General Motors and South Korean chemical company POSCO Future M announced June 2 that they would be launching the second phase of their Ultium Cathode Active Material (CAM) joint venture by investing over $1 billion in the North American market to increase its production capacity of CAM, a key material used to manufacture lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles. Simultaneously, the investment will also focus on integrating precursor materials production (pCAM) — a specifically engineered combination of processed raw materials that are needed to produce CAM — into the Ultium CAM joint venture.

A site for the joint venture CAM and pCAM complex will be announced at a later date.

GM said that it plans on installing 1 million units of annual EV capacity in North America in 2025 with support from four U.S. battery cell joint venture plants that will initially offer 160 GWh of capacity. Meanwhile, the joint Ultium CAM project is expected to support the production of roughly 360,000 Chevrolet, Cadillac, GMC, Buick and BrightDrop vehicles each year in North America between 2025 and 2030.

"Increasing CAM production capacity and adding pCAM to our joint venture is another significant step in building a more secure and sustainable North America-focused supply chain to support GM's fast-growing EV production needs," said Doug Parks, GM’s executive vice president of Global Product Development, Purchasing and Supply Chain. "We started by establishing battery cell production in the U.S. From there, we have been working through the entire battery supply chain, all the way to raw material recovery. We're building higher levels of vertical integration, driving expanded investment and helping create jobs across North America."

GM has been working hard to improve the battery manufacturing capabilities of the North American market. In April 2023, the automaker announced it was teaming up with Samsung SDI to launch a new battery cell manufacturing plant in the United States by 2026 according to Reuters.