General Motors is expected to announce more U.S. battery manufacturing plants in the near future.
In an interview with the Associated Press over the weekend, GM President Mark Reuss said the company will announce more U.S.-based battery plants “in the next week.” It’s not clear where the battery plants will be based, though it’s highly likely they will produce cells for use in the automaker’s Ultium lithium-ion vehicle battery packs.
GM is currently building two new battery plants in the United States through its Ultium Cells LLC joint venture partnership with Korean battery manufacturer LG Chem. The first of these plants is being built near Lordstown, Ohio, while the second is situated near its GM Spring Hill Assembly plant in Tennessee. Both of the facilities are expected to cost around $2.3B and will supply battery cells to GM’s various EV manufacturing plants, including its Factory Zero plant in Michigan, Spring Hill Assembly in Tennessee and CAMI in Ontario, among others.
GM’s partnership with LG Chem will ensure the automaker has access to the battery cells it needs to ramp up EV production over the coming years. The automaker’s global product portfolio is expected to consist of 40 percent EVs by 2025, with products like the GMC Hummer EV, Cadillac Lyriq, BrightDrop EV600 and Chevy Bolt EV and Bolt EUV set to lead the way.
“(This partnership) will allow us to build solid and stable U.S-based supply chains that enable everything from research, product development and production to the procurement of raw components,” LG Energy Solution CEO Jonghyun Kim said in a statement released earlier this year. “Importantly, I truly believe this coming together transcends a partnership as it marks a defining moment that will reduce emissions and help to accelerate the adoption of EVs.”
GM’s EV onslaught will begin with the start of production of the Hummer EV, which will begin rolling off the assembly line at Factory Zero later this year.
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Comments
This is great news, I cannot wait to hear how many, where, and when?
For all the BEVs people are buying? Lol… Lowercase gm sells a comically small amount of BEVs… Something tells me there are special interest groups making this a money grab… What a joke.
Possibly GM only sells a small amount of EV’s because they only make a small amount of EV’s? Hummer has more demand than production capacity, and Tesla, Ford, and Rivian prove people want EV pickups with all their pre orders.
Unfortunately the world is passing you by… You can bury your head and live in the past, but the world around you is changing…
Last I checked, only GM and Tesla have run out of EV government credits becasue they sell so many.
but neither are making money selling EVs. that is why they are on bended knee sucking up to biden.
@Steve
I do not mean this to be sarcastic at all. But I would like to ask you the following question.
If Tesla doesn’t make any money from their vehicles that they produce, how are they building all these Gigafactories around the World at pretty much the same time?
And please do not say from Zev Credits because Tesla has like right at or right over 20 Billion in cash Reserves sitting in their Bank Amount. And they spend the most percentage of their earnings on R&D than any other Automaker in the Industry. Hence their Huge lead.
I am also assuming that GM now makes money from the Bolt hence they were able to lower their price point. I still think that the Bolt is overpriced but that is a whole other argument.
Rivian demand? Lol, they seem very similar to Lordstown Motors, time will tell if they’re just a other SPAC or have any real value. The mach-e sells 2k units a month, which is dismal.
The world isn’t passing me by. I just don’t have an agenda and can clearly see that the demand for BEVs isn’t that high. And the only reason they’re being pushed so hard is for increasing profits and making the rich more rich.
Rivian has a ton of demand, and including 100K delivery vans for Amazon, and Wall Street is currently valuing the company higher then Ford. Rivian has built the company right, and we be very successful going forward.
Mach E is selling more well, spending less than 15 days on dealer lots on average, perhaps you should look at global sales, ford is selling it in several countries.
Demand for good BEV’s is through the roof…
Why should I look at global sales? My money is in the NYSE. Despite how good of a hype man you are, Rivian literally has no value right now…
Rivian has no value to you, but Wall Street says $70B. Personally I think that is a bit rich for a company that has not brought a product to market, but Rivian will make good on it I am sure, they have great tech, and great leadership, If Rivian passes Tesla in 10 years it would not surprise me.
You should look at global sales because these are global companies… Maybe? My job as an investor is to find the best opportunities to provide for my family, I look high and low, and so far pretty successful at finding value where others don’t.
Rivian isn’t publicly traded, so it literally has no established value. It has an estimated value…
Yes, but global sales only reflect in those particular markets. So unless you have stock in GM-SAIC in Shanghai or Ford on the London Exchange… I don’t think the global markets particularly matter to the point you argue. Good luck gambling, I mean investing.
It took 75 yeas for people to adopt the telephone. But yet it took about 5 years till the cell phone became common.
Transitions take time and this will be a migration over. No everyone buys a car yearly and the development is still continuing. The EV cars of today at GM are nothing like what is coming and the gen after the first wave is already being completed.
We migrated to digital TV, cell phones, computers and more in a very short time This will be over 20 years and it will be at a very steady pace.
Denial is no longer an option. I used to be that way but this is much bigger than you or I and it is not going to stop.
I agree with you again… EV’s are just better, and as more people own them, and show them to the friends, the word is getting out exponentially… Just like Musk said it would. BEV’s are still in the first inning, and except for heavy equipment, or heavy towing, BEV’s make ICEV’s obsolete now. With continued development the gap will grow and by 2025 there should be price parity, and massive charging infrastructure improvements. I cannot imagine buying another ICE vehicle, they are just not that great. Like listening to 8 track tapes after IPOD came out… No comparison.
Now the economics of BEV’s are still a challenge today (unless they are priced well above the average sale price in the USA), but they will get better and as battery scale ramps up the prices will come down.
The deal is there was really no investment in battery cars and batteries for the most part till the last 40 years as electronics have taken off. Now the spending is increasing at record rates.
The harsh fact is as it has been going the ICE products are no longer cheap and easy to build. The EV can reduce content, production line needs and once developed the cost will drop much.
Battery investment is at an all time high. Not just because of cars but computers, cell phones etc.
Add to this the fact that the average auto buyers is no longer someone who is a car enthusiast or even someone who identifies themselves by their car. It is a mere appliance sadly to most that no longer have an emotional connection to the product. Because of this EV will be much easier to sell as it will offer lower prices but yet keep profits up.
This is why the change over is no longer being fought.
You used to have people called the Packard man but today few people identify with a Camry, Civic or can claim to be a Hyundai Man. Price and reliability is the goal of most. You give them that they would take a rat under the hood on a wheel as much as a ICE engine.
The market has changed and we enthusiast are no longer the prime target.
The fact that GM only sells about 25k Bolt EVs in the US annually shouldn’t be cause to ignore that US BEV sales last year broke 250k. Or that US BEV sales are on pace to break 500k this year.
I recommend googling the terms ‘disruption curve’ and ‘knee of the curve’. And maybe watching Tony Seba’s youtube vidoes on the subject of the EV disruption.
Or, don’t. Some people don’t like spoiling surprises.
Meanwhile, trucks have the same cheap, crappy interior! The more things change, the more they stay the same. You may quote me on this people!
Did they not just have a post that 22 trucks were going to be starting production in sept.or oct?
With all this “green new deal”initiative can someone intelligent on here that spits out 500 word comments tell how much is the global world temperature going to be reduced? A friend was telling me that China starts up a brand new coal fired plant everyday or two,how can this be?
Global warming is pure BS. But this is no longer about global warming. Automakers will be able to build electric cars cheaper and with less people and lower development cost. This is pure economics now and this is why they stopped fighting the change.
The tougher regulations and the cost of development of ICE has gotten so high that they are looking for ways to keep prices down and still increase profits. Once they saw where they will be in 20 years they are now making the move over not to save trees but their own hides.
i’ll take the word of climate scientists over a paper pusher from ohio any day.
Which ones the ones claiming wearing and now change or the ones that previously claimed ice age or the planet was flat?
Science like the earth is ever evolving and adapting no matter what man does.
Science is wrong many more times than right.
Just look at the COVID Science. Don’t wear masks, then wear masks. No bats in the lab but now bats shown testing in the lab.
Science has been poisoned by politics and no longer stands for the old standards of not proving science theory wrong vs now claiming science theories right and never questioning them.
Climate scientist have to say that to keep their job. In the meantime, 2/3 engineers across all industry’s…you know the ones who actually know calculus, not just easy peasy enovromental dogma, openly say global warming is a load of bull….most of the remaining third are computer engineers who have only had basic chemistry and never a thermodynamics class.
7 downvoters but no responses,not even an I think about .5 or so?
The short answer is none. Car emissions amount to 40% of global CO2.
Which means going 100% BEVs will only slow down the increase of global temperatures, not lower it.
Of course, the alternative is to do nothing and just keep dumping CO2 into the atmosphere at our current rate.
Something to think about though. All the rest of the CO2 emissions? That’s from things like drilling, pumping, refining, and transporting fossil fuels.. which will fall off as BEV use increases.
And as Green energy sources (like green hydrogen for shipping and aircraft), industrial transportation use of fossil fuels will drop off.
Every bit helps slow down rising global temperatures, which buys us more time to make more changes to find ways to actually begin reducing global atmospheric CO2 and then start lowering global temperatures.
But if it’s any consolation, your participation is largely meaningless, so you can just sit and grump on the sidelines while everyone else makes a difference for you.
Global warming is just anther slogan for global money grab.
When I hear news like this I’m conflicted. I have a 2017 camaro and like it so much I’d wish I could drive it more but can’t based on weather and other reasons. But it make me want to buy another “gm” product soon. But I wonder if the ice vehicles quality is built to last with plans to change to EV. Do I buy one more ice vehicle or wait for the 1st “gm” EV to come
Get more people to buy Camaro’s, last I checked sales are dropping.
Don’t forget to bring a very, very long extension cord! There are so few charging stations that take a long time to charge!
1. I can charge my Bolt for 230 miles of range overnite at home, enough for my weekly commute.
2. There are no fewer than 3 DC Fast charging stations on my daily route. At each one, I can add enough range for my daily commute in about 10 minutes. I can add 2 hours of driving range in 30 minutes.
3. I’m thinking about driving from CA to TX this fall in my Bolt to visit family. There is a DC Fast charger about every 100-150 miles along the route. I would drive 2 hours and charge for 30 minutes during a biobreak.
4. Check out EV charging apps like ABetterRoutePlanner.com and Plugshare.com to find out how many public fast chargers there are in your area.
Some context. 1GWh of battery production supports 10,000 100kWh battery packs. GM’s Ultium battery factories are rated at 40GWh, so support up to 400k BEVs (the eHummer and eSilverado will have 125kWh-200kWh battery packs, so between 200k-300k units, depending on production mix.)
At present, GM is buying batteries directly from LG for the Bolt EV and EUV, and has yet to make more than 30k per year, meaning they’ve been buying a max of 3GWh worth of batteries.
GM sells about 3M vehicles annually. To convert to 100% BEV, with an average 150kWh battery per, GM would need around 450GWh of batteries. At 40GWh per factory, that’s 11-12 Ultium factories.
GM will need to build one Ultium factory, per year, for the next 12 years, at a cost of around $24B+, in order to go 100% BEV by 2035.
In the meantime, we could have ICE engines that are 60% more thermally efficient with the following three technologies,
Hydraulic valves-infinitely variable valve timing and lift. Remove all throttle losses and run Atkinson cycles at low load. With cylinder deactivation, it would be a lower friction system as well
Ceramic cylinder and piston heads-80%of engine heat is transferred to piston and cylinder heads as at TDC, that’s where the fireball is wholly contained. Retain this heat means more energy for powerstroke. Also the water pump could be removed or significantly reduced removing parasitic losses.
Water injection-used in WW2 for knock reduction, water injection increases power as the dropplets turn to steam upon combustion. Reduces cylinder temperature, allows for increased compression ratios, advanced spark timing and leaner burn.
gm has to launch 23 EV’s across all car/truck lines to spread out the investment. ICE will not go away until gas prices become obscene or EV prices drop. Global warming/ climate change is just woke virtue signaling and a money grab.
Another taxpayer funded boondoggle!
Tired of your misleading tax money fallacies, why don’t you take your precious tax money and go away.
Please provide evidence of how GM is using tax money to pay for their battery factory.
Oh wait, you can’t, because they aren’t.
Or do you mean that EVs are spending your taxes?
Oh wait, GM vehicles aren’t qualified for those anymore.
Any other scarecrows you’d like to trot out?
GM has serveral multi-million federal grants to build EV’s including 1 for EV cars and 1 for just batteries (which is the funding building these plants) also, the state of Tennessee has granted GM 35 Million in tax credits for them to build the facilities in Tennessee. please do your research before firing from the hip. Bottom line is GM isn’t digging into their truck profits for to build these EV’s like their claiming. They’re reaching into the taxpayers wallets.
1 Battery factory costs $2B to build.
2B is 2,000 Million
GM needs to build like 10 battery factories this decade to go 100% EV.
How many multi million dollar grants does GM have?
Cause they’d need a couple thousand of them to make up the $40B theyre planning to spend.
Multi-million dollar grants a a drop in the bucket.
What comes after a trillion? If you know keep it quiet so wacko pinkos dont get the idea of trying to spend them.
So he announces the announcement before announced? I I don’t like this Reuss guy , seems to me he tries very hard to take credit for things and steal the spotlight from others.
@jake.
All those things you call out sound nice, but car engines, truck engines nuclear power plants are all governed by the Carnot Efficiency limits. The biggest change one can make is by making the engine run hotter. The limiting factors are material properties of the engine, ignition properties of the fuel, and the propensity for combustion to make NOX’s at high temperature. Car engines have 20-30% thermo efficiency. Nukes have about 40% thermo efficiency. Electric motors are not heat engines so thermal efficiency does not apply. High efficiency electric motors exceed 95% efficiency. This difference is what will drive fossil fuels out of the market… once batteries become more efficient to charge and cheaper. Fossil fuel’s main advantage is the density of the energy stored in the gas tank. As better batteries are developed that difference will be less important.