LG Energy Solution will unveil a module-less EV battery in 2025

South Korean lithium-ion battery cell manufacturer LG Energy Solution plans to develop a module-less concept for pocket-type high-nickel batteries to increase the space utilization of electric vehicles, reduce weight and improve cost competitiveness by 2025.

Unlike the existing module-to-pack concept, the new concept, called “cell-to-pack”, will simplify the process of assembling pocket cells directly into batteries, said Choi Seung-don, senior vice president and automotive battery from LG Energy Solution. leader of the development center, told the audience at the Korea Advanced Battery Conference 2022.

Lithium-ion battery cells with the cell-to-pack concept are expected to compete with those made by Chinese competitors who offered competitively priced lithium ferrophosphate battery cells, or prismatic lithium-ion cells with a cell-to-pack structure. .

“We will be ahead of our rivals in terms of weight and cost,” Choi said at the conference organized by SNE Research in Seoul.

The cell-to-pack concept has been introduced among battery manufacturers including China’s CATL and China-Japan’s Envision AESC, but LG Energy Solution is the first in the industry to announce the high-carbon pouch-type battery technology. nickel, according to the company. .

On a separate note, Choi said mass production “should begin this month, or at least next month” at the Ohio plant of Ultium Cells, LG’s battery joint venture with the automaker. American automobile General Motors.

It comes a month after the joint venture announced it had shipped its first battery products to Ohio, one of at least three joint venture plant locations designed to supply batteries to GM’s electric vehicles.

The $2.3 billion Ohio plant, which can power 600,000 electric vehicles with its 40 gigawatt-hour capacity, will be operational at full capacity by 2023.

Ultium Cells, established in 2020, is looking to introduce new plants in Tennessee and Michigan, and plans to add a new plant in the North America region.

(cosnow@heraldcorp.com)

By Son Ji-hyoung (consnow@heraldcorp.com)