April 25 (UPI) -- U.S. automaker General Motors and South Korea's Samsung announced plans Tuesday to invest more than $3 billion to build a new plant in the United States that will make batteries for electric vehicles.
"The cells we will build together will help us scale our EV capacity in North America well beyond 1 million units annually," GM Chairperson and CEO Mary Barra said Tuesday.
GM and Samsung SDI agreed to a 2026 target year for the start of operations at a site that's yet to be determined. Both sides, however, said the amount of new jobs for construction and operations will be in the thousands.
GM, among the so-called Big Three, announced plans in January to invest $918 million across four plants in Michigan, Ohio and New York to build its sixth-generation small block V-8 engine and to support electric vehicle production.
Related
The company has more than 50 assembly, stamping, propulsion and component plants and parts distribution centers in the United States. The auto maker said it has invested more than $37 billion in U.S. manufacturing since 2013.
"It is a great pleasure to take the very first step to create a long-term industry-leading partnership with GM in the U.S. electric car market," said Samsung SDI President and CEO Yoon-ho Choi.
Detroit-based GM sold 2.27 million vehicles in the United States in 2022, an increase of 2.5% over 2021. For the first quarter, the company reported net income attributable to shareholders at $2.4 billion, an 18% decrease from year-ago levels.
The company nevertheless claimed the No. 2 spot in the U.S. market. Barra said Tuesday the company plans to produce 400,000 new EVs through 2024. About 50,000 of those would be in North America in the first half of this year, and more than double that in the second half of 2023.
