GM said construction at the New Carlisle battery cell plant will pause to align production capacity with current Electric Vehicle (EV) demand, with future plans for the site to be announced later.
The project had already slowed last fall, when layoffs hit the site and local officials said the partners were weighing design changes to the battery line.
The pause reflects a broader EV reset as federal purchase incentives ended and automakers pulled back on battery and vehicle capacity plans.
General Motors has paused completion of its planned $3.5 billion Electric Vehicle (EV) battery plant in New Carlisle, Indiana, as softer electric vehicle demand impacts a major industrial construction project.
According to The Detroit News, GM plans to finish the exterior of the plant as soon as possible. After that, the next step for the site remains unclear.
GM said the pause is intended to align battery production capacity with current demand. The project, a joint venture with Samsung SDI, was expected to produce nickel-rich prismatic battery cells for future EV models.
The slowdown has been building for months. The Detroit News reported in October that layoffs had already hit the site near the Michigan border as construction activity eased and the partners considered possible design changes.
The broader battery market is shifting beyond passenger EVs and toward stationary storage.
GM said in its 2025 earnings report that it was realigning EV capacity and investment as consumer demand weakened. The automaker also pointed to federal policy changes, including the end of EV purchase incentives, and reduced emissions-regulation pressure.
According to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, the U.S. installed a record 57.6 GWh of new energy storage capacity in 2025, and deployments are forecast to rise to 70 GWh in 2026.
In March, GM and its partner, LG Energy Solutions, indicated they would retool a Tennessee EV battery plant to make energy storage system batteries.
Samsung SDI is also leaning into that market. According to the company, it won a $1 billion U.S. energy storage battery supply deal in March, with initial production coming from its StarPlus Energy plant in Indiana, a joint venture with Stellantis.
That trend suggests U.S. battery investment is increasingly tied to utilities and large-scale power demand, such as data centers. The SEIA reported that Google, Meta, and other tech companies have announced deals to procure tens of thousands of megawatt-hours of energy storage so far this year, tying storage demand more directly to AI infrastructure growth.
For Indiana and the South Bend-area market, the pause clouds the near-term outlook for one of the region’s highest-profile manufacturing projects, even as local officials continue working with GM on a path forward.
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