Exterior view of the L-H Battery Company’s Jeffersonville plant in Ohio, U.S. Photo courtesy of LG Energy Solution
L-H Battery Company, the US joint venture between LG Energy Solution (373220.KS) and Japanese automaker Honda, has begun mass production of energy storage system (ESS) battery cells.
L-H Battery Company said Wednesday that it started mass production of lithium-ion battery cells for ESS at its plant in Jeffersonville, Fayette County, Ohio, on Tuesday.
The battery cells produced will be supplied to power grids, commercial and industrial, and residential ESS in the United States through Vertech, LG Energy Solution’s North American ESS system integration (SI) business unit.
The plant was originally built to produce EV battery cells for Honda’s electric vehicles.
However, the plan hit a snag after President Donald Trump abolished the electric vehicle purchase subsidy, which reached up to $7,500 last year.
Amid a sharp decline in local electric vehicle sales, Honda announced in March that it would withdraw its plan to produce three electric vehicle models in the United States.
Since then, L-H Battery Company has been working to convert the plant’s production lines to ESS batteries.
The US ESS market is growing rapidly due to the expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) data centers, increasing adoption of renewable energy, and rising demand for power grid stabilization.
Market research firm BloombergNEF forecast that the US ESS market will reach 485 gigawatt-hours (GWh) in 2030 and 976 GWh in 2035.
“ESS is an important future business for L-H Battery Company and will become a core business pillar alongside HEV battery cell production,” said Koo Ja-hoon, CEO of L-H Battery Company.
“I am very pleased that we have hired new personnel, started mass production, and made meaningful contributions to the local community just over four years since the company’s establishment in 2023,” said Rick Riegle, COO of L-H Battery Company. “This start of mass production is significant in that it goes beyond simply operating a plant to establishing a stable production base for our North American business.”