LG Energy Solution is expanding investment in new businesses with high growth potential. The company aims to overcome the downturn in the electric vehicle market by forming joint ventures or signing new supply contracts with corporations in robotics, construction equipment, and resource recycling, broadening its footprint in new businesses.
In Jun., LG Energy Solution said it would team up with Toyota Tsusho, the trading arm of Japan's Toyota Group, to establish a recycling joint venture, "GMBI," in North Carolina. Earlier, in Apr., it also said it would set up a battery recycling joint venture (JV) with Derichebourg (DBG), France's No. 1 metal recycling and environmental services corporations.
Both joint ventures will run a pre-processing business that safely breaks and crushes used batteries and process scrap generated during battery manufacturing to produce "black mass," an intermediate product in the form of black powder. The black mass produced is then reprocessed through a separate post-processing stage into key minerals essential for battery production, such as lithium, nickel, and cobalt.
LG Energy Solution expects to seize the lead in the rapidly growing used-battery industry by establishing recycling joint ventures. It also set a goal of securing supply chain competitiveness by stabilizing the procurement of materials and supplies.
It is also delivering results in the compact construction equipment sector. In Mar., LG Energy Solution signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Doosan Bobcat to develop battery pack solutions for compact construction equipment. The project to electrify Doosan Bobcat's flagship construction equipment models will adopt LG Energy Solution's cylindrical batteries, and the two sides agreed to jointly develop standardized battery packs for construction equipment.
In Jan., at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2025 in Las Vegas, the company said it would exclusively supply cylindrical batteries to Aptera Motors, a U.S. solar electric vehicle startup. LG Energy Solution also signed a three-party business agreement with Aptera Motors and City & Space (CTNS), a Korean battery pack manufacturer.
Through this, it will supply 4.4 GWh of cylindrical batteries (2170) to Aptera Motors for seven years from this year to 2031 and actively cooperate for solar electric vehicle production.
In Nov. last year, LG Energy Solution signed an MOU with Bear Robotics, a mobility platform corporations based on autonomous robots, for a battery cell supply contract and technological cooperation.
Robots are seeing increased use across services and major industry sectors as AI (artificial intelligence) and autonomous driving technologies advance. LG Energy Solution plans to use this battery supply contract and technical cooperation as a springboard to secure an early lead in the global robot market, which is expected to grow rapidly.
Last year, LG Energy Solution unveiled its corporate vision, "Empower Every Possibility," and announced plans to diversify its portfolio into new business areas with strong future growth potential, including robots, ships, and urban air mobility (UAM).
Analysts say LG Energy Solution was able to push for portfolio diversification because it has capabilities not only in pouch-type batteries but also in cylindrical batteries.
Since first developing cylindrical batteries in 1999, LG Energy Solution has expanded into a variety of products, most recently the 46-series batteries, and is broadening their applications. Next year, it is expected to begin mass production of the 46-series at its Arizona plant in the United States, allowing it to respond in a timely manner to customer demand.
An LG Energy Solution official said, "We will build a solid business structure that does not depend on the electric vehicle market by expanding our diverse product portfolio amid the EV chasm."