General Motors may leverage its battery-electric and hydrogen fuel cell technology in order to enter other industries and grow its business, according to Automotive News.
GM’s chief sustainability officer, Dane Parker, appeared at the Goldman Sachs Global Automotive Conference last week, where he said the automaker is currently exploring outside uses for its
Hydrotec hydrogen fuel cell and Ultium battery technology.
GM Ultium battery pack
The automaker is looking at using fuel cells and vehicle batteries for providing energy storage solutions for the military and consumers, Parker said. Some industrial equipment like forklifts are already powered by hydrogen fuel cells, Parker also pointed out, potentially giving it another industry to break into.
The automaker is also looking at all-new ways to use its Hydrogen fuel cell technology. For example, Parker said GM expects fuel cells to one day be used to charge EVs that have died while out on the road. Battery-powered vehicles usually need to be towed away on a flatbed if they die, but a mobile charging service using fuel cells could give EV drivers an alternative solution if their car, truck, crossover or SUV dies.
GM is eager to find new applications for its Hydrotec fuel cells and Ultium batteries so it can achieve economies of scale with the technology, which is pricy to develop and right now has a limited range of uses. Tesla has implemented a similar strategy, introducing the consumer-focused Tesla Powerwall home energy storage solution, which uses the same lithium-ion batteries as vehicles like the Model S sedan.
Ultium Drive motors
In addition to exploring outside industries to apply the EV and hydrogen technology to, the automaker is also shopping it around to other auto industry partners to help achieve economies of scale. Honda will use GM’s Ultium batteries and Ultium Drive motors in some of its future battery-electric products, while Nikola has agreed to use its hydrogen fuel cells in its upcoming line of Class 7 and Class 8 semi-trucks.
GM has always been mindful of the costs associated with developing emerging vehicle propulsion technology like hydrogen fuel cells. The automaker developed its Hydrotec technology in partnership with Honda in order to spread the cost of the tech between the two companies. It developed its modular Ultium Drive motors and Ultium modular batter system on its own, although the cells for the batteries will be manufactured by Ultium Cells LLC, a joint venture the automaker set up with South Korean battery supplier LG Chem, which also offers some savings over buying the cells directly from a third-part manufacturer.
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Comments
One day GM will either split or sell its automobile brands to a company like Honda.
Ideally they belong under one roof but GM as a developer and seller to other automakers equals a $100 plus stock price.
How about making bigger applications like marine engines for boats, cruise, container ships and tankers. It’s a promising business for two reasons ; Ships are major polluters so governments around the world offer big incentives for transformation to green proportion systems and second as far as i’m concerned there’s not much of a competition, two or three major big marine diesel engine manufacturers in the word and they don’t have any hydrogen engine offerings currently.
I see GM being a tech company.
But they may keep their cars and could even leverage their plants to build vehicles for others.
GM could an Apple and Foxconn combined.
With EV products vehicles will be built more like electronics vs cars. I see much changing as we move forward and this evolves.
I mean no disrespect but your comment made me laugh. GM a tech company? As an employee who has worked for GM for over 15 years i can attest to the fact that GM couldnt run an ice cream stand in the middle of July if you gave them the ice cream supply for free. Its all smoke and mirrors and 99.9% of people who comment on here have no idea how its ran. And i can assure you they are going to have a LOT of work to do to become a “tech” company.
Well, with employee attitudes like that, they will continue to be held back. Or maybe you should start looking for a new job while you currently have one.
Ever wonder why employees attitudes are so bad? Don’t even ask the employees, ask our families. They can tell you why our attitudes are so bad. Maybe the lack of days off. Forced 12 hour days at a minutes notice. Zero tolerance attendance procedure. Forced Saturday and Sunday overtime. Having to use sick days and vacation days on a weekend to attend a childs program or game. The list goes on and on my friend.
Who is making you stay.
Bud I hate to tell you but I went through the same thing and spent a few years missing my family with 12 days on 2 days off 12 hour days.
I hardly saw my wife for two years.
You know it was easy to fix as I got a new job.
You control your own destiny so stop complaining. You are in it for the money or you would not be there yet. That is not a good reason to stay some place.
I completely understand nobody is making me stay, trust me. I still do what is asked of me but im not going to be ok with hard working people being treated poorly. No matter where that may be. I understand we are fortunate to make what we do and get the benefits we do. That being said im curious how you justify people being treated like garbage by a company?
They are all adults if they choose to stay that is their choice.
If you chose to stay stop complaining.
I know many people who work for UPS and GM. They all work hard and tough hours but all are paid well and are given good benefits they feel are worth their efforts.
I am doing ok but I could have done even better had I worked more nights and weekends. I chose my family first. I wanted to see my kid grow up.
I still did ok but I made a choice with no regrets. The company still took care of me.
and what did you do to change that?
that is the worst type of employee a company can have; someone there just to collect a paycheck.
just as bad would be a company that treats its good employees and its mediocre employees the same.
Thats GM
Gmman99
That’s just what happens when you work for a Union company. Everyone is just giving you the same B.S. they went through when climbing the ranks.
I agree. The union is just as bad as the company if not worse. I expect the company to treat us like they do. The bad part is the union we pay to “represent” us is corrupt and has no power. Its even more of a kick in the biscuits
Gmman99
I’ve worked in a couple of Union shops, and this toxic labor/management relationship existed there too.
You still get screwed non-Union shops. All I’m saying is this situation is not unique to GM & the UAW.
I see GM as a FAILED tech company. GM has good technology, but not exclusive to GM, and other firms will out run them. Cruise will eventually get spun off, probably at a discount.
GM was the first Detroit car maker to invest in robots yet this didn’t trigger any corporate transformation into robotics unlike Japanese automakers.
I’m talking about the ‘old GM’ – I’m sure things are somewhat different now – but with the new cars having so many parts coming from China – you can tell they are not adequately testing them for endurance.
Back in the day, on the robot issue for instance – the Japanese wisely used robots for the boring, low skill, repetitive jobs; whereas at GM the directive was to use Robots for paint finishing – hardly a low-skill job. Many of the paint jobs that weren’t absolutely atrocious had to be shipped since there was no back-up supply. Then customers took the expected reaction – sales tanked until they got rid of the robot painters.
That sort of thing existed since most of the big wigs at the time did not drive any of the GM products that the company made.
I’m not saying they should have done what Chrysler did at the time – that of disconnecting the speedometer and then ‘loaning’ the cars to executives – and then when the executives crashed the cars up they’d be straightened at the Collision Shop and sold as NEW with Brand New Warranties, which Lido Iococca used to defend the policy. But then the Cops got involved when finding out the mileage on the TITLE was fraudulent.
Editorial Writers had a field day with the scenario – since Lido’s tag line on his self-made commercials was “IF you can find a better car, Buy It !”.
They in turn said ‘Would you Buy a USED Car from THIS MAN? That’s the GAG – YOU HAVE ALREADY !”
The biggest thing that will change is more and more of the product will be built overseas . The battery plants being built stateside is to keep it close to r and d departments .
GM auto brands will be sold to a Chinese company and the company will focus on tech.
Motley Fool has GM as one of it’s top picks in the EV race
Im not sure what the “Tech” is that GM has to become a tech company? Everyone keeps using that word but nothing they’re doing is ground breaking or advanced. The batteries aren’t anything special or the use of the motors. So im confused. Stacking batteries in a different way to fit in a car doesn’t make you a tech company.
GM has been a leader in fuel cell tech and with finding ways to lower cost batteries and components to lower the cost of EV cars.
While they may not have totally reinvented the wheel they have made great gains recently to answer questions of range and affordability.
Tesla has not really done anything different but are seen as a tech mfg.
GM is going to be able to make this cheaper and more diverse in a shorter period of time with the investm3nt and tech they have developed and refund.
Autonomous driving they are far in the lead on this. While I do not see this as a thing in every day cars for a while it has other applications it will fill much sooner in industry and corporate applications.
Intel did not invent the computer but they brought it home for all of us by the way they packaged processors and they lowered the cost while all the time making them faster.
GM is not a leader in fuel cell technology. A simple google search doesn’t even mention GM.
They have no greater range then any other leading manufacturers. We all know those numbers are not real world and extremely conservative.
Tesla is a money pit that will be lucky to be around in the next 10 years. Lets not chase them down that rabbit hole.
GM electric vehicles are priced higher than average or at the industry’s average as it is. Again there is no secret battery technology that one automakers has over another.
Manufacturing isnt the problem with electric vehicles its raw materials. You can mass produce the whole process but you cant change the fact that raw materials are expensive to obtain and are unfortunately almost all found overseas.
Ge maybe they can go back to making what was the best auto batteries in the world as was their AC Delco brand! I had them last 15 years. Now they are JUNK. When I replace the one in my 2019 Vette GS it will not be a GM one! They were so good that back in the late ’80s and 90’s Honda America used them in their cars built in Ohio!
GM doesn’t make batteries any more….
Has anybody visited Double D’s Vapor & Tobacco World? 🙂