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Power Businesses

Honda Is the Latest Automaker Looking To Build a US Battery Factory (arstechnica.com) 30

Posted by BeauHD from the what-to-expect dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: North American lithium-ion battery production is set to soar over the next decade. The Biden administration and Congress have both put policies in place to incentivize domestic manufacturing over imports, and startups, battery companies, and automakers are responding. Honda and LG Energy Solutions are the most recent to make moves; on Monday morning, the companies announced that they are forming a $4.4 billion joint venture to build a US battery factory. "Our joint venture with Honda, which has significant brand reputation, is yet another milestone in our mid- to long-term strategy of promoting electrification in the fast-growing North American market," said Youngsoo Kwon, CEO of LG Energy Solution. "Since our ultimate goal is to earn our valued customers' trust and respect, we aspire to position ourselves as a leading battery innovator, working with Honda in achieving its core initiatives for electrification, as well as providing sustainable energy solutions to discerning end consumers."

2025 is when Honda and LG are targeting mass production at this newest joint venture. It's too soon for them to have finalized a site for this factory, but the companies say they plan to begin construction early next year. The battery factory will make pouch cells, with an annual capacity of 40 GWh. "Honda is working toward our target to realize carbon neutrality for all products and corporate activities the company is involved in by 2050," said Toshihiro Mibe, president and CEO of Honda Motor Company. "Aligned with our longstanding commitment to build products close to the customer, Honda is committed to the local procurement of EV batteries which is a critical component of EVs. This initiative in the US with LGES, the leading global battery manufacturer, will be part of such a Honda approach."
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Honda Is the Latest Automaker Looking To Build a US Battery Factory More

Honda Is the Latest Automaker Looking To Build a US Battery Factory

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  • Oh, look... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Caro Cogitatus ( 7226002 ) on Monday August 29, 2022 @07:13PM (#62834645)
    ...what happens when you incentivize Green energy rather than last century's energy source.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      In Honda's case they have one EV on the market, the Honda e. It's a great little car, best HMI of any vehicle on the market. It's battery is relatively small though, only 35kWh (about 28kWh usable) and was made by Panasonic. They could have used Korean or Chinese batteries for bigger models, but I think a lot of auto-makers are concerned about becoming dependent on others for battery supply and for warranty issues. If there turns out to be a manufacturing or design problem with the pack, it gets messy. They

  • We had too many people leave the job market from covid. We need to let more people into the country or automate more to bring more manufacturing in.
    • When the subsidies are gone, it will be impossible for CEOs to resist the siren song of cheap foreign labor.

    • Those people were going to leave the market anyway for demographic reasons. At most, Covid sped that up by a couple years.

      Most people who weren't planning to retire soon can't just leave the job market. There's some wiggle room with couples, but in large part, Boomers are simply reaching the age where they naturally retire.

      The prime working age (25-54) employment-population ratio is now back to 82.4%, very near it's pre-pandemic peak, which itself was near the peak since 2001.

      • Unemployment is at record lows, and we had 3 to 5 million people retire. And we have help wanted signs everywhere, so I'd very much like to see where you are getting the 82% from

    • Re:The problem with the US is (Score:4, Interesting)

      by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Tuesday August 30, 2022 @06:04AM (#62835675) Homepage Journal

      We don't need to do either of those things. What we need to do is institute a living minimum wage. If the minimum wage had kept pace with inflation, it would be $24/hour by now. And the minimum wage was explicitly stated to be a living wage at the time of its inception. It literally should be that high.

      Every one of you saying "we can't do that" is either profiting from the situation, or you're just enabling your own abuse. At the time when America was said to be "great" the maximum graduated tax rate was 90%. If that was what "make america great again" meant, I would be all for it. That's what it would really mean, if it were honest.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Hasaf ( 3744357 )
      I recently read a book by Peter Zeihan, who spoke at the war college at Ft Benning. H holds that what you say is true, that we are losing a lot of the skilled workforce as it ages out. However, even with that in mind, North America is in better shape demographically, than the rest of the world.

  • The only person in the world who can ever make electric cars is Elon Musk. If people buy electric cars, Tesla will make trillions of dollars. That's why Tesla, a company that makes less than 1% of the cars, is currently valued at nearly a trillion dollars - more than the top 10 automakers all combined.

    • I appreciate the snark but honestly Honda doesn't really make EVs.

      They have the "Honda e" which is not (and will never be) available in North America. It's their first and only EV launched in 2020. Problem is it's very expensive for what it is; Starting at â34K it's 50% more expensive than the Nissan LEAF but has less range and utility. It's not a car they ever intended to seriously market, and they don't have another EV planned until 2024 at the earliest.

      In fact Japan as a whole is really dragging the

      • They still make the LEAF but it's not available with a liquid-cooled battery which is mind blowing.

        I agree, but on the other hand they seem to have solved their battery life problems somehow anyway...

        The Japanese automotive industry is gonna lose to Korea and China the same way the US automotive industry lost to Japan in the 1980s and 1990s.

        First China has to get to the point where the best EVs made in China aren't made by Tesla. Korea's tendency for every car they build to be a serious fire risk isn't heartening, either.

        • The LEAF's battery is significantly improved yeah, but DCFC is still absolutely kneecapped without active cooling - Hypothetical 100KW max but most Chademo chargers are 50KW, and you're lucky to get half that on a hot day. At least they're finally giving up on Chademo in favor of CCS in MY2023. It's a good thing they're so inexpensive because otherwise it would be a terrible value.

          As for China... they're already there, man. "Best" is a little subjective but vehicles like the Arcfox Alpha-S and the Aiways U5

  • I for one am still waiting for electric motorbikes - not scooters - from Honda. In the motorbike space, they have the brand-name that Toyota used to have for cars - i.e. reliable, good value bikes. I'd appreciate them to bring on electric models, as I consider a motorbike an excellent means for commuting, and charging a removable battery (Honda has standardized such with some other companies) at home or even at the office is not an issue. Range is not much of an issue, even if I'd appreciate enough for a sh

    • I for one am still waiting for electric motorbikes - not scooters - from Honda.

      Buy a Zero. I've been watching them literally since the beginning when they were using bicycle parts. What they have now is a race winner [twitter.com]. You could wait years for Honda to catch up, though.

      Full disclosure, I know Kenyon, and another friend of mine used to be the QA manager at Zero.

  • Why build a battery factory when there is a problem of mining enough lithium, cobalt, and so many other minerals for making batteries and the lightweight motors for EVs? Do they believe the minerals will be imported? Aren't other nations also looking for these same raw materials? What happens if the hostilities in Ukraine spread and we have greater disruption of the movement of goods internationally? Do the people at Honda expect there to be more mining in the USA? Maybe Canada or Mexico? Materials fr

    • Putting a nuclear plant on a ship at sea to produce gasoline solves the NIMBY issue of noone wanting to live near a nuclear plant. Just park these platforms in the middle of nowhere and send tankers to collect the gasoline.

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