LG Energy Solution, Ford scrap plan to build battery JV in Turkey.
LG Energy Solution (LGES), Korea’s top battery maker, said Saturday its plan to build a battery plant in Turkey with Ford Motor has been scrapped as a Turkish partner revoked its participation in the project.
In February, LG Energy Solution signed a non-binding agreement with Ford and Turkey’s Koc Holding A.S. to push for a joint venture to build an EV battery in Baskent, a city near the Turkish capital of Ankara.
But Koc decided to revoke its participation, citing its consideration of EV adoption and inappropriate timing for battery investment.
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Their decision came amid a growing concern that demand for EVs may dwindle down the road amid an economic slump and rising costs.
LG Energy Solution said at that time that the factory initially would have a production capacity of 25 gigawatt hours (GWh) in 2026 before its annual output is expanded to 45 GWh.
The output from the plant will be supplied to Ford for its commercial vehicles, mostly the electric version of Transit vans. Ford and Koc have a joint venture in Turkey that produces 450,000 commercial cars annually, with most of them being sold in Europe.
LGES said its supply of batteries to Ford will not be affected following the cancellation of the Turkish EV battery project.
The world’s second-largest battery maker has a global production capacity of 200 GWh a year, with its production sites operating in six countries. As of the end of 2022, it had an order backlog of 385 trillion won ($294.8 billion). (Yonhap)
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LG Energy Solution, Ford scrap plan to build battery JV in Turkey. source
