LG Energy, once fixed on EV batteries, jumps to Plan B

Aug 19 : A few years ago, battery manufacturer LG Energy Solution was racing to make cells for electric vehicles. Today, its focus has mostly flipped to a new product: energy storage batteries. Most of LG Energy’s North American factories are making energy-storage batteries, or gearing up to, said Robert Lee, the company’s president for the region. Demand for large battery cells to store power is booming from the buildout of AI data centers.It has been a frenetic pivot for battery companies and automakers, which poured tens of billions into U.S. battery factories early this decade in anticipation of an EV boom that has not materialized. South Korea’s LG Energy, which says it is North America’s largest battery maker by number of cells produced, said five of its eight factories in the region