Episode #1296: GM and LG retool for energy storage as EV demand cools, VinFast restarts its North Carolina factory with a fraction of the jobs promised, and Nvidia adds four major automakers to its autonomous driving platform.

Show Notes with links:

GM and LG are retooling their Tennessee Ultium Cells joint venture plant for energy storage batteries, and recalling 700 laid-off workers to make it happen. The facility was originally built to supply EV batteries, but slower-than-expected adoption changed the math.
- The Ultium Cells joint venture will shift to lithium-iron phosphate battery production starting in Q2, targeting the booming energy storage market.
- AI data centers are driving massive electricity demand, making grid storage one of the fastest-growing battery opportunities right now.
- "Right now, the demand exceeds supply tremendously, and it's going to continue to exceed it for the next several years." — Kurt Kelty, GM VP of Battery, Propulsion and Sustainability

VinFast is restarting construction on its North Carolina factory after a year-long pause, now targeting a 2028 launch. The original vision has shrunk considerably, and the company's finances aren't making the story any easier to tell.
- The plant's projected workforce dropped from 7,500 to 1,400 jobs, putting $315M in state and local incentives at serious risk.
- VinFast must either invest $500M or hit 1,750 jobs by end of 2026, or North Carolina can trigger a site repurchase option.
- Q4 losses widened 15% year-over-year to $1.3B, even as deliveries more than doubled and full-year revenue doubled as well.
- North American EV sales are forecast to drop 16% this year, adding headwinds to an already uphill U.S. market entry.
- VinFast said it "remains focused on executing the project responsibly," but declined to comment on the incentive and job-count implications.

At its GTC conference this week, Nvidia revealed that Hyundai, Nissan, BYD, and Geely are building Level 4-capable autonomous vehicles on its Drive Hyperion platform, joining Mercedes, Toyota, and GM.
- Drive Hyperion is Nvidia's reference architecture for autonomous vehicles, combining its computing platform with cameras, radar, and lidar so automakers aren't starting from scratch.
- Level 4 autonomy means the vehicle can drive itself in certain conditions with no human intervention required.
- Nvidia's GPU dominance in gaming and data centers has quietly made it the backbone of the autonomous vehicle industry as well.

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