General Motors and Honda have further tied the knot. After announcing a joint-venture partnership for fuel-cell system production in 2020, both automakers have entered a new agreement for next-generation electric-car batteries.
GM said in the Thursday announcement that the new batteries will boast advanced chemistry, including the cell and module. Additionally, the future batteries will deliver higher energy density, smaller packaging and faster charging capabilities for both companies’ future products. The automakers will specifically develop the batteries for the needs of North American consumers.
The U.S. automaker added that the batteries will suit both GM and Honda vehicles. The Japanese automaker intends to source the battery modules from GM.
“This new, multiyear agreement with Honda further demonstrates General Motors’ capability to innovate toward a profitable electric portfolio,” said Mark Reuss, General Motors Executive Vice President of Global Product Development, Purchasing and Supply Chain. “GM’s decades of electrification experience and strategic EV investments, alongside Honda’s commitment to advancing mobility, will result in better solutions for our customers and progress on our zero emissions vision.”
Comments
So it will still be from LG?
reuters reported the following … basically gm design but lg is going to manufacture it.
“A source familiar with GM’s plans said its current battery cell supplier, Korea’s LG Chem, is expected to provide cells for the new battery, which is mainly a GM design.
The new batteries are expected to begin production around 2021, the source said.
GM declined to provide further details, and said it had not finalized supplier agreements for the new batteries. LG Chem did not respond immediately to a request for comment”
Honda is the only Japanese car company not linked to Toyota. I’d like to see an alliance of sorts between GM and Honda like Renault and Nissan. Honda dominates sedan sales and is probably America’s favorite car company.
With Pontiac, Olds and Saturn gone the addition of Honda to the GM fold makes sence. Hydrogen and batteries are just the start.
“With Pontiac, Olds and Saturn gone the addition of Honda to the GM fold makes sence. ”
But this doesn’t make sense! GM doesn’t have the means to acquire Honda, and if the FTC doesn’t kill it, the JFTC will.
All this article is about is a technical partnership; one of the many thousands of such agreements in industry. It sounds like you think GM is just a loose collection of brand names.
I don’t mean direct ownership & the example I list, Renault and Nissan, are independent companies.
There is great consolidation via partnership in Japan between Toyota and a number of automakers. It will be good for GM to be linked to a quality and performance leader like Honda especially due to company’s deep pockets.
These limited partnerships far more than actual mergers will account for most consolidation. GM is a far smaller firm than a decade ago and can gain both scale as well as good press here. I think association with Honda may help GM’s rep on the coasts.
Honda is not going to become part of GM.
But Honda will, be one several companies that will partner with GM to share cost.
Because of GMs heavy investment in technology and new power systems they will do most of the work and share it with others who can not afford the full load of development cost. This way GM gets the work done cheaper and has full rights to the development.
Kind of like when the build a transmission for BMW and then retained the rights to it while BMW paid for most of it.
The enlargement of the tech center was a plan for future work like this.
Share and let the competition pay the bills.
R&D sharing agreements between partners are eau-de-rigeur these days.
One of the benefits is that one partner cannot generally afford to shoulder the entire cost, so cost sharing makes sense. And because the funding is borne by 2 or more partners, it means there are often less blockages in the development time. Both partners want to see results so they can get a product to market and make a return on their substantial investments. Therefore when blockages in development occur related to funding, partners step up with the cash to keep things moving at an acceptable pace.
Wholly internally funded R&D often hits a funding “block wall” ~ unless your principal investors are cash-rich and stump up the required funding.
Also in this case it looks like Honda might be getting access to GM patent-protected battery tech by way of support & investment in the end products.
I wish GM would do this on their own but at least it doesn’t do agreements with Toyota anymore!
To bad GM and ford cant come to agreement to beat the foreign car companies
Ford is dead weight. They make junk.
Honda of America often used more US content (80%+) than almost any carmaker. Honda is almost apple pie kind of American.
Honda has proven to come up with good innovative measures for Battery Electric and Fuel Cell technology and they have been at the forefront with this for decades now, this could further benefit GM with their innovative measures already seen with the Chevy Bolt and Volt and even carry it into the upcoming Mid-Engine Corvette as well as Trucks and SUV’s later on down the road, though I’ve been blessed to own Pick Ups with both the 5.3 and 6.0 liter applications, I’m all in for a powertrain packaged Pick Up from GM that is nontraditional at this point.