Next-Generation Ultium Batteries To Deliver 500 To 600 Miles Of Range
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Last year, General Motors revealed it was already working on the second-generation of its Ultium modular battery system, despite the fact that the first vehicles with Ultium batteries have yet to officially enter production.
First-generation Ultium battery pack
Now, the American automaker has revealed even more information on the next-gen Ultium batteries. During GM’s CES 2021 keynote presentation video, titled “Inflection Point: Putting Everybody in an EV,” GM Technical Fellow and Lab Group Manager, Mei Cai, stated that the next-generation Ultium batteries will provide a maximum driving range of 500 to 600 miles.
By comparison, the first-generation Ultium batteries are predicted to provide a maximum driving range of 400-450 miles in certain vehicles. Range won’t be the only advantage the second-gen batteries have over the current ones. As GM’s Vice President of Global Product Development, Doug Parks, explained last year, the new batteries will also be much more cost-effective, providing a 60 percent cost improvement over the battery found in the Chevrolet Bolt EV, while also being twice as energy-dense.
“This is big stuff,” Parks said. “For this and many other reasons, we expect to be on the leading edge of performance and cost compared to anyone and everyone else in the EV space.”
GM’s battery cell manufacturing joint venture partnership with LG Chem, Ultium Cells LLC, will compound with the second-generation battery advancements to put GM in an even more competitive position with regard to its EV technology. By manufacturing its battery cells in-house and splitting the cost with an established battery manufacturer like LG Chem, GM expects to have a dominant position with regard to EVs.
“Our manufacturing approach also affects the cost curve,” Parks said last year. “It’s a complex and developing manufacturing process and having a strong joint venture like we do with LG is the way to win. Manufacturing and joint ventures allow us to excel in operating equipment efficiency, first time quality and waste recycling.”
It’s not clear what the first vehicle to feature the improved second-generation Ultium battery cells will be, however GM expects the new design to enter production by mid-decade.
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So can I have this battery tech packed into a lead acid sized package for a hybrid vehicle? Already the next generation ICE engines are eximated at a 20-30% improved efficiency, which will be added onto with improved vehicle aerodynamics. I’d love to have a Silverado pickup hybrid making 35mpg combined.
Lead acid battery package size varies, a SLA compact car battery is smaller than a diesel truck battery, and a powersports vehicle (ex. ATV) is smaller yet. But then the lead acid battery pack that was used in the Prius was huge. Power density of the Ultium is greater than a lead acid, so the answer is yes, if that’s what you mean.
What is the next generation ICE engine? I don’t see anything about a 30% jump in efficiency. I think the only engine that is making sizeable advancements is the Mazda X engine, but that improvement is benchmarked against their current engines that aren’t all that efficient next to the competition. And even with the X engine continuing it’s rollout globally, Mazda is turning it’s attention to EREV and EV vehicles. The SkyActivX seems impressive, but Mazda has scaled back it’s launch.
Getting high MPG highway from a half ton truck is a challenge. Truck hybridization will primarily help with city MPG rating. It sounds like GM is forgoing hybrids, save for the E-ray, and focusing solely on EVs. I agree a hybrid Silverado would be great, and I think that’s the perfect alternative energy package for pickup trucks albeit the weight; the present weaknesses of EVs is greatly exacerbated when applied to trucks.
I am at 25 avg in my 4×4 denali diesel 1500 over 16k. I have recently switched to ExxonMobil and have seen as high as 35 might in light traffic. If I go 45 to 55 consistently in traffic I get to 35mpg. If I go 70 and 75 I get 26 to 28mpg. A light hybrid is the way to.go. The emissions to make the battery plus the electricity is much higher than conventional gas. Especially when you include wrecks taking the car off the road prematurely.
I am with you. I am not sold on the electric only aspects, but hybrid is where it is at for the next couple of decades until they can get the battery charging infrastructure up. That is the biggest hold out, I can’t easily take a road trip or stay out in the back country without some major issues in making sure I have enough charge. You have to be specific on your route as well as your destination so you can charge since it wasn’t easy to run by an electric charging spot for a quick fill up as it takes over an hour at a quick charger. PHEV is my top choice, run around daily under 40 miles on battery only, then gas up and drive to Big Bend without having to worry about finding a charger to spend an hour for a full charge (or more). A PHEV will be the wifes next vehicle most likely, my truck will have to stay ICE (though I would be down for a hybrid or PHEV if the capacity was there especially in a mid size) as trips in the back country or the limit on towing distances without having to make a long stop or plan around areas with chargers.
The biggest hold out for me is in emergency situations when blackouts or severe weather is coming and massive amounts of people are moving at once . Ev charging infrastructure won’t be sufficient for decades or if at all in such situations
It depends most EV’s would be 100% charged if they are sitting at home. You can’t say the same for an ICE vehicle. A 100% charged EV for the most part now is 200+ miles of driving. That’s enough to get out of any “danger zone” in an emergency.
Cant be fully Charged if you just arrive home from work so find your power will be off during a rolling blackout. And if it is in an emergency, your power may not come back on I time. A hybrid using a standard car sized battery would be the best of both worlds.
Is your work a couple hundred miles from your home? I go to work in my Bolt and come home and still have 220 miles available.
Nor can you fill your gas tank if the pumps don’t have juice to pump it.
Solar energy solves that issue
Texas in February 2021. We had shaky power for a week. 10x EVs and nobody going nowhere.
Texas problem has nothing to do with EVs. Also, having an EV might have been nice given you can run an inverter to run some appliances.
I agree with what you’re saying, but there is a vast population of people that don’t take road trips outside today’s EV ranges. With a single charge somewhere along the way thar gives you 500 miles.
EVs aren’t for everyone, but there’s is a large percentage of the population, especially if you have more than one vehicle that they make a lot of sense.
What you going to find is less and less investments going to improve ICE. The cost of that 20-30% improvement will be billions of dollars spent. What’s more likely to happen is traditional ICE manufactures start sharing ICE to reduce cost of development. I have to imagine that’s where GM is going with their relationship with Honda. If battery prices come down to the levels talked about here it will be cheaper to make the vehicle electric than have an ICE.
We have the engines and tech already done, it’s just awaiting put in a durable proven package. Here is a list of current engine tech
Nissan variable compression (GM has a Saab concept with this)
Toyota Atkinson cycle
Chevrolet cylinder deactivation
Honda lean burn cycle
Mazda HCCI (also GM had an 2.2 eco tech HCCI before the bailout)
Each of those improve engine efficiency by small margins, and if you add them all together you will see tremendous gains. That is with current tech. The following companies have proposed additional solutions
Achates opposed piston (HE 2cycle, 30% improvement)
Liquid piston (HCCI + Atkinson wankel motor but currently has seals issue)
Mazda sky active next gen ( add active thermal management and Atkinson cycle to sky active X)
We will yet see the day a Silverado will get 50mpg on gas.
Each of the things you mention add cost to the engine either through engine hardware or the processing power necessary to manage the engine. You’re adding more and more complexity. On the flip side an electric motor minus bearings have one moving part and the transmission has a handful of gears in it. You can replace all the cost and complexity of an ICE with an EV drivetrain and the savings can go into vehicle refinement. Of course that assumes you can take the large fixed cost out of the battery which appears to be happening.
So in the end you’ll get a vehicle that is a lot more reliable because you eliminate all the additional ICE/transmission moving parts and you get better performance, quieter, more spacious vehicle.
Yeah good luck getting hcci and variable compression to work with each other
You keep adding these gains up and you’ll have 110% efficiency, and your car will produce gasoline. Maybe better take a course in thermodynamics and find that there are upper limits to each cycle, e.g. Otto, Rankin, etc.
Hybrids are worse for the environment then the common ice engine. Because switching back and forth between battery and ice engine allows the catalytic converter to cool down. The catalytic converter works the most efficient at limiting pollution when it is hot.
i don’t think that is true. the inside of a catalytic convertor is basically a fine wire mesh. i would think heating that up with hot exhaust is very fast.
It takes between 5 to 10 minutes to heat up the Catalytic Converter to a hot enough temp to be affective. With Hybrids constantly turning on and off in low speed situations that can delay or stop the heat from building up to sufficient temps.
All modern engines are designed to heat up as fast as possible
What I said is still correct. If you think you have something amazing to heat up the Converter very fast contact the Automotive Industry you will get millions.
No this issue has been looked into and studied for a very long time and nothing has stuck.
More like 2 minutes for current vehicles.
I agree with you I believe GM not offering a hybrid option for upcoming Vehicles is a mistake. They’re not only losing out on a good chunk of the market they’re also shunning potential customers. GM’s “take it or leave it” approach with cookie cutter styling and small luxury cars failed in the 1980s. You think they would have learned something from that disaster
The problem with hybrids is they are dead ends for most passenger cars. You have to spend large sums of money to continue developing ICE and at the same time investing in EV technology. Toyota is stuck between a rock and a hard place right now. Their hybrids are selling decently right now. But what happens next year with GM, VW, Tesla, Ford, etc… have several EVs on the road that look better, perform better, quieter and cost about the same as their hybrid models? The only argument they’ll have is you can fill them up at any gas station.
But your last sentence speaks volumes and that is one of the main drawbacks of Evs. Until charging stations are as abundant as fuel pumps and recharging batteries takes no more time than filling a gas tank, EVs will have a hard time being adopted by the masses.
Outside of road trips beyond the EVs fully charged range EVs take less perceived time to fill up because you do it at night when you’re at home eating dinner, watching TV or sleeping. Charging takes about the same time it takes to plug in your phone.
I average 25 from day one with a 3.0L 4WD Denali. I have a friend getting 29 in a 2WD
Looks like the ‘range’ problem with existing EVs has been solved. Now, the other big problem—the long recharge time that’s required—will be the last hurdle to making EVs nearly-universally accepted by the US motoring public.
The time to charge and the charging locations them selves. Right now I can take back roads on road trips and find gas at any small town. I can know when I wake up in the morning if I am on fumes I can find a gas station close. With EV’s the network is tiny in relation and the battery does slowly deplete itself while sitting. I am a fan of the performance just not the time to charge and locations available to charge when not at home (love the ability to charge at work or home).
I don’t disagree with what you said but the hardest thing to make people understand about EVs is it’s rare to charge them at public chargers unless you’re road tripping.
I hope it’s in my 2025 celestiq…
I call back seat!
Well, Most people will charge the vast majority of the time at home. High Mileage Drivers will need to call electricians to put in beefier arrangements for the larger charging facilities mostly only they will require….
Other people who drive more average distances can get along the vast majority of the time with quite minimal facilities – although the larger Cadillacs and Hummers will require ‘220’ charging at home – so they’ll usually need to give the local electrician some work. Ditto for people with 2 or 3 plug-in cars needing simultaneous recharging.
Fast chargers will become more and more publicly common-place. Also, GM isn’t participating, but other manufacturers will make fine Plug-In Hybrid vehicles which can charge off the ubiquitous garage or carport outlet at zero additional effort – and also rarely visit the local corner store/gas station – so at least those people can still find work.
Also since a Modern Oil Refinery is necessary for modern living – there needs to be a certain considerable amount of gasoline still sold – otherwise you have the situation you had 110 years ago – where they threw the ‘useless’ gasoline into the lake or river. Modern refineries can play around the edges with % of gasoline from one barrel of Crude oil, but around half of the product will always be gasoline.
Most environmentally responsible people would say it is much better to Cleanly burn gasoline than bury it.
Obvious to me that the number of people reading this blog who love their 100% ICE vehicles will keep those businesses mentioned solvent, and also eliminate any supposed, imaginary strain on the electricals in general.
Excellent! I’ll have a bunch of side jobs to do when I retire!
Yeah – generally a fairly straightforward job for any competent electrician…
Pisses me off that the 2020 National Electrical Code (adopted already in a few states) says that only 30 or 50 ampere 3 or 4 wire receptacles will be allowed in the home garage from here forward. Such portable receptacles can only have 4.8 – 5.8 kw or 8 – 9.6 kw charging rates, this when the apparent standard Charging Rates are going to be 10 – 11.5 kw (48 amperes continuous requiring 60 ampere facilities), such as on the Bolt EUV, Rivian Truck and SUV, most Teslas, and the FORD Mustang Mach-E. Cadillac Lyriq was unspecified other than saying that ’19 kw’ charging rate for home would be ‘available’ – presumably the ‘standard slow rate’ would also be 10 – 11.5 kw since the majority of the other decently sized vehicles will also have this.
No complaint about the auto manufacturers here – I’m just pissed (as an electrician) of all the silly – goofy requirements that the guys at the NEC ‘Wet Dream’ up… I suppose I should be grateful for all the extra cost changes required – but I would feel better doing only work for my customers that they LEGITIMATELY need.
That sounds like just for receptacles what about directly wired?
@ Nebula –
Sure – Direct Hard wired facilities in North America needing 16 – 19.2 kw charging rates (such as optionally available with the Cadillac Lyriq), and assumedly for high-mileage HUMMER drivers, will be an 80 ampere continuous draw requiring standard 100 ampere facilities….
I expect many customers requesting these types of arrangements, even though in many cases the home will also require a larger Electrical Service.
Costly you say? Well, ok – from a few thousand to more than $10,000 for a really difficult – distant job (far away detached garage), – underground service going through ‘difficult’ terrain such as ENGLISH GARDENS, etc – for the 400 ampere electric service for multiple 100 ampere facilities for those who have multiple electric Hummers or Cadillacs AND who are also high mileage drivers. But this is optional for the electric car buyer and no one is forcing them to do this…..
It is a one-time expense to be amortized over the life of the home – and as I mention – many will no doubt try to get along on much smaller facilities and/or what they already have.
But if they spend $112,000 each on a few Hummers, they may decide that a few percent extra on beefy electricals isn’t so much money to part with.
Haven’t checked on this in a while, but a year or so ago, China had over 800 Coal fired electrical power plants under contract and/or under construction. China doesn’t have significant oil or natural gas resources (they import LNG) but they do have lots of good old coal. So just how “clean” are those NIo’s Tesla”s etc.???
Charging location is the big gorilla also. Many large cities like Houston, Chicago and L.A are still car dependent with old infrastructure and parking at someone’s residence with charging is a challenge. Suburbanites will adapt faster but ICE will still be with us for a while.
If GM had launched Ultium with this range, they would have really stunned the EV market and those with range fear.
Launching for the second generation? How dumb.
How can you launch it if the technology isn’t ready yet? Instead you would let your competitors get a foot in the door. And I have to imagine by 2025 others with have similar technology so it comes down to who has the products on the road and market perception as the leader.
This carrot in front of the horse is why I just bought a highly discounted 2020 Bolt. It’s a great car and will suffice until the improved battery technology is actually available. Even though BEV’s are inherently simpler, they are different, and the public has not yet been won over. That is at least partly due to poor marketing, or no marketing. GM and others should not spend billions while leaving their dealers ignorant and negative towards BEV’s.
Why do you prematurely announce a distant future update of a product and kill all the enthusiasm about the anticipated current version? GM is the best at sabotaging its own business?
Another alternative GM management quits the long haul of growing the company through attracting the customers and hope some profit, instead they now only pitching for stock market to drive the stock price up. Because they saw how Elon did it and he has become the richest person on the planet ; not by selling products but rather selling ideas.
right. so the 2nd generation is supposed be significantly better and cheaper. why would i want to buy the 1st generation?
Lease an EV, don’t buy it.
GM has stated repeatedly that they are going to offer battery upgrades for the Ultium 1 cars with future versions of the batteries. I’m sure that the upgrades aren’t going to be cheap, but presumably they will include a pretty decent core charge for exchanging your old batteries that could be reused elsewhere.
Where has GM stated that Ultium 1 cars will be upgradeable to future versions?
https:// evcentral .com .au /batteries-of-gms-ultium-evs-will-be-upgradeable/#:~:text=Buyers%20of%20forthcoming%20EVs%20from,to%20a%20senior%20company%20executive.
The cold reality is as you can see batteries will quickly improve. The other thing that will increase quickly is charging stations and charging speeds.
The need to have a back up engine is going to be like wearing a parachute on an airliner.
I agree there was a time it was a concern but if you can do 500 to 600 miles odds are you are good.
In fact you run more a risk of battery failure in an ice vehicle than running short of power on 99% of your normal travels with a range like this.
I am an ice guy too but time to come clean and stop making excuses for issues that are being resolved.
The development of these things will get faster and faster as the investments continue.
So little was gained for decades as no one was investing in this. With so much need for rechargeable in phones, cars and computers billions are being spent today. That adds up to greater advancements.
Let’s also not forget space. The Mars, moon and other space projects are looking for better batteries too and they really push development times.
If that range is highway miles, I could be up with getting an BEV as a primary vehicle, but if that’s 500-600 miles city and 350-400 miles highway, it couldn’t replace what I drive now. Hybrid might be a better choice with a small ICE to generate range extending miles. Do I need to reach 60mph in 3 seconds? Not so much. Do I need to drive over 500 miles in a day? Yeah, when I do summer road trips.
You’re still thinking in gasoline terms.
I think the difference between city and highway range is far less than a gas engine. An Electric uses virtually no power at rest in traffic. Only enough to run the fan/instruments etc. Lights and AC would make a difference of course but LED lamps use very little juice.
An ICE continues using fuel.
If need be you can always take a break, stop, and recharge to 40-50% and finish your trip with juice to spare. Then recharge to full over night.
I think that you missed what I was saying. BEVs have a higher city range than highway range. I suppose that its due to the lack of a conventional transmission. The only time that I need range is when I’m on a road trip and I drive 500-550 miles each leg. If you look at current BEVs, the city range is usually about 20% to 30% higher than the highway range. If I could drive 550 miles, stop in a motel and charge overnight, then I would be fine with a BEV. Until then, hybrid would be better.
To each his own.
More pipe dreams! GM is lucky Michigan legalized marijuana.
The second-generation
battery will be in my time frame for entering the EV population, for I am so very happy and satisfied with my 2019 Traverse and my wife’s 2018 Terrain that I will not be entertaining any ideas of replacing either one for 3 to 4 years.
This electric experiment will ultimately NOT end well for the people of the world. At the push of a button everyone can and will be stopped in their tracks wherever they happen to be in their vehicle. Zap, you’re not moving another inch.
Hopefully on a nice summer day.
With my conspiracy hat on, yes actually that’s a possibility since today’s cars have much more computer power then an older Cray Supercomputer. A flip of a switch can make your day bad by an authority.
Some wishful thinking here, about ever-improving efficiency of ICE technology. In thermodynamics class we learned that each “cycle”, as in Otto, Rankine, etc., has a maximum theoretical efficiency which is far below 100%. Since ICE technology is very mature by now, we are looking at marginal gains, e.g. the Lexus engine with variable stroke. They also produce CO2, which is a fundamental problem. Electric motors can approach 100%, and whether the source is fuel cell or battery, the overall footprint of carbon can be much less.
Yes, now if we could just produce electric Cows.
HAHA!! Good comment Dan.
Carbon Dioxide is a building block of life… Instead of worrying about ‘too much’ there should be equal concern about there being too little, as this is plant life’s only food.
Starving the Amazon Rain Forest – the Planet’s ‘Lungs’, as a for instance, is not a smart Idea.
Right now the Amazon is producing more CO2 than it can absorb. That’s not good.
Chopping down the trees in the Rain Forest to make switch grass for Ethanol is one of their dumber ideas.
You are not taking into account where the power is coming from. Most coal and NG are maybe 40% efficient. Then you get line loss, transformer loss, battery power lost to heat both charging and discharging.
The overall CO2 footprint of batteries is still far less than ICE engines.
Jim Berry this is one of the problems that these discussions always have – people don’t understand the concept of a PRIME MOVER, which is always necessary…. Supposed 95% efficiency electric vehicles are only really around 80-85%, and then there are reductions at times from there – especially if the power comes from somewhat inefficient sources..
But efficiency world-wide of central stations is usually much higher than you list – since outside of the USA (with the exception of NYC, and some cities in Ohio and Michigan) many Central Stations greatly improve their efficiency by selling ‘district Steam’ or ‘district hot water.
Instead of heating a lake, or the air with a condensor, they sell the steam and let customers do the job for them, and they pay to do it ! The condensate from the customers’ use of the steam heat is returned as water back to the utility’s power plant.
That is why some commercial laundromats have Steam powered water heaters and Steam-powered clothes dryers. And some downtown areas also have adsorbtion (“Dalton’s Law of partial pressures”) chilled water systems so that there is meaningful, usable steam consumption even in the hottest summer weather. –
And then there are plenty of industrial processes requiring considerable ‘process steam’.
Bill, don’t quite understand your point about using exhaust steam. Not much to do with cars.
Anyway, here’s something to think about: Install the latest, very safe, designs of small nuclear power plants in each region, and do away with most of the grid. Combine with solar, wind, geothermal, hydroelectric, and wave generation. Maybe even go to Thorium reactors. Now we’re getting somewhere, and electric vehicles add virtually no CO2 when source of electrons is as suggested. Wait, we still have nuclear phobia in this country. Darn.
Yeah Hi Jim Berry….
A few points… Yeah not much to do with cars but :
1). People always complain that so-called ‘Fossil Fuel’ plants range from 35-65 % ‘thermodynamic efficiency’. This is only true if the waste heat (the balance from 100%) is wastefully discarded.
My point was that if the waste heat is productively used, then you can either view it as absolutely ‘free heat’ , or else you can state that it makes the efficiency of the central stations skyrocket from those numbers usually given. This free heat may in turn provide ‘next to free’ air conditioning in the summer time, as well as obviously many heating applications – of course always needed in the wintertime. That’s all. The 2 chestnuts that Steam Turbines have is that they must run on 100% quality steam – which is totally
DRY. But 970 BTU/pound of steam is released in the condenser… Such a waste unless you can sell it and get your customers to do the condensing job for you, which is why much of the world has ‘District Steam’ near their power plants, and don’t have individual heating facilities in their home or business since they depend on the power plant, not just for their electricity but also for their heat or air conditioning. The second Chestnut is that Steam Turbines *MUST* produce useful work otherwise they will melt… I will explain that if anyone is curious why this is so, and unavoidable.
2). Thorium reactors were tried at first for power plants due to their ‘obvious superiority’ but the many complications caused all those early plants to shut-down prematurely, with the successful Nuclear Plants using unenriched Uranium as the Candu units do, or the slightly enriched stuff almost everyone else uses.
Russia is having quite good success with Fast Breeder projects which use only a smidgen amount of fresh Uranium – and also partially solving the Nuclear Waste problem since they reuse so much of the spent fuel over and over again.
3). Sodium coolant circuits in theory provide ultimatly higher temperatures and therefore higher temperature differentials leading to higher efficiency – but here again – early attempts have resulted in disaster – mainly since Sodium – being in the first column of the Periodic Table of Elements is just too reactive to the point of being explosive. Nasty stuff.
Give me a call when you figure it out.
As usual, too late! Nio will put on the market a car with solid state batteries with a greater range than these planned by GM on early 2022!