mobile-menu-icon
GM Authority

GM Ultium EV Production Constrained By Struggling Automation Equipment Supplier

GM says that production of its Ultium-based all-electric vehicles has been constrained due to issues with an unnamed automation equipment supplier. The disruption arrives at a critical time for the automaker as it prepares to launch several key EV products. However, according to GM CEO Mary Barra, the issue is expected to be resolved by the end of the year, it not before, and GM still expects to hit its EV production targets going forward.

An animation showing a GM Ultium battery module.

GM Ultium battery

Per a report from The Detroit News, GM CEO Barra addressed the battery module production issue this week, saying that the delays stemmed from “delivery issues” associated with an automation equipment supplier, “constraining module assembly capacity.” However, Barra added that GM still aims to hit its EV production target of 100,000 units built in North America by the end of 2023, and 400,000 units by the middle of 2024. GM has already met its goal of 50,000 EVs built in the first half of the 2023 calendar year.

To address the recent automation supplier issue, GM has sent manufacturing engineering teams to help improve deliveries. In addition, GM is adding manual battery module production lines at several of its EV assembly plants, including the GM Factory Zero facility in Detroit and the GM Spring Hill facility in Tennessee. Further battery module production lines will be added to the GM Ramos Arizpe facility in Mexico and the GM CAMI facility in Canada.

“We’ll get behind this,” Barra told investors this week. “I’m very confident of the teams we have in place.”

Barra also stated that production of the battery cells that make up the battery modules is ahead of schedule. Cell production is now under way at the GM Ultium Cells facility in Ohio, operated under a joint venture with LG Energy Solution.

“Demand for our EVs remains very strong because the Ultium platform is purpose-built for electric vehicles,” Barra told investors. “It does not force customers to compromise on style, performance, utility, range or towing.”

Subscribe to GM Authority for more GM business news, GM production news, and around-the-clock GM news coverage.

Jonathan is an automotive journalist based out of Southern California. He loves anything and everything on four wheels.

Subscribe to GM Authority

For around-the-clock GM news coverage

We'll send you one email per day with the latest GM news. It's totally free.

Comments

  1. Finally an explanation to help us understand the delays in their EVs.

    Curious if this is equipment that will be located at the battery production facilities or at the vehicle production facilities. Good to hear they’re able to do the modules manually in the short term. Anxious to start seeing the various models on the street. So far the Lyriq and Hummer SUT look good.

    Reply
    1. You DO NOT WANT one of the vehicles with a hastily assembled battery-pack in it…
      Unless posting videos of the “Epic Garage Fire” are in you plans.

      Reply
      1. …”according to GM CEO Mary Barra, the issue is expected to be resolved by the end of the year….”

        Notice that she did not say WHICH year.

        Reply
  2. GM’s “Excuse” is to blame “Someone else”…
    Weak…
    Mary needs to look in the mirror…. SMH

    Reply
    1. What did you want her to say? If it’s an issue with the supplier so, be it.

      Reply
      1. This is a complicated issue. GM has (at several points) refused to extend deadlines due to complications that they caused and changes that they requested. GM is just sticking their fingers in their ears and ignoring the problem. However, the supplier isn’t doing themselves any favors. There’s a lot of mishandling of that project on both sides.

        Reply
  3. “It does not force customers to compromise on style, performance, utility, range or towing”
    Mary Barra is a wickedly ignorant CEO.
    The sooner she goes the better.

    Reply
    1. I think their sales and earnings say differently. Ford’s will look different.

      Reply
  4. What sales? Bolts? I see no GM EV’s on the street and I live in a large Midwest metro area. You must be on the west coast, no one here is looking for an EV except for the Tesla fanboys. I can’t even tell you where there’s a public charger except the one at Walmart that’s never used.

    Reply
    1. I see plenty of Bolts, several Hummers, a couple Lyriqs. Also plenty of other EVs, but I’m in the DMV…

      Reply
    2. Boomer59, I also live in a large Midwestern city area, EV’s are all over the place in Omaha and Des Moines. Bolts sell before they get off the truck, Teslas are just as prevalent as F150s. Chargers are all over the city. I don’t know what city you live in but I’m thinking you just aren’t paying attention or your bias is showing.

      Reply
  5. Finally some real reasons. I wonder if those bots are out of China? I hope not cause they would intentionally slow down the delivery of products considering the sign of the times WWide.

    Reply
  6. So the problem is battery module assembly. Cell production is ahead of schedule and GM even mentioned that they might run into issues with handling excess battery cell inventory.

    Reply
  7. But GM is the Leader in EV

    Reply
    1. no, they are not, GM is “One” of the leader. Tesla is the leader, and in sales volume.

      Reply
  8. Anyone know who the automation supplier is?

    Reply
  9. Wiltshire:

    I did a little searching and found the best information on the Detroit Free Press website and in articles taken from the DFP on the website Electrek.com.

    The cells are made by a company called “Ultium Cells LLC, which is a joint venture between GM and LG Energy Solutions. In August of 2020, GM declined to say when production would start at the plant in Warren, Ohio, or which vehicles would use them – speculation was the Hummer and Lyriq. There was a later announcement in September, 2022, that the factory had started production, but no information about volume or if it included assembly of the packs.

    GM and Ultium Cells later took $2.5 Billion of DOE money from the IRA to build three facilities to make cells; one each in Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee. The press release was not clear on whether GM or the joint venture got the money, or if it was both how it was divided.

    A press release said that GM’s $2.3 billion plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee, is expected to be completed by the end of 2023 and since the Lyriq is assembled in or near the same plant, it seems logical that its output is going to the Lyriq and other vehicles assembled there.

    GM and LG were considering Indiana as its fourth battery plant site, but the two could not reach an agreement and that deal has apparently fallen through. One rumor is that GM is looking for another company to make the cells and possibly using a different cell chemistry. GM had to write down significant costs due to the Bolt battery fires and subsequent pack replacements, so their relationship with LG Chem is likely a bit “strained”.

    GM intends to start assembling Ultium battery modules at the GM CAMI Assembly plant in Ontario, Canada during the second quarter (Q2) of 2024.

    As to where the current Lyriq cells are being produced, in what volumes, where they are being assembled, and by whom, GM is not saying. There was a brief mention that “GM will assemble the packs” in an older press release, but that has obviously changed if there is now a pack assembly supplier involved.

    GM’s and Ultium Cell’s typical answer to specific questions about cells and pack assembly seems to be, “Such information remains competitive in nature”, so where the bottleneck is and who is at fault, remains a mystery, at least publicly.

    At least this time, as opposed to their “production quality hold” on the Lyriq last winter, GM is publicly saying at least why Lyriq deliveries have been slow.

    Reply

Leave a comment

Cancel