According to a senior executive from South Korea’s LG Energy Solution, the company plans on investing more than $4.5 billion in its U.S. battery production business over a span of four years; as part of that strategy, it plans on building at least two new plants.

The investment will boost the U.S. battery production capacity by an additional 70GWh at the plant, to cater to heightened demand from the electric vehicle market.

“We are eager to expand our production capacity so that it can meet the needs of the numerous global automakers across the U.S. and Europe,” said Gray. “We are looking at least two new factories in the United States.”

The planned investment is likely to create 4,000 new jobs, and more than double the current workforce of the LG Chem unit and its joint venture with General Motors in the country.

The location of the plant will be selected in the first half of this year, said Gray while adding that constructing the factory would create around 6,000 indirect jobs.

According to LG Energy Solution Senior Vice President Chang Seung-se, the company’s latest U.S. plans were unrelated and “more about (having a) very proactive and preemptive investment plan prior to confirmation of demand from our customers.”