General Motors and its go-to battery partner LG Chem are set to announce a new $2.3 billion battery plant this Friday, which will be situated close to its Spring Hill Assembly plant in Tennessee.
According to Reuters, the new battery plant will be similar in size to the battery plant in Lordstown, Ohio that GM and LG Chem are currently building. The plant will allegedly produce a more cost-effective lithium-ion battery design than the one set to be manufactured in Lordstown, however, which will be used in the Cadillac Lyriq crossover. The Lyriq will enter production at the nearby Spring Hill Assembly plant in early 2022.
The new Spring Hill battery plant will not be finished in time for the Lyriq’s launch next year, so GM will source the battery for the vehicle from another LG Chem plant at first. The battery will not come from the Lordstown plant, it is understood, which will be responsible for producing battery cells for the GMC Hummer EV and Cruise Origin, among other new future GM EVs.
GM and LG Chem entered a joint venture agreement last year for producing battery cells called Ultium Cells LLC. In a statement, GM CEO Mary Barra said that combining the automaker’s manufacturing expertise with LG Chem’s battery technology would “help accelerate our pursuit of an all-electric future,” and help ensure it has a consistent supply of the lithium battery cells it needs to mass-produce EVs on a large scale.
GM vice president for global product development Doug Parks revealed last year the automaker is already working on the second generation of its Ultium battery cell design. Parks said the second-gen Ultium battery will offer a 60 percent cost improvement over the 60 kWh battery used in the Chevy Bolt EV and will be twice as energy-dense.
GM is expected to make an official announcement on its Tennessee battery plant this Friday, at which point more information on the new plant should become available.
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Comments
The battery is most crucial and expensive component goes into an electric car and GM decided to outsource it, instead of developing its own. This completely takes away its competitive advantage, as a result GM will not able to distinguish its products. Because LG gonna sell the same battery tech to other manufacturers too.
This is so disappointing, it’s like an ice cream maker only makes the cone and buy ice cream from another company. If you are an ice cream maker you have to produce dam ice cream and if you claim to be electric car manufacturer you have to make your own battery. GM should play the long game and invest in battery RnD in no time ,otherwise it will be long gone, you can’t survive in this new market without innovate.
It is like buying a Camaro powered by a Ford engine.
It’s like buying a Camaro with a automatic transmission designed by Ford or a manual transmission made by a foreign supplier.
Oh wait…
In the same amount of time you spent typing that, you could have learned that GM owns Ultium, which it co-developed with LG’s battery subsidiary.
But then, I’d have to explain to you how patents work and then how global manufacturing works and remind you that even Tesla works with Panasonic to build it’s batteries.
But, why would I put in all that work when you won’t?
Ultium is just an empty brand name! Like “climate change”!
Perhaps my comment was over your head. People buy Camaros and Mustangs as part of a total package based on what type of engine and other features the customer wants. There will be little or no differentiation between an EV Mustang and an EV camaro or an EV F150 and a EV Silerado
The difference will be in the Motor and how fast it can pull the electrons from the battery.
Exactly. Right now that is what is really separating Tesla from all other EV’s besides their lead in Software.
Nobody has made the motors they have. I mean the new Model S goes zero to sixty is under 2 seconds. That is mind blowing. I feel confident that GM can make some pretty great Electric Motors soon as well.
Hey Andy, yes LG is aligned with manufacturing batteries with gm but what I am getting out of this article is that LG will supply the batteries from Korea. I have 2019 Bolt with batteries manufactured by LG in Korea and I could tell you first hand that a lot of Bolt buyers wish that along with myself that our batteries weren’t manufactured there.
Isn’t this the 4th article GMA has done on this plants construction? It’s like GM really wants everyone to know that their building a battery factory in tennessee, like really guys, did you know their building a battery factory in tennessee???? Probably smart to team up with LG chem on the production. Should EV’s not be as hot as motor trend and wallstreet think they will be, they can always shift product over to smartphones and laptops.
Great to hear. They will need to build even more.
They can hire the workers laid off in Rochester.
Great, more future crap for 100k vehicles!
This is all machete Mary’s fault!!! She is making GM terrible, losing jobs, sending every single job to Mars. And even though I read the article, I’m still an illiterate SOB, and deem this news…terrible. What’s next Mary, have a vision for the future and invest in it? Pfft!!!
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