Honda Motor and LG New Energy reportedly announced that Ohio, U.S., will be the site of their planned $4.4 billion joint venture battery plant. In August, the two companies announced plans to build a battery joint venture plant in the U.S., but at the time they had not yet determined a specific location for the plant.
In addition, Honda will also invest another $700 million to renovate its three plants in Ohio, which will add your 300 new jobs after the renovation, Honda is now looking to boost its electric vehicle production.
Honda will produce battery packs at the company’s engine plant in Anna, Ohio, which will be combined with battery modules from Honda’s joint venture with LG and then installed in electric vehicles produced at two other Ohio plants.
The joint venture with LG is the latest step in Honda’s efforts to transition from gasoline-powered vehicles to electric vehicles.
Honda plans to begin producing and selling electric vehicles in North America in 2026, and those vehicles will use the company’s new e: Architecture architecture.
Honda and LG plan to begin enough in early 2023 and complete construction of a new plant about 40 miles southwest of Columbus, Ohio, by the end of 2024. The plant aims to begin mass production of lithium-ion batteries by the end of 2025, with an annual capacity of 40 GWh.
The electric vehicle batteries produced at the new joint venture plant will be supplied to Honda’s automotive plants for the production of electric vehicles to be sold in North America. Honda aims to have electric vehicles and fuel cells account for 100 percent of its vehicle sales by 2040.
In April, Honda and GM said they would develop a range of lower-priced electric vehicles on a new joint platform, with production of millions of these vehicles starting in 2027, thus rightly overtaking Tesla in sales.
The announcement expands GM’s plans to build two electric SUVs for Honda, the Honda Prologue and an Acura model, starting in 2024.
The automaker also faces higher requirements from California, the largest state auto market in the U.S. The state requires automakers to stop selling gasoline-only vehicles by 2035, with electric vehicles accounting for at least 80 percent of their sales by then.
