According to the South Korean media Maeil Business Newspaper, South Korean battery maker LG Energy Solution (LGES) is in discussions with Japan's Honda Motor Co. to establish a battery joint venture in the United States.
LGES plans to start trading on the Korean exchange on Jan. 27 and is expected to raise nearly $11 billion, making it the largest IPO ever in South Korea, LG Group Vice Chairman and LGES CEO Kwon Young-soo said at a bookkeeping meeting on Monday, adding that the company will soon announce a joint venture with a car company.
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Sources said the LGES-Honda battery joint venture could involve an investment of up to 4 trillion won ($3.4 billion) and a plant capacity of up to 40 gigawatt hours (GWh) to power 600,000 high-performance electric vehicles. However, details of the exact timeline, location and capacity have not yet been decided.
A rare alliance
If true, it would be a rare case of a Japanese-Korean company alliance. The current bilateral relationship between Japan and South Korea is still deteriorating over some historical issues, and the proposed partnership with Honda is surprising given the closed nature of Japanese companies.
But the deal is not without merit. One of the more obvious reasons is that the joint venture's plants are reportedly ready to support new Honda vehicles made in the U.S. starting in 2024, while the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which will come into effect in 2025, requires that 75 percent of auto parts be made in North America.
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In addition, Honda recently officially announced the launch of two large pure electric vehicles for the U.S. market in 2024, both of which will be equipped with GM's latest Ultium battery pack, which is manufactured by Ultium Cells, a joint venture between LGES and GM. This makes the relationship between these three companies in North America will become even closer.
Another reason is that Japanese battery makers have fallen behind in competition with Chinese and Korean companies across the board. According to market research firm SNE Research, Ningde Times' production capacity reached 67.1 gigawatt hours between January and November last year, up 237.6 percent year-on-year, accounting for 29 percent of the global ma
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