New GM battery plant has potential to help business on South Bend's west side

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- General Motors and Samsung SDI have selected St. Joseph County as the home for their $3 billion-dollar electric vehicle battery cell plant.

Even though the plant will be built in New Carlisle, this is an investment that South Bend officials believe will completely transform the entire region, which means business may be booming, especially on the west side of the county.

ABC57 spoke with Mayor James Mueller following the historic news, marking the largest investment the region has ever seen. 

"This is a game changer for us here in the South Bend Elkhart region. We haven't seen an investment like this in many decades, with inflation probably ever at this scale," said Mueller. 

The project has been in the talks for quite some time. It will be GM's fourth joint venture battery cell factory. Mayor Mueller says they were overjoyed to hear the official news. 

"We've been talking about this for a long time, so it wasn't a surprise, but you never want to count things until they're done," said Mueller. "It was very exciting to hear." 

St. Joseph County will see the benefits of the plant for years to come, as the project is expected to create as many as 1700 jobs for the area. The region will play a crucial role in GM's goal to fully transition to electric vehicles by 2035.

Construction of the plant is expected to begin within the next year, which could bring a thousand jobs alone. The company hopes to start production of the battery cells by 2026.