LANSING ― LG Energy Solution officially opened its $2.6 billion battery plant Tuesday, Aug. 18, with different products ― and different clientele ― than initially planned when the site was to be co-owned and operated by General Motors.
The South Korean battery company said Aug. 18 that its current employee count of 900 will grow to 1,700 at full-scale production, in keeping with the original plans that helped the company secure Michigan taxpayer funding.
Rather than moving full steam ahead into the smaller-than-anticipated electric vehicle market in the United States, the new LG Energy Solution Michigan-Lansing facility is also making batteries for energy storage system customers that include DTE and Consumers Energy. Its current electric vehicle customer is not
GM but Toyota.
The cells produced in Lansing will travel to LG’s other Michigan battery facility in Holland where they are to be packed into batteries for LG Energy Solution’s customers. The Holland plant, operational since 2012, produces automotive vehicle battery cells as well as full batteries for partners, including General Motors, Honda and Hyundai Motors.
The company’s other energy storage system customers include Terra-Gen, Excelsior and Q-Cells, among others.
The Lansing plant has a battery production capacity exceeding 35 gigawatt hours per year.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer highlighted LG Energy Solution's ongoing Michigan investment Tuesday in front of executives and media at the opening press conference in Lansing.
"This is a new chapter in Michigan's ongoing manufacturing boom," the governor said. "Whether in Holland or here in Lansing, you've been a wonderful partner and we are so grateful. Thank you for your confidence and investment here in Michigan."
What could have been
Downsizing electric vehicle production to better align with consumer demand is one main reason GM asked to be removed as a partner on the battery plant project with LG Energy Solution. After decoupling from the joint venture, GM is entirely free from the obligations to produce EVs in Lansing.
GM’s layoff of 350 employees starting next January in Lansing, announced recently, is the final signal that the automaker has no immediate plans for electric vehicle production near the state’s capital.
Two GM facilities, the Lansing Grand River Assembly/Stamping and Lansing Regional Stamping, both located near the LG Energy Solution facility, will close for retooling needed to alter the factory for production of the Cadillac CT5 slated to start next spring.
The Detroit automaker committed $1.25 billion for that purpose, as the Detroit Free Press reported last October, reversing its previously stated goal of spending $1.4 billion to rework the assembly plant for electric vehicles.
Cadillac said last October that the decision to build gas-powered vehicles in Lansing had nothing to do with the potential loss of government funds for electric vehicle production committed during former President Joe Biden’s administration.
The Biden administration pledged more than $1 billion in grants to help retool or reopen 11 auto plants — including more than $650 million for two factories in Michigan — for electric vehicle production.
From the sale of Ultium Cells to LG Energy Solution, GM said it would recoup about $1 billion, but the $120 million grant benefiting Ultium would stay with LG even after GM’s sale.
The future of the new plant
David Kim, CEO of LG Energy Solution, said in a statement that the Lansing plant opening marked a defining moment for the company.
“Lansing will produce advanced batteries that support not only the future of mobility, but also America’s growing energy infrastructure and digital economy,” Kim said. “We are strengthening America’s battery ecosystem, expanding our manufacturing footprint and reaffirming our long-term commitment to the United States.”
LG Energy Solution has invested $5 billion in Michigan since 2010, the company said. Across its manufacturing facilities in Holland and Lansing, the company also has the North American Regional Group and research and development facility in Troy. By the end of this year, LG Energy Solution’s total Michigan workforce will exceed 3,300 employees.
For Toyota, LG Energy Solution Michigan-Lansing said it will produce energy dense nickel-manganese cobalt (NMC) cells for vehicles including the 2027 Toyota Highlander EV, which will be assembled at Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky in Georgetown, Kentucky.
Next year, however, the 226-acre facility is to expand to prismatic cell production, the company said, and take on another automaker client, which LG Energy Solution confirmed to the Detroit Free Press was Tesla Inc.
GM’s Michigan taxpayer-funded EV investment timeline:
- GM said in 2022 that it planned to contribute roughly half of a total $2.6 billion to build a new battery cell plant as part of its Ultium Cells joint venture in Lansing on 590 acres adjacent to GM’s Lansing Delta Township Assembly plant.
- Also in 2022, GM accepted $600 million in Michigan taxpayer funds through the Strategic Outreach and Attraction Reserve Fund, known as SOAR, to erect that battery manufacturing plant near Lansing and to also expand Orion Assembly in Orion Township in order to produce more, and larger, electric vehicles.
- GM sold its stake in the Lansing EV plant in December 2024. GM transferred the SOAR funding to LG Energy Solution.
- The Michigan Strategic Fund in Lansing, which manages the SOAR funding, voted in March 2025 to remove references to GM from one of two projects the money initially intended to cover.
- GM told employees on July 15, 2025, that Orion would produce the Cadillac Escalade, the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra light-duty pickups instead but had already made the upgrades necessary for battery production.
- Because the Orion site includes a Rechargeable Energy Storage System facility where production of battery modules is underway. Batteries produced at the site support production of electric trucks at Factory Zero, GM said.
Jackie Charniga covers General Motors for the Detroit Free Press. Reach her at jcharniga@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: LG Energy Solution battery plant opens with customers other than GM
