Global battery arms race: the USA’s three EV to battery hubs to watch

The USA is fighting back in the global battery arms race with a number of new supply chain developments already this year.

In the past week alone, President Biden set out plans to electrify the US government fleet of approximately 645,000 vehicles, Sila Nanotechnologies raised a record $590 million of funding and plans to build a 100 GWh silicon anode plant, and General Motors (GM) pledged to eliminate the internal combustion engine (ICE) light-duty vehicles from its portfolio by 2035.

But behind the headlines, three EV-to-battery hubs have emerged in the USA which will be critical to the next phase of the country’s EV development.

Benchmark Mineral Intelligence has identified and named these domestic regions as:

Tesla West leads the way, with the Gigafactory 1 already among the largest battery factories by capacity globally. This hub has been further strengthened by Tesla’s Texas Gigafactory and the hub has already shown the need for upstream capacity, with Tesla’s plans to develop a spodumene conversion operation.

Behind Tesla West, LG Chem is establishing growing capacity in the New Detroit hub, which will largely be supportive of GM’s electric ambitions. Finally, the development of the third US Hub – EV South – is being driven by LG Chem’s Korean rival SK Innovation, with two plants in the pipeline in Commerce, Georgia.

UPDATE: On 10 February 2021 The US International Trade Commission imposed a 10-year import ban on South Korean battery manufacturer SK Innovation.

Download Benchmark’s EV Hubs Map:

Benchmark has mapped out the USA’s three EV hubs using data from Benchmark’s Lithium ion Battery Megafactory Assessment.

Fill in this form to download a copy of Benchmark’s map showing the USA’s future EV hubs.

Benchmark Members can download a more detailed version of the map from Benchmark’s Presentation Archive or directly here.