner LG New Energy are spending $2 billion to build a GM Ultium battery plant in Springhill, Tennessee.
Hyundai said on April 12th that it would begin production of two electric cars at its assembly plant in Montgomery, Alabama. Nissan also said in February that it would launch two electric models at its plant in Canton, Mississippi.
"the current level of investment in the electric vehicle industry has almost reached the scale of the industrial revolution, and we find that we are even at the beginning of this expansion journey," said Evan Horetsky, a partner at McKinsey and a former executive of Tesla. "
