Our Next Energy will spend $1.6 billion on a new battery cell plant in suburban Detroit and begin production of lithium iron phosphate cells and battery packs in 2024, company officials said Wednesday.
Known as ONE, the company signed a multiyear lease for a newly constructed 659,589-square-foot building in Van Buren Township, about 25 miles west of downtown Detroit. It plans to convert the building into its first battery cell plant beginning in January 2023. Production is expected in the second half of 2024, reaching full capacity in 2027.
The factory, dubbed ONE Circle, will have an annual capacity of 20 gigawatt hours, enough to build about 200,000 battery packs each year, ONE said in a news release. It will employ about 2,100 people.
The investment is the latest battery endeavor unveiled in North America amid automaker efforts to meet fast-approaching electric vehicle targets and U.S. government attempts to onshore EV battery production, which remains heavily dependent on China and other countries.