Ultium Cells, the GM and LG Energy Solution joint venture, restarts EV battery cell production in Warren, Ohio next week after a seven-month shutdown, with about 1,400 workers. US EV sales rose 14.2% in the second quarter but remain 20.5% below a year earlier.

The battery plant that GM and LG idled in January is starting up again. Ultium Cells restarts cell production at Warren, Ohio next week, and will employ around 1,400 people once the lines are moving. Tom Gallagher, the joint venture’s vice president of operations, said most of the laid-off workers are returning.

Roughly 1,330 lost their jobs when the plant stopped in January. The shutdown was announced as six months and ran seven, with a small crew brought back in May to prepare the site.

The cause was policy rather than manufacturing. The $7,500 federal tax credit was withdrawn, buyers rushed to beat it, and the quarter that followed collapsed. US EV sales have since recovered to 247,226 in the second quarter, up 14.2% on the first, and still down 20.5% on the same quarter last year.

GM’s own brands are part of that recovery. Chevrolet sales rose 11.6% quarter on quarter and Cadillac 27.9%, which is the practical reason Ohio needs to make cells again.

None of which means GM has changed direction. Its second-quarter sales fell four percent as EV demand dropped, and petrol engines are going back into Cadillacs.

The plants tell the same story. Ohio makes large-format nickel cobalt manganese aluminium pouch cells for most GM EVs. The joint venture’s Tennessee factory has been converted to energy storage, and is not scheduled to make cheaper lithium iron phosphate cells for cars until late 2027.

Indiana went further. Samsung SDI bought out GM’s stake in their joint venture this week, and the plant still under construction there will now build cells for energy storage rather than the prismatic EV cells it was designed for.

Add it up and one EV cell line returns while two sites point elsewhere. American battery capacity is still growing, but the share of it pointed at cars is shrinking. That fits a company most of the way through an $11bn retreat from electric vehicles.

One GM electric car will not benefit either way. The Chevrolet Bolt runs LFP cells sourced from China, which restarting Ohio does nothing to change.

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