LG Energy Solution in talks with Toyota for EV battery supply deal

LG Energy Solution was in talks with Japan’s Toyota to supply the auto giant with electric vehicle batteries, TheElec has learned.

The pair were discussing forming a potential joint venture and other specifics, sources said.

LG Energy Solution and Toyota are expected to announce their collaboration within the first half of 2023.

The most likely outcome is for them to build the battery factory in North America with an annual capacity of 20GWh.

Toyota already has an EV battery joint venture with compatriot Panasonic.

The venture, Prime Planet Energy, will be manufacturing prismatic batteries.

As LG Energy Solution’s expertise lies in pouch batteries, this joint venture will likely manufacture that battery type.

Toyota’s subsidiary Toyota Tsusho, its trading arm, has already announced that it will spend 325 billion yen to build a battery factory in North Carolina.

Toyota is a relative latecomer to the pure EV space as it had focused on hybrid cars in the past.

As of the third quarter of last year, according to EV Volumes, the Japanese automaker had only a 0.1% market share in the pure EV market. Volkswagen had 7.4% and General Motors 12.3%.

In September last year, Toyota announced that it plans to spend 2 trillion yen by 2030 to secure an EV battery production output of 280GWh. It has said it will secure 40GWh output in Japan and the US before 2026.