South Korea's LG Chem plans to triple production of cylindrical lithium-ion batteries used by companies such as Tesla and is considering expanding in Europe and North America to meet soaring demand, it said on Oct 21. "Sales are expected to continue to grow due to increased shipments of car batteries and cylindrical batteries for electric vehicles," LG Chem said. LG Chem's customers also include General Motors, Volkswagen Group and Hyundai.
LG Chem has production facilities in Poland, the United States, South Korea and China. Hak Cheol Shin, LG Chem's chief executive, said the company was in talks with several carmakers to set up joint ventures to produce car batteries. LG Chem is already advancing battery joint ventures with General Motors and Geely, and hopes to expand to other automakers, Mr. Xin said.
LG Chem also said it was developing a "new Form-factor" cylindrical battery, a lithium-ion battery that would increase energy density by five times and power by six times, without elaborating. That's similar to tesla's goal of building its own 4680 battery, announced last month, which will boost the range of its cars by 16%.
LG Chem said third-quarter total operating profit rose 159% from a year earlier to 902 billion won, in line with estimates. Operating profit at the battery unit more than doubled from a year earlier to 169 billion won, helped by higher sales of cylindrical batteries, new electric vehicles from European automakers and higher sales of new mobile devices. The battery division also includes the small batteries used in Apple's iPhone. LG Chem expects battery sales and profits to rise further in the fourth quarter due to growing demand for batteries for electric vehicles.
LG and Ningde together supply batteries for Tesla's China-made models, while Panasonic supplies batteries for Tesla's U.S.-made cars. LG Chem also supplies batteries to Hyundai and Volvo.
