General Motors and LG Chem recently tied the knot tighter in the companies’ ongoing strategic partnership, with GM specifically stating LG will be the official supplier for essential components of the 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV.
During the announcement and its fallout of media coverage, LG Chem quietly added a fourth plant line at its Holland, Michigan facility, but it’s not for the upcoming 2017 Bolt EV. It’s for something entirely new.
The Detroit News reports Bill Wallace, GM’s director of global battery system engineering , said the so called “unnamed customer” for the fourth battery line is “distinctly separate” from any Bolt discussion.
Jeremy Hagemeyer, the plant’s human resources manager, said only that the customer is a major automaker, and that production would begin the first quarter of next year.
Seeing GM and LG have become quite the partners as of recent, may LG also be in line to supply batteries and other components for the upcoming new vehicle program announced for the Orion assembly facility? GM recently invested millions of dollars for an upcoming all-new vehicle, and the rumormill has churned out the possibility of it being an all-new compact Cadillac PHEV crossover.
It’s a possibility, though, LG’s production timeline may not line up with a new plug-in Cadillac crossover. Cadillac announced a product hiatus following the introduction of the 2017 Cadillac XT5, meaning the brand’s upcoming crossovers won’t be seen for a few year’s time.
Comments
It’s possible that GM is tired of Elon Musk making fun of the Volt and GM wants to permanently shut off his arrogant face.
Hopefully the elr will get ported over to Buick and get a battery upgrade, so it could get the attention it deserves and the 45k price tag to make it popular