Detroit and Korea’s $28 Billion Battery Bets Risk Going Sideways
LG Energy Solution, SK On and Samsung SDI have stayed mum as the UAW tries to organize the battery plants they’re building with GM, Ford and Stellantis.
General Motors and LG Energy Solution’s Ultium Cells factory in Ohio.
Photographer: Gene J. Puskar/APWeeks of tense bargaining around Detroit are making battery manufacturers some 6,600 miles (10,600 kilometers) away nervous.
LG Energy Solution Ltd., SK On Co. and Samsung SDI Co. have planned about $28 billion of investment along with General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Stellantis NV in US electric-vehicle battery factories they’ll run as joint ventures. Those plants are major sticking points in contract negotiations between the three automakers and the United Auto Workers, which wants to unionize the 19,600 people the companies plan to hire.