LG Electronics has opened its first electric vehicle (EV) charger facility outside of South Korea — in Fort Worth, Texas — to capture a share of North America’s competitive EV charging market.
Its new EV charging station factory, spanning 59,202 square feet, has the capacity to produce more than 10,000 chargers annually, LG said in a company statement on Monday. LG has started manufacturing 11 kilowatt EV chargers in Texas. It will begin assembling 175 kilowatt chargers in the first half of this year and 350 kilowatts later this year.
The move comes after LG CEO William Cho reiterated the company’s commitment to “electricity” as a key driver for medium- and long-term growth last year. The South Korean electronics company is looking for new business opportunities in sectors such as EV charging and digital healthcare to reach $79 billion in sales by 2030, up from $51.4 billion in 2022. LG said its penetration of the U.S. electric vehicle market would allow the company to explore new business opportunities and tap into growing demand for EV chargers in the USA
The US had more than 165,000 public EV charging ports from December 2023; US President Biden aims to build at least 500,000 public chargers by 2030.
“With the establishment of the EV charger manufacturing plant in Texas, we will be able to actively respond to the rapidly growing demand for EV infrastructure in the US,” said Jand Ik-hwan, president of LG Business Solution Company.
LG decided to build its first EV charger factory in Texas for some strategic reasons, he said. The state offers the advantages of leveraging existing facilities in conjunction with logistics and transportation networks, according to LG.
The company, which is developing EV chargers in 2018, acquired HiEV Charger, formerly AppleMangoan EV battery charger manufacturer from South Korea, in 2022 to strengthen the EV charging business and manufacture EV chargers in its home country.
