GM Ventures recently participated in Series A funding for North Carolina-based battery startup company Soelect. Soelect is developing new fast-charging lithium-metal batteries which may be used in GM’s up-and-coming electric vehicle models.
According to a recent report from Reuters, the recent Series A funding round raised a total of $11 million, with participants including GM Ventures, KTB Network, and Lotte Ventures.
Soelect was founded in 2018 by Jin Cho, who previously worked at prominent technology companies like Samsung, LG, and Johnson Controls. The company founder states that Soelect currently has over 20 customers, the majority of which hail from the automotive industry.
Soelect’s new lithium-metal anode battery technology promises greater energy capacity and faster recharge times compared to current lithium-ion battery tech, the latter of which typically incorporate anodes made from a silicon-rich material or graphite.
According to GM Ventures spokesman Darryll Harrison, the investment “further expands [GM’s] efforts to accelerate the advancement of battery chemistries,” adding that Soelect’s new battery technology “could serve as an enabler for both future lithium-metal and solid-state EV battery anode designs.”
In addition to faster charge times, the technology also promises extended EV range as compared to current technology.
The new investment complements GM’s previous investment in Massachusetts battery startup SES. GM has jointly developed lithium-metal battery technology with SES since 2015, with the startup slated to go public this year.
Over the summer, GM announced that it would boost investments into electric vehicle tech and autonomous vehicle tech, earmarking $35 billion to be invested by 2025. More recently, the automaker announced $6.5 billion in investments for expanded EV production capacity, with an expected 1 million units in North American EV production capacity by the end of 2025. That includes $4 billion to convert the GM Orion Assembly facility for EV truck production, and $2.6 billion invested between GM and battery partner LG Energy Solution for the creation of a new Ultium Cells battery plant in Lansing, Michigan.
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Talk on the street here in Nevada is that the Tesla – Panasonic battery collaboration is in the development of a one million mile EV battery featuring quick charging. Panasonic has filled two suburban motels in Reno with Panasonic engineers and scientists from Japan working on this project. The Hilton Homewood Suites in South Reno off Kietze Lane has been filled for several months with Panasonic technical staff from Japan. Work is being conducted at Tesla’s Gigafactory in the largest industrial park in the western USA just east of Reno off Interstate 80.
The battery race is on big time. Exciting times are ahead.
No matter what, you cannot get around the electric needs for electrification. If it’s a quicker charge, it means load is increased during they time. For Evs, we need large-scale infrastructure upgrades on the grid otherwise this will significantly reduce ev pickup. I still don’t understand how this will all work and frankly expect it to fail and drive many ev owners back to ice. This of course will happen once we get more penetration of Evs. We can handle the pittance we have right now. Although CA does do no charge orders frequently during summertime already.
If you don’t know how EV charging will work I suggest watching the Now You Know channel on YouTube They have done in depth research on the facts and show how it works and will work 😉