Stellantis and Samsung SDI released a quick update on their battery joint venture in Kokomo, IN, where the partners are building a new lithium-ion cell factory.
The first milestone of the project is the raising of the first piece of steel that will form the structure of the new gigafactory. The beam was signed by the joint venture management team and the Kokomo mayor.
If everything progresses as planned, the new plant---announced in May 2022---will start producing EV batteries as soon as in the first quarter of 2025.
The initial annual production capacity is 23 gigawatt-hours (GWh), although there is a plan to increase it in the next few years, before 2030, to 33 GWh.
That might be enough to power more than 300,000 Stellantis all-electric vehicles, assuming 100 kilowatt-hours per battery pack.
The plant itself is a significant project, requiring a $2.5 billion investment, with a potential of a gradual increase up to $3.1 billion, but not as big as some of the other battery plants, which are often $4 billion to $5 billion per site.
At this point, it's not clear what models produced locally in North America will be powered by Samsung SDI's battery cells.
Stellantis is also working with LG Energy Solution on an even bigger project, a 45 GWh battery factory in Canada, which will be launched one year earlier than the factory in Indiana, in early 2024.
