The name of the joint venture established to build Hyundai Motor and LG Energy Solution's joint battery plant in Georgia in the United States has been finalized.
LG Energy Solution said on the 21st that it set the name of the joint venture for building the Georgia joint plant with Hyundai Motor as "HLBMA LLC." Until now, the joint venture of the two companies had been called "LGES-HMG Battery JV."
The two companies signed a contract in 2023 regarding the establishment of a battery joint venture in North America to build the "HL-GA Battery Company," a joint battery plant in Georgia. To that end, Hyundai Motor Group's U.S. unit "HMG Global LLC" and LG Energy Solution's Michigan branch will jointly invest $4.3 billion (about 6.3275 trillion won) and each hold 50% equity.
The joint plant is being built to a scale capable of mass-producing about 30 gigawatt-hours (GWh) annually, enough battery cells for about 300,000 electric vehicles. The joint plant sits at one end of the Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America (HMGMA) site, which spans about 3 million pyeong in Ellabell, Georgia, so the EV battery cells produced here will be moved to Hyundai Mobis within the HMGMA site, assembled into battery packs, and supplied in full to electric vehicles produced at Hyundai Motor's Alabama plant, Kia's Georgia plant, and other U.S. plants of Hyundai Motor Group.
Initially, the two companies aimed to start production at the end of 2025. But the plant construction plan is facing setbacks. On Sept. 4, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) conducted a sweep for undocumented immigrants at the construction site. At the time, U.S. immigration authorities arrested a total of 475 people, including 317 Koreans, and detained them for seven days. Of the arrested and detained personnel, the 317 from Korea were 47 from LG Energy Solution, 210 employees of LG Energy Solution partners, and 60 from Hyundai Engineering, with the remainder being foreign nationals.