SEOUL, July 18 (Reuters) - South Korea’s LG Chem plans to invest about 2 trillion won ($1.77 billion) to build its second electric car battery plant in China to meet growing demand, a company spokesman said on Wednesday. The investment will be made by 2023 to increase its total output capacity to 32 gigawatt hours per year, or batteries for around 500,000 electric vehicles, the company spokesman said. LG will break ground on the new factory in October and expects to begin production in October 2019. It plans to boost capacity by 2023 at the factory, which like its current plant will be built in Nanjing. $1 = 1,131.8200 won Reporting by Jane Chung; editing by Jason Neely
South Korean firm LG Chem will invest KRW2tn ($$1.77 billion) in building a second electric car battery plant in China's Nanjing, to meet increasing demand. LG Chem expects work to begin on the plant in October this year, with production scheduled to begin 12 months later. Total capacity is set to reach 32 GWh, the equivalent of 500,000 EV batteries, by 2023.