Who's Making Those EV Batteries That Are Catching on Fire?
Investors and analysts are so focused on the steep cost of recalls for carmakers that they haven’t considered the role of one company at the center of it all.
Bolted.
Photographer: Smith Collection/Gado via Getty Images
Over the past six months, a handful of the world’s largest electric-vehicle makers have announced some of the most expensive recalls in the history of the auto industry. Investors are focused on the billions of dollars this will cost and who will foot the bill. Instead, they should be asking about the battery manufacturer at the center of it all, LG Energy Solutions, and the promise it’s selling to shareholders and car companies.
General Motors Co. this month recalled its Bolt EVs for the third time in nine months, adding 73,000 newer vehicles. The latest measure — which will cost around $1 billion, for a total of $1.8 billion — includes every Bolt electric car. That follows a Hyundai Motor Co. recall of 82,000 EVs earlier this year, at a cost of around $900 million. In both cases, faulty batteries made by LG Energy Solutions, a unit of South Korean industrial heavyweight LG Chem Ltd., have led to vehicle fires. LG said the cost of the Bolt recall would be split depending on the outcome of a joint investigation.