Big U.S. EV battery makers are stepping back from the market that got them started and betting on a new set of customers in an entirely different business, The Wall Street Journal writes.
Instead of carmakers, these companies have shifted to making batteries for utilities, wind- and solar-power developers, and massive data centers that train artificial intelligence.
Selling large, stationary batteries for “energy storage systems,” or ESS, used to be a niche market that wasn’t worth much attention, says Jaehong Park, an executive at the battery arm of South Korean conglomerate LG.
Five years ago, automakers and battery companies raced to build multibillion-dollar electric vehicle battery plants across the U.S. South and Midwest, based on optimistic EV forecasts. Now, many of those plants are underused, delayed or stuck in limbo. Energy storage has emerged as an alternative, helping to compensate for the slowdown in electric vehicles.
Read the full story, and check out a previous Business Report cover package about the EV battery component manufacturing industry in Louisiana.
