GM and LGES resume cell production in Ohio
General Motors and LG Energy Solution are resuming battery cell production at their joint facility in Ohio, USA, after a roughly seven-month pause. Starting next week, cells for GM’s electric vehicles are set to be manufactured there again. This restart comes as the partners focus additional U.S. capacities on stationary battery storage.
Production at the Ultium Cells plant in northeastern Ohio is expected to resume next Monday. According to Tom Gallagher, Vice President of Operations at Ultium Cells, as told to Reuters, most of the temporarily laid-off workers will return to the site. In total, around 1,400 people are set to work there again.
Cell production was halted in January 2026 due to declining demand for electric vehicles. After a seven-month pause, the joint venture between GM and LG Energy Solution is now set to resume manufacturing battery cells for the American automaker’s electric vehicles. The resumption of production comes at a time when GM and LGES have adjusted their North American battery capacities more closely to the changed demand. This is particularly evident at the second Ultium Cells plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee. There, the partners are investing $70 million to reconfigure production to also manufacture LFP cells for stationary energy storage systems.
The shift in Tennessee is not a complete abandonment of electric vehicle batteries. Instead, Ultium Cells refers to it as diversifying the location, with plans to produce cells for stationary storage and electric vehicles there in the future. Spring Hill is part of a larger strategy: LG Energy Solution aims to offset weaker-than-expected demand for electric vehicles by leveraging its growing energy storage business. The company plans to increase its global production capacity for energy storage systems to over 60 GWh by 2026, with more than 80 percent of that capacity located in North America.
GM has also already reacted to weaker demand. The company made billion-dollar write-downs at the start of the year related to its electric vehicle business. This was driven in part by reduced demand expectations following the end of the U.S. $7,500 tax credit for new electric vehicles in September 2025.
Meanwhile, GM is also changing its other battery partnerships. According to Reuters, at the beginning of the week Samsung SDI acquired the automaker’s share in the joint venture for a battery cell factory still under construction in Indiana. The resumption of production in Ohio places a different focus: there, GM and LGES are restarting their electric vehicle battery capacity after a seven-month pause, while Spring Hill demonstrates how the partners are expanding their cell production capabilities simultaneously.