LG Energy Solution has begun converting part of the production capacity at five US electric vehicle battery plants to manufacture lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cells for stationary energy storage.
Bob Lee, corporate executive vice-president and president of North America at LG Energy Solution, said the company was reallocating EV capacity as the US energy storage market grew more rapidly than anticipated.
Speaking at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence’s Giga US 2026 conference in Washington DC, Lee said the slower-than-expected expansion of the EV market had coincided with growing demand for batteries to modernise the grid and support data centres.
LG Energy Solution operates eight large-scale battery plants in North America: seven in the US and one in Canada. Lee said the facilities generally have annual production capacities of around 40 GWh.
LG Energy Solution is pivoting production from NCM for EVs to LFP for BESS
One of the seven US plants manufactures cylindrical EV cells, while the remaining six primarily produce pouch cells for electric vehicles. Five of the pouch cell plants have now begun converting part of their capacity from high-nickel NCM chemistry to LFP cells for energy storage systems.
Lee said the change required more than substituting one cell chemistry for another. LG Energy Solution has also had to develop system-level technologies and different cooling arrangements for grid-scale storage.
The company is developing prismatic cells alongside its existing pouch and cylindrical formats. Lee described prismatic cells as suitable for both entry-level EVs and stationary storage.
Its US factories will continue to support EV and energy storage production, allowing the company to increase LFP output while retaining capacity that could respond to a recovery in EV demand.
Lee highlighted LG Energy Solution Vertech’s $1.6 billion agreement with Michigan utility DTE Energy as an example of the expanding market. Under the procurement agreement, the company will supply battery systems for eight Michigan projects with a combined power rating of 1.5 GW and storage capacity of 6 GWh.
The four-hour systems will use LFP cells manufactured at LG Energy Solution’s plant in Holland, Michigan, and are due to be delivered over two years.
Lee said the agreement would create a more localised supply chain by linking batteries manufactured in Michigan with storage projects in the same state.
While much of the US utility-scale storage market has so far been concentrated in California, Arizona and Texas, he said projects were increasingly emerging in Michigan, Ohio, New England and other regions.
Lee said US battery production tax credits had helped offset the high upfront cost of building domestic manufacturing capacity. He added that battery projects could take between ten and 20 years to reach payback.
He called for further government investment in research and early-stage development, as well as reforms intended to accelerate permitting and construction.
Lee also argued that consistency across election cycles would be important to securing further private investment in US battery production.
“As long as uncertainty persists, businesses will hesitate,” he said.
Photo: a drone’s eye render of LG Energy Solution’s Arizona plant, one of the company’s seven US facilities © LG Energy Solution
