LG & LTR Stratejik Partnership - LG: The largest battery producer of future

As we all know LTR management surprised everyone on July 2nd, 2024 and made a "strategic partnership" agreement with LG.

They said "Liontown Resources has secured a US$250 million investment and 10-year offtake extension from foundational partner, LG Energy Solution, paving the way for long-term growth from Kathleen Valley and collaboration to explore the feasibility of establishing a lithium refinery".

The downstream part is very important. We will talk about it later on. I just want to give you my findings first.

The findings from the data and facts are unbelievably good.



I said couple of times that 2025 was going to be a pivotal year for the lithium-battery-EV industry. I'm not going to talk about its details, but I just want you guys to know more about LG Energy Solutions for now.

LGES is very big guys.
And LGES needs a lot of lithium.

I must say that even I didn't know LG was this big before making this research about it's gigafactories. LGES is very big guys. And LGES needs a lot of lithium. LTR can't supply what it all needs indeed, LGES has to find at least 5 more suppliers like LTR in next 2-3 years. But it's very hard IMO.

I have made a list of LGES's battery factories all around the world and all of the US battery factories (two separate tables). I made quite a lot research to find out the data. I may still have mistakes on the data here because it's really hard and very much time consuming job.

See my table below for LGES's factories; in production and under construction. I haven't included the planned ones.

The total production capacity of LGES will be around 550 GWh in next 2 years.

You can see that 2025-2026 and then 2027 will be the pivotal years for LGES. There has been expansions in the producing factories in 2025. Their all 4 factories under construction in the US are gong to be in full production in next year.

The total of LG's production will reach to 385 GWh in 2025.
The total capacity of the factories U/C is 173 GWh.
So the total production capacity of LGES will be around 550 GWh in next 2 years.

LGES's has 12 factories.
8 of them in production and 4 of them will in FULL production in next 2 years.
Interestingly, LGES has 8 of its 12 factories in North America. (7 in the US)





The annual lithium demand of LGES is 450kt LCE. That could only be met by lithium production in all of Australian mines.

We can simply calculate how much lithium LGES will need to produce 550GWh battery.

1kWh battery contains between 0.8kg-0.85kg of L2O. So you can simply multiply 550GW with 0.825 (mid point). That will give you 453kt LCE.

LGES will have to buy 450kt LCE each year to produce the batteries for its customers.

The whole lithium mines in Australia produces around that much now. Here is the rough table I've made. The total comes to 450kt LCE this year. (Keep in mind the restricted production due to the low lithium price).



Yes, LGES was saying that in the past years that it would reach to 500GWh+ battery production capacity in 2025. The photo from an exhibition in Europe.
LEGS was also saying this on its media announcements: 540GWh/year..!



Not only China is short in lithium but everyone will be short in it, including LGES.

Yes, LGES has done a good deal with LTR and secured some part of its demand from LTR, but it's nothing in comparison to what it needs.

Even if LTR would increase its ore production capacity to 4mt and produce 700kt SC6 spod, that's be around 90kt LCE. Even if LGES would buy it all, there would still be 360kt LCE deficit in LGES's demand.

The amounts around 160kt+25kt = 185kt spod per year would make only 25kt LCE. And that's nothing IMO.



Interestingly, LGES has 8 of its 12 factories in North America. (7 in the US).

I have also made a table for North American factories (Mostly in the US). See below.

Some notes first; (There are a lot of data to talk about on the table below. but I will only look at the big picture for now).

The world's largest battery manufacturer CATL has no presence in the US. And then the second largest BYD has very little presence as you can see. It only makes the batteries for its own buses.

There are a few other Chinese battery manufacturers but they are all making small production.

The most important fact is that the US EV market is making baby steps atm. For example while the EV sales growth in Jan-April 2025 period was 35% in China and 25% in the EU, it was only 5% in the US.

However the US market is the second largest market in all (ICE+EV) car sales. the total sales was around 78.5m in 2024. Here is the table.

	Country/Region	Approx. Sales
1	China	~24.9 million
2	USA	~15.4 million
3	Europe (EU+UK)	~12.1 million
4	India	~4.2 million
5	Japan	~3.7 million
6	Brazil	~2.2 million

China has already reached 53% penetration rate. (53% of all vehicles BEV and PHEV). That being a huge number of vehicles because it 53% o 24.9m vehicles, which is being 13.2m.

When it comes to the US, Their EV (BEV + PHEV) sales rate was around 8% in 2024. So there is a lot of room for the US EV market to expand.

	Powertrain Type	Units Sold (approx.)	Share (%)
1	ICE	~54 million	~69%
2	BEVs (battery EVs)	~11.5 million	~14.5%
3	Hybrids (HEVs)	~7.5 million	~9.5%
4	PHEVs	~5.5 million	~7%

The battery manufacturer table I've made below shows that LTR's 3 offtake customers are dominating the battery space in the US; Tesla, LG and Ford.

There is only Samsung SDI and SK On are left out. LTR also doesn't have more lithium to sell either.

I recommend you to look at the "Production starts" dates of the factories. Nearly all will be starting in late 2025 and 2026.




By the way. LGES is not the largest battery manufacturer atm but it's CATL.

Even LGES lost its market share in 2024. Went down to 10% in 2024 from 13% in 2023. While BYD kept its share at 15%, CATL increased from 36% to 38% in 2025.

LGES wouldn't be able to compete with CATL's and BYD's cheap products and cheap business mentality indeed. LGES has to do what it has to do; they only make quality products and they do it responsibly. There is a huge difference between those Korean and Chinese company cultures.

I'm also very much frustrated and scared of those irresponsibly made Chinese lithium batteries. The lithium battery can be seriously dangerous if it has made badly. It's a fatal thing.

Anyway, those market shares shown on the tables below will be much different in the next couple of years.

We should also notice that CATL's capacity is around 500 GWh mark atm. We can see from LGES's capacity next year that LGES and CATL might have similar capacities.

It all comes to the point that there will be a big lithium supply/demand deficit.





MASSIVE INVESTMENT AND
STRONG COMMITMENT BY LGES.

I'm now giving you the LGES battery factories with a little bit more detail and images. You will be amazed with the scale of LGES's investment. It's massive.

I think LGES has invested more than US$35b (AU$50b) for those 12 factories. Maybe much more than that. (Consider that a 40GWh factory costs about US$3.5 to $4.5b in a western country. (30% less in China).

You will see below that when you have so many and large battery production plants, you have to invest more on upstream assets.
I will talk about LG and LTR strategic partnership for downstream plant at Kathleen Valley Site.

• Why would LGES have to produce its own lithium chemicals?
• Why would LGES have to make a JV with LTR and set up a lithium sulphate production plant at KV site? (LGES would have to fund it all)
• etc...

You will see below that when you have so many and large battery production plants, you have to invest more on upstream assets.

LG GIGAFACTORIES IN PRODUCTION

LGES Head Quarter - Global research hub and "Mother Factory
Korea, Ochang
In Production since 2011
Capacity: 35GWh (Plant 1 & Plant 2)
Cylindrical (2170 & 4680) and LFP (Pouch-Long Cell)



LGES R&D Center - Daejeon Korea


LGES
China, Nanjing
In Production since 2018
Capacity: 70GWh
(Plant 1:32GWh, Plant 2: 18GWh, ESS Plant: 20 GWh)LFP (Pouch-Long Cell) for EV & ESS, NCM (Pouch) for EVs




LGES & Hyundai JV (HLI Green Power)
Indonesia, Karawang
In Production since April 2024
LGES: 50% -Hyundai: 50%
Capacity: 20GWh
Initial 10GWh, Expanded to 20GW in 2025 (Future expansion: 30GWh)
NCM (Pouch) for EVs




LGESPoland, Wroclaw
In Production since 2018
Capacity: 86GWh (Extension to 100GWh in 2025)
(Extension to 150GWh planned)
NCM (Pouch) for EVs and LFP (Pouch-Long Cell) for EV & ESS





LGES & Stellantis JV (NextStar Energy)
Canada, Ontario, Windsor (Next to Detroit, USA)
LGES: 51% - Stellantis: 49%
In Production since October 2024 (Module only)
Capacity: 50GWh
NCM (Pouch) for EVs and battery modules for Stellantis' EV models, including Jeep and Chrysler brandsProduction:
Cell production is scheduled to start in the first half of 2025. Until then, cells are supplied from LGES' facility in Wrocław, Poland. Full production is expected by late 2025




LGES & GM JV
U.S.A. Ohio, Warren
In production since Aug. 2022, full scale operational now.
Capacity:35GWh (Extension to 40GWh soon)
NCM (Pouch) type for EVs - Ultium Cells plant for GM to produce EV models (e.g., Cadillac Lyriq, Chevrolet Silverado EV, GMC Hummer EV)




LGES & GM JV
U.S.A. Tennessee Spring Hill
In production since April 2024
Capacity: 50GWh
NCM (Pouch) type for EVs -
Ultium Cells plant for GM to produce EV models (Cadillac Lyriq, Chevrolet Silverado EV, GMC Hummer EV)




LGES
U.S.A. Michigan, Holland
25GWh In Production since 2010.
In production since 2010.
Capacity: 25GWh (ESS only)
First factory in the US. Started production with ESS batteries in 2010 with 5GWh capacity.
In 2022, production capacity increased from 5 GWh to 25 GWh.
LFP (Pouch-Long Cell) for ESS




LG GIGAFACTORIES UNDER CONSTRUCTION

LGES
U.S.A. Michigan, Lansing
Capacity: 50GWh
(It was part of the Ultium Cells LLC JV with GM, but now fully owned by LGES following GM's sale of its stake in Dec. 2024)Production: Will start in late 2025 with Toyota’s $1.5 billion battery order.
(Full production in 2026-2027)
NCM (Pouch) for EVs Future: LFP (Pouch-Long Cell) for EV & ESS
Lansing plant to supply batteries to all automakers, including GM, Ford and Toyota.




LGES
U.S.A. Arizona, Queen Creek
Production will start in 2026
Capacity: 53GWh
36GWh 46xx (4680 & 4695) series cylindrical for EVs and 17GWh LFP Pouch type for ESS)




LGES & Hyundai JV
U.S.A. Georgia, Savannah
Capacity: 30GWh
Production expected to start late 2025 with full operations expected to support Hyundai’s EV production ramp-up in 2026.
LGES: 50% -Hyundai: 50%
NCM (Pouch) type for EVsproduction ramp-up in 2026.




LGES & Honda JV
U.S.A. Ohio, Fayette
Capacity: 40GWh
Production expected to start late 2025 with full operations expected to support Honda’s EV production ramp-up in 2026.
LGES: 51% - Honda: 49%
All batteries produced will be supplied exclusively to Honda plants in North America.NCM (Pouch) type for EVs