Ultium Cells LLC, GM's battery cell joint venture with LG Chem is progressing in Lordstown, Ohio. Construction is underway for the three-million-square-foot battery cell manufacturing facility,which if you're struggling to visualize is about the size of 30 football fields. The plant will have annual capacity of more than 30 gigawatt hours and room for expansion.
On Thursday, Ultium announced that it will hire 1,100 workers who will manufacture battery cells for the new GMC Hummer EV, the Cadillac LYRIQ and Cruise Origin. The company made the announcement and called for job seekers to start applying on the Ultium Cells website. Right now, of the 1,100, they're hiring 14. The workforce is out there as nearly 1,700 hourly employees lost their jobs in March 2019 when the last Chevy Cruze rolled off the assembly line.
The 14 key positions will help set up and launch of battery cell manufacturing. GM says additional job openings will be posted tas they become available.
According to GM, the automaker is investing billions of dollars in U.S. electric vehicle manufacturing, whih includes part of the $2.3 billion price tag for the Ultium facility. The company is also on the hook for $28 million in Ohio tax incentives that it had to pay back with GM shuttered the old Lordstown Assembly plant, as well as an additional $12 million towards "community support programs" in the county.
Ultium hopes to develop and mass-produce battery cells that drive down costs once at full volume.
In the past month, GM has been busy in its pursuit of an all-electric future, including the unveiling of Factory ZERO, an all-electric vehicle assembly plant; the GMC HUMMER EV; and GM’s recent investment of $2 billion to transition its Spring Hill, Tennessee plant to build electric vehicles, including Cadillac LYRIQ.
In a statement, Ken Morris, GM vice president of Autonomous and Electric Vehicle Programs said, “We want to put everyone in an EV.” Now, we just need to make sure that everyone wants to drive, and can afford, one.
