Detroit and South Korea’s $28 billion battery bets risk going sideways
Weeks of tense bargaining around Detroit are making battery manufacturers some 6,600 miles (10,600 kilometres) away nervous.
LG Energy Solution Ltd., SK On Co. and Samsung SDI Co. have planned about $28 billion of investment along with General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Stellantis in US electric-vehicle battery factories they’ll run as joint ventures. Those plants are major sticking points in contract negotiations between the three automakers and the United Auto Workers, which wants to unionize the 19,600 people the companies plan to hire.
