GM considering Indiana town for fourth battery plant

General Motors Co. and LG Energy Solution are considering New Carlisle, Indiana, as the location for their fourth Ultium Cells LLC joint venture battery cell manufacturing plant, the companies confirmed Thursday. 

Ultium Cells "is developing a competitive business case for a potential large investment that could be located in New Carlisle, Indiana," company spokesperson Brooke Waid said in a statement Thursday.

Ultium Cells has submitted a tax abatement application with St. Joseph County, which includes New Carlisle. 

"Ultium Cells with the support of GM officials are in discussions with the appropriate local officials on the abatement application," Waid said. "We look forward to the application being reviewed and hopefully approved later this month. Securing an approved tax abatement is a critical step of the project moving forward."

Ultium is specifically looking at a site inside the Indiana Enterprise Center in New Carlisle, according to public documents. The about 680-acre area has access to rail and is in proximity to major interstates, according to a description on St. Joseph County's website. 

The county council on Tuesday will consider declaring the location an Economic Revitalization Area to allow for a tax abatement. 

GM and LG would likely invest more than $2 billion at the site, as they have with the three other locations. Each of those three plants is expected to provide more than 1,000 jobs when fully operational. 

The Indiana Economic Development Corp. "is thrilled that Ultium Cells LLC, a joint venture between General Motors and LG Energy Solution, is developing a competitive business case for a potential large investment that could be located in New Carlisle, Indiana," said Erin Sweitzer, vice president of communications for the organization, in a statement to The Detroit News. "We look forward to continuing to work with them through this process and sharing more details as we’re able.”

Sweitzer wasn't "able to confirm or comment on details of pending IEDC incentive offers" for the project. 

New Carlisle is 20 minutes west of South Bend near the Michigan border.

The likely location for GM's fourth battery plant makes sense to experts. 

New Carlisle is two hours from GM's Fort Wayne, Indiana, truck plant, which could one day transition to build EVs. Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra internal combustion engine light-duty trucks are currently built there.

New Carlisle is also a couple of hours from Lansing, where GM has two assembly plants. 

GM and other automakers have been focused on having close supply sources for their batteries to cut down costs, and also to aid in their emissions-reduction goals. 

"Having more of your production localized to where the products are going to be used cuts down on your logistics costs," said Sam Abuelsamid, principal e-mobility analyst for market research firm Guidehouse Inc.

"You ideally want to have the shortest physical distance you can get away with between where the raw materials come out of the ground and where they're ultimately being used in batteries and then in vehicles. That cuts down a significant amount on your overall emissions and gets you towards carbon neutrality goals and it also cuts down on transportation costs."

The New Carlisle plant would be Ultium's fourth U.S.-based battery cell manufacturing operation. The three other sites are in Warren, Ohio; Spring Hill, Tennessee, and the Lansing area. 

The Warren, Ohio, plant will be the first to start making cells for GM's electric vehicles. Production is slated to start this month.

GM and LG picked the Lansing area after state leaders got together to offer an incentive package for the battery plant project and for GM to convert its assembly plant in Lake Orion to make electric trucks. The push to make sure Michigan didn't lose the GM projects came after Ford Motor Co. invested billions in Tennessee and Kentucky for the electric future instead of in the Dearborn automaker's home state. 

Michigan Economic Development Corp. spokesperson Otie McKinley did not specifically say if Michigan had conversations with GM about locating a second Ultium Cells battery plant in the state but said the organization is "regularly in discussions with General Motors and other OEMs around their future expansion and electrification efforts here in the state. And we continue to have opportunities to compete for attracting battery plant projects here in Michigan."

He added: "It is not realistic to think that any one particular state will get every investment opportunity. Global companies are just that, they have operations across states, countries, and continents."

ABC57 in South Bend, Indiana, first reported GM's consideration of New Carlisle on Thursday morning. 

khall@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @bykaleahall