LEWIS CENTER, OH—ATS Industrial Automation has opened a new 240,000-square-foot battery assembly plant here.

The facility currently builds the battery module, testing and assembly lines for General Motors’ advanced Ultium EV batteries. It currently employs 140 full-time employees and 100 contractors. The expansion will bring 130 to 160 new high-tech jobs to central Ohio this year.

Production has already begun, and in the coming weeks and months, more of the facility will be dedicated to actual production, according to Matthew Robinson, manager of corporate communication. ATS Industrial Automation has years of experience assembling EV batteries for the world’s leading OEMs. The Lewis Center facility expands its footprint in central Ohio and allows ATS to support a growing customer base.

“Our expansion…demonstrates growing demand. ATS has experience to support our key EV partners,” says Dave Kelly, vice president of sales for ATS Industrial Automation, SGA Mobility. “We see this growth as a continuation in our EV strategy to support the growing demand, to shift to sustainable battery and battery storage technologies.”

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and representatives of General Motors took part in the ribbon-cutting ceremony. “I want to congratulate ATS. This is a great day for ATS and a great day for Ohio,” DeWine says. Even as the company opened the new facility, it broke ground on construction of its next facility, an additional 240,000-square-foot facility next door that is expected to bring several hundred more jobs to the Columbus area in the coming years.

Founded in 1978, ATS employs more than 6,000 people at more than 50 manufacturing facilities and more than 75 offices in North America, Europe, Southeast Asia and China.