General Motors is hard at work developing a range of new all-electric vehicles, including standouts like the GMC Hummer EV pickup, the as-of-yet unnamed Cadillac crossover EV, and the Cruise Origin fully autonomous taxi. In order to successfully compete in the EV segment, the automaker is working on a new GM battery pack, and the technology that goes into it could become a business all by itself.
Speaking at the recent GM Capital Markets Day event, GM President Mark Reuss spoke on the matter:
“We are working hard on our own and with our partners to develop lower-cost, better-performing chemistry, and we’re making great progress,” Reuss said. “We’re developing our own intellectual property in many areas of electrification, which will greatly benefit this company in the future. There’s a lot of vertical integration, and this is a very well thought-out strategy. For instance, our battery chemistry development itself could be a new revenue stream for us down the road, and that’s just one example.”
The last sentence in Reuss’ statement is particularly important here, as it indicates that GM could eventually “consult” other businesses, including those outside the automotive sphere, with regard to the technology that goes into the upcoming GM battery pack tech.
Indeed, GM’s expertise in the subject is backed by engineering prowess, talent, and patents, and the tech could potentially see integration with smartphones, tablets, and laptops, as just a few examples.
Of course, the GM battery pack is just one part of the puzzle. The General’s EV efforts also include a new EV-focused platform dubbed BEV3, which, as we covered previously, will provide the underpinnings for a long list of vehicles, from crossovers, to cars, to even a Light Commercial Vehicle (LCV). The platform is noteworthy for its flexibility and scalability.
Furthermore, the next-gen GM battery pack itself is also noteworthy in a number of ways. Like the BEV3 platform, the pack is highly flexible and modular. What’s more, it provides greater energy density than the previous generation battery.
Comments
Electric cars make no rompy sounds. The exhaust sounds are like the sound of music.
I don’t want one.
Too bad you don’t know what you are missing. I drive a hybrid which has electric power most of the time, and I enjoy driving as quietly as possible, only hearing the A/C fans and the MP3 music playing at a low volume. There is too much audio contamination in the world as it is now. Only the deaf are presently relieved of that audio violence.
Try driving with earplugs for a day. Then you will appreciate how driving electric will be. Gas engine are a hundred years obsolete!
To be fair we know what Electric can do but the smell, sound and vibration is all part of the performance experience.
People pay extra for the duel path muffler systems on the Corvette to announce their arrival.
The sound of a Ferrari V12 is music over the static whine of gears in a Tesla.
To be honest I find driving electric a bid distracting as you can hear all the crap from the road hitting the car and I wonder what just got chipped now…..
Many companies pump engine noise in the car because it is part of the experience.
EV cars and quiet have their place. A library is fine quiet but when you are watching Metallica you want it up to 11. You want to feel the sound
Or buy a BEV,like a Bolt and pull fuse 34 to get rid of the canned sound to warn pedestrians.
The new technology be it batteries or full drive trains systems can possibly be bigger income makers than building and selling cars.
Selling technology to others who are unable to develop it is a big market as Apple and others do not build products they just develop the tech and others build it or sell it.
The race for a better cheaper and faster charging battery is second to the search for the cure to Cancer. There is a lot of money to be had to the company that makes the breakthrough.
GM is much in place to sell this technology off to others as well as using it in their own products that are profitable. Many companies can not afford to develop this themselves but they can afford to pay for a license or fee to use the tech.
GM is farther along than many think. The problem is finding a way to make the products cheaper and more profitable. There is still work to do there and they are making up ground on it. Cadillac and Hummer will provide marketing opportunities that will be profitable and help bring the ROI that is needed to help pay to build cheaper products that will make a profit.
Everyone that is working on this is getting better but none are there yet. One area that may help is NASA is back in the space business and this could be where the problems are solved as they were when we went to the moon. This could spur a new technology race. GM was a part of the last and could be in on this again.
how much pollution is created building batteries ?? i understand batteries have to be baked in an electric ovens for days to age them. what about the energy used to mine the materials in the batteries
There was an article on the web about a year ago that showed the emissions of manufacturing the batteries for the electric vehicles equivalent to the normal driving of a combustion engine for about ten years. I don’t see any environmental savings here.
the articles says you need to drive 85,000 miles in a EV before you are ahead of the ICE powered vehicle as far as pollution goes
So if you drive an average of 15K a year, thats 5.6 years. If you replace your car every 5 years, you will never gain anything over a internal combustion engine.
never heard or thought about that one wonder how much is the difference in greenhouse gases is if the juice is not produced by way of solar or bird killing wind,someone ask Bernie if you can catch him when he is not on his private plane, just think in 50 yrs. no bird s*** on your freshly washed vehicle
You make the mistake of assuming that all EV drivers are motivated by having a smaller carbon footprint. Though I’m convinced that they are “greener”, my primary motivations are better acceleration, lower cost/mile of driving, no more oil changes, no more stops at the gas station, and lower NVH (though really not that much different at highway speeds where most of the noise is from wind unless you’re driving an old rusted pickup truck). Overall, it’s a much more premium experience.
It is a rapidly changing technology not for me until the motors/drive units and battery packs units are real world tested and prices get to reality and the infrastructure for charging is in place so you can go anywhere and no I am not talking about sitting in a motel room in montana for 3 days while it charges up
I have owned ICE vehicles for decades and now only own one, a sports car. I own 2 electric vehicles that are spectacular. No oil, no gas, no exhaust pipes or mufflers to replace, no transmission to repair, and having only battery coolant to replace every 150,000 miles. My only expense since new has been new tires. They are WAY faster than ICE vehicles and if you want exhaust noise, pipe it in! Old ways of thinking about cars will soon give way to more intelligent electric vehicles. The people that once used horses used to complain about those horseless carriages, looks like we are in the same place with the move to silent transportation.
And cabin air filter every 24k. Like on idiot ICE vehicles.
I still love to stop at our local gas station, I enjoy meeting up with my friends in the area. It is an old fun thing to do here in my town. We meet up and have a beer or soda in parking area and swap lies. I love it!! This is a tradition here, guys and girls, we all know where we can go and have a few laughs in the afternoon.
with electric cars you will have plenty of time to BS with your friends while you wait for your battery to charge
You have no clue how long it takes to charge a BEV. Or even what BEV means.
Or when all gas stations have chargers in a few years, you can charge your BEV instead and still tell lies.