General Motors Co. in Detroit and POSCO Future M of South Korea announced the second phase of their joint venture for the EV battery platform called Ultium CAM.
A new investment projected to exceed $1 billion will increase production capacity of cathode active material (CAM) production in North America, the companies state.
In addition to increasing CAM production, the project also is designed to integrate precursor materials production (pCAM), defined as an engineered combination of processed raw materials necessary to produce CAM, in the joint venture manufacturing process.
Currently, CAM and PCAM production is highly concentrated in Asia. GM is executing plans to install a million units of annual EV capacity in North America in 2025, and the company’s plans call for production to be supported by four U.S. battery cell joint venture plants.
The Ultium CAM joint venture will support production of approximately 360,000 Chevrolet, Cadillac, GMC, Buick, and BrightDrop vehicles annually in the 2025-2030 timeframe in North America.
“Increasing CAM production capacity and adding pCAM to our joint venture is another significant step in building a more secure and sustainable North America-focused supply chain to support GM’s fast-growing EV production needs,” says Doug Parks, executive vice president, global product development, purchasing, and supply chain at GM.
“We started by establishing battery cell production in the U.S. From there, we have been working through the entire battery supply chain, all the way to raw material recovery. We’re building higher levels of vertical integration, driving expanded investment and helping create jobs across North America.”
Kim Joon-Hyung, president at POSCO Future M, says: “We are experiencing rapid growth of the EV battery materials market across North America. I believe our joint venture will fortify its position in the secondary battery material industry with this proactive decision to increase CAM production and bring pCAM production to North America.”
The companies established the Ultium CAM joint venture in July 2022.
