General Motors debuted its advanced new proprietary Ultium batteries during its EV Day press event in Michigan today.
The Ultium battery system contains large-format, pouch-style cells that can be stacked vertically or horizontally inside the battery pack. GM says this arrangement allows engineers to optimize the battery storage layout for each vehicle design, optimizing the battery pack’s overall efficiency. Ultium battery packs will range in size from 50 kWh to 200 kWh, with the latter enabling a GM-estimated range of up to 400 miles or more on a full charge. Certain GM vehicles with the new EV platform and Ultium battery pack will be able to accelerate from 0-60 mph in as little as three seconds.
Additionally, Ultium batteries are designed for Level 2 and DC fast-charging. GM says “most” of the packs will be 400-volts and will have maximum 200 kW fast charging, though the truck platform will have 800-volt battery packs and 350 kW fast-charging capability. The presence of a separate truck platform seems to suggest it will spawn other large electric vehicles apart from the previously announced GMC Hummer EV pickup.
GM invited hundreds of employees, dealers, investors, analysts, media and policymakers to its EV Day event this week to flex its electric vehicle muscles as it looks to compete with Tesla and emerging rivals like Rivian. In a press release, GM pointed out that it can spend less capital than rivals to scale its EV business “because it is able to leverage existing property, including land, buildings, tools and production equipment such as body shops and paint shops.”
“Our team accepted the challenge to transform product development at GM and position our company for an all-electric future,” GM CEO Mary Barra said in a statement. “What we have done is build a multi-brand, multi-segment EV strategy with economies of scale that rival our full-size truck business with much less complexity and even more flexibility.”
GM President Mark Reuss also said GM employees are currently “working to execute a historic reinvention of the company,” and said the automaker is “on the cusp of delivering a profitable EV business that can satisfy millions of customers.”
GM’s new modular EV platform will underpin a wide variety of vehicles and can support front-wheel drive, rear-wheel drive or all-wheel-drive. GM says the platform could be used in everything from electric trucks and commercial vans to SUVs, crossovers, and cars. The automaker is planning 19 different battery and drive unit configurations for the platform initially. We already know the platform will be used on new electric Cadillac vehicles such as the Cadillac Lyriq electric crossover and Cadillac Celestiq electric sedan.
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Comments
I know gm is trying to show how they are better than/stack up to tesla so their stock can increase. But all the fundamentals don’t matter, as Tesla has Elon and gm has nobody with that level of charisma. I watched part of this webcast and it had such a corporate feel to it. More like a thesis for proving a hypothesis than a can’t miss event. Should have shown a couple production ready ev cars with super cruise and started taking reservations for them. All in all a letdown since everything is so far away and shadowy.
Musk is entertaining but now he will have to face competition. Quirky and odd comments will not help if better products come along at lower prices at other companies.
Tesla needed Musk to buy them time but now with competition they will need to be not first but competitive.
GM will start with high end product but prices will fall much quickly with the scale they will be able to offer. They just need to get the product right and the price right.
At some point Wall St will tire of Musk and move on.
Tesla will IMO run into the problem that what they promote, isn’t what they sell. What is notable about this presentation is that GM and LG are closer than ever to the magic numbers for battery production costs. Allegedly Tesla will also make a similar claim with the April Surprise that the rumor mill is churning. Teflon Elon doesn’t get called out for some of the PT Barnum stuff he pulls and honestly, questioning anything Tesla on forums just ends up making yourself a target. Great place for him but not worth trying to emulate.
I am very happy to hear that GM is sounding like they have taken EV’s seriously and will allegedly offer a plathera of options starting in two years time. Tesla by then will be selling at least at bare minimum 500K Vehicles per year but probably closer to a Million by then. Everyone here for some reason just doesn’t understand Tesla at all. Yes GM and many, many other Auto Makers produce and sell much more product than Tesla but it will not change the fact that Tesla has become the Numero Uno in the Luxury Tech EV Vehicle segment in people minds and especially the youth. Just like Apple doesn’t sell the most but literally everyone excluding the haters knows they are the best. Tesla is at least 4 to 6 years ahead of All The Legacy Auto Makers (they admit it) but GM is positioning to take the follow up roll which is extremely important.
Now back to GM. I am very excited with what I am hearing from all of these announcements. If they do this right, Cadillac has the chance to become a True Tier One Luxury Brand. Think about it. In Europe and China going forward you will need an EV. Audi has a Ho hum EV offering currently, Mercedes probably even worse off and BMW has nothing at all. If GM hurries and executes properly, Cadillac will for once have the lead and might make some serious inroads in Europe and China going into the Future. GM desperately needs to leapfrog VW and it is sounding like that might actually happen. The coveted so called Google spot is there for the taking GM. Go get it!!!
GM and Ford are really hard sells in Europe because the key to Europe is being as corrupt as possible. Renault is owned by the french government and PSA and VW have so many union workers that they can tell their parliaments who and what to do. Ford has several factories and thus a union presence. The only way GM will seriously get back into Europe is to set up major production facilities until they become the major economic driver of a European city like Copenhagen or the likes , export cars until they have such a presence all at a lose and then threaten to leave. it aint happening.
I hope GM takes the lead on this and they keep it to themselves
Charisma? Elon is painful to watch live. The only thing Elon has is a rabid bunch of Twitter followers.
This set up looks much like the Skateboard concept they had a while back.
Yes GM should be able to leverage things much cheaper as they are already set up for production vs Tesla that was strictly a tech company that struggled much with capital to start production and the ability to set up production.
GM holds many many advantages but they still need to prove the value and that they can take advantage of these resources to build profitable products and make it so they can start reducing cost while doing it.
This 0-60 thing needs to go away. We all know EV models can go fast. The real issue is that kind of acceleration is way more than many can handle. Just look at what a guy in a lower powered Mustang does not….. Work more for range. 0-60 in 4 seconds is more than most will ever want anyways in a family truckster. Save the speed for a true performance model.
i’m trying to temper my excitement but we are finally getting a glimpse of what gm has been up to.
after hearing little for the past couple of years, a lot will come into focus over the next two months. exciting time for gm.
And everyone was saying GM was so far behind! 😄😄😄
@fastyle
This news today makes me very happy. Lets temper our excitement a little though and not start boasting about leading. Tesla is in the lead with their current Battery and Electric Motor Tech. They are far superior in the Software aspect as well. Plus we still do not know what Crazy things Tesla will announce next month. Elon sounds pretty Geedy about it. But like I have been stating for over a year now, GM must and it sounds like they will Leapfrog The VW Group. That is indeed amazing News.
I cannot wait for the alleged onslaught of GM EV’s coming soon. Was hopeful it would have been end of this year or beginning of 2021 but lets see what happens.
What will intrigue me the most (as a self proclaimed NON Truck Customer) is how “True” Truck customers will react to EV Full Size pickup Trucks. I know Tesla has Pre-Sold about 600K thus far but I do not know if any of those sales will be from Ford, Ram, or GM customers migrating. Will an EV Truck customer never go back to ICE once they have experienced an EV as Sedan and CUV EV buyers are doing? Will they hate them?
I will be very curious to see what GM Truck Customers will be saying. It intrigues me a lot actually. If Truck Customers migrate quickly to EV Pickup Trucks, then I think ICE will disappear much quicker than most realize. Obviously the opposite will happen if True Truck Customers reject EV Trucks. Will be fascinating to watch it unfold.
Tesla has not presood anything in trucks. They have a bunch of the faithful who openly admit they have no use for a truck who put down a paltry $100 in order to boost numbers and pump the stock. Among actual truck buyers polled, the Cybertruck has very little interest. Rivian has a far better chance of success in the electric truck market than Tesla. I am waiting to see what the Hummers offer before I chose between that or a Rivian.
This is what GM needs. An equivalent of the C1 and T1 plarfotms in the EV space. GM does well with big vehicles, and we all could use bigger BEV’s to offset the gas guzzlers.
DUMP MARY BARRA. she said GM will be an all electric future. This is the ultimate in stupid because the aftermarket for GM is worth billions. To ignore that fact, is really really stupid. Racing cars have sound….when they are no electric. No guy or gal wants to go to a silent car race. Who does not understand that simple fact? Obviously Mary Barra and maybe the other idiots on the GM board.
im sick of people claiming Tesla is “X years ahead of the legacy auto manufacturers in tech.”
The tech in the Bolt in 2016 was on part with Tesla tech, and given what we say today, GM is on part with Tesla for battery and driveline tech.
I just don’t get it. What exactly is Tesla “ahead” on?
Tesla is ahead on range decreasing OTA updates and games that shut down the whole car when the game crashes. Oh, they also have a huge lead in autonomouslyvrriving into fire trucks.
Great article. The Tesla thing will be what it is going to be, but I am eager to see how a few things come out in the long run:
1. Diversity of platforms: I think Tesla can provide more diverse platforms but at what cost? I am a truck guy and the Tesla truck isn’t a truck, sorry.
2. Infrastructure: The big three have a leg up on service infrastructure. Some may argue that they don’t need the infrastructure because EV’s are so much more reliable.
Again, we will see but honestly I like that there will be competition, it breeds technology advancement.
4×4 savana EV would be nice