General Motors Company (GM) is planning to invest more than $3 billion into a new electric vehicle manufacturing initiative.

Image: Michigan Municipal League / Flickr Creative Commons via Benzinga

What Happened: 

According to a Wall Street Journal report citing unnamed “people familiar with the matter,” the company will upgrade its Orion Assembly plant in suburban Detroit to produce electric pickup trucks, a project that will create more than 1,500 jobs and cost at least $2 billion. The company will also construct a battery-cell factory near one of its assembly plants in Lansing that will create around 1,200 jobs and cost more than $2 billion, which GM will co-finance with its battery partner, LG Energy Solutions.

The report added that GM officials were negotiating with local governments for tax abatements and other municipal approvals.

What Else Happened: 

GM has made additional announcements that further its focus in the EV space.

The company is teaming with VAC of Germany to build a U.S. plant for manufacturing the permanent magnets for the electric motors used in the GMC Hummer EV, Cadillac Lyriq, Chevrolet Silverado EV and more than a dozen other models using GM’s Ultium Platform. The new plant would plan to use locally sourced raw materials, GM added.

Also, GM formed a strategic partnership with MP Materials Corp (MP) to develop a fully integrated U.S. supply chain for rare earth magnets for use in the company’s EVs. MP Materials owns and operates the Mountain Pass rare earth mine and processing facility in California, the nation’s only active and scaled rare earth production site.

“We are building a resilient and sustainable EV manufacturing value chain in North America, from raw materials to cell manufacturing to electric drive motors and beyond, further accelerating GM’s vision to support a mass market for EVs,” said Shilpan Amin, GM vice president of global purchasing and supply chain.