General Motors is reportedly in talks with Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (CATL), discussing a potential partnership to build a battery plant in North America.
For those who may be unaware, CATL is a Chinese company that specializes in manufacturing lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles and energy storage. According to a report from ITHome, an alliance between GM and CATL could mean a new battery production facility would be built in either the U.S. or Mexico.
As reported by our sister publication, Ford Authority, GM’s crosstown rival Ford has already allied with CATL. Ford plans to license lithium-iron phosphate battery (LFP) technology from CATL at its BlueOval Battery Park Michigan. The Chinese-based company will be responsible for building battery production lines, setting up supply chains, debugging production line equipment and managing manufacturing processes, although Ford will still cover all costs for factory capital expenditures. CATL and GM’s collaboration could look similar as the Chinese company looks to expand its global operations.
“We will also provide similar service models to many car manufacturers and even battery manufacturers in Europe and the United States to help them quickly start up their battery production bases and become world-class factories to combat climate change,” said CATL Chairman Zeng Yuqun at the 2024 Davos Forum. “This is our goal.”
GM plans to outfit the next-generation Chevy Bolt EV and Chevy Bolt EUV with LFP batteries, which will be purchased from a supplier like CATL, although their joint plant likely won’t be up and running in time. However, currently, GM is on track to build a fourth major battery plant in the U.S. via a joint venture with Samsung SDI in Indiana, which is expected to be completed in 2027.
Subscribe to GM Authority for more GM business news, GM electric vehicle news, GM technology news, and around-the-clock GM news coverage.
Comments
Hey Alexandra, as a young person don’t you see the importance of economic advances in the United States using technology and raw materials that are available here rather than importing raw materials from our economic adversary that will ravage the planet in anyway to achieve its global initiative? Why doesn’t General Motors invest in hydrogen cell powered vehicles that is cleaner and less damaging to our planet?
The average cost of a fuel cell alone is almost 100,000$, the best way to generate H2 is by stripping CO2 from natural gas,( releases 3x as much as burning it by the way)and H2 cost 16/per pound(about 15$/gallon equivalent to gasoline)
Michael, I believe Alexandra is just reporting the potential collaboration with CATL. Licensing CATL LFP tech doesn’t mean GM will be sourcing material from China – one of the many advantages of LFP batteries is their lack of expensive Ni, Mn and Co, so Western sourcing is cheap and easy. CATL owns 37% of the world BEV battery market and is, by far, the largest battery maker in the world. And don’t worry, GM is pouring more money down the Hydrogen Fuel Cell drain that will never be viable and how exactly is a fuel cell less earth damaging than a BEV as they both have a battery drives the vehicle, but the fuel cell also has even rarer earth metals (Pt and Ir) in the PEM and consider the amount of energy to generate H2? Educate yourself on fuel cells and their vast limitations (not even taking into account the handful of H2 stations nationwide and Shell closing all of theirs) – Just look up the proton exchange membrane (PEM) and what materials are needed and that Iridium is the key and that nearly all of it is sourced from meteorites in Africa with about 7T produced globally each year and is a necessary component for high strength steel used for sky scrapers. At $4925 an ounce it is the most expensive metal in the world – Gold: $2221/oz, Platinum $906/oz, Uranium $85/lb, Iron ore $109/ton. The bottom line is that there isn’t enough Iridium on the planet for millions of fuel cells – yes, scientists have been trying to overcome this for decades, but Iridium is the efficiency key, period. GM is trying to be profitable in the BEV market and LFP batteries cost roughly 1/3 to build than NMC batteries – but they are also only 70-80% as energy dense, so possibly 1/2 the cost when considering range parity, which is still a significant cost savings on the single most expensive component on a BEV.
The reason GM doesn’t do that is because they have a WEAK leader at the helm !! WHY THE HELL ARE THEY (GM) partnering with a DAMN CHINESE COMPANY ? FIND OR BUILD YOUR OWN DAMN BATTERY PLANT !!
Hydrogen should only be used for highly specialized equipment and not as a main stream fuel.
Boy I hope we all love pickles. Because the day China decides to invade Taiwan and the US feels it needs to defend Taiwan we are all going to be in a pickle since we don’t seem to learn our lesson and de-risk our supply chain from the Chinese. So much for worrying about dependence on Saudi oil when we will be dependent on a nation that literally openly labels us as their enemy instead. What a bright future we are going into…
We need to disconnect from China. Why buisnesses don’t see that is beyond me. The reason China is so strong now is because U.S. businesses didn’t see any value in American workers and shipped all of their manufacturing to China. Now…China is in the game and too big to fail. Way to go America.
In reality, we have no right to complain. We created this monster, spearheaded by Clinton allowing them to join the WTO on a severely flawed and backwards thinking they would “democratize” one day and now we worry they will assert themselves and abide by their own rules against the international rules and take what they want. And to make matters worse, this happened after the Tiananmen Square massacre. So we still didn’t learn our lesson then and seemingly haven’t now. Clinton should spend the rest of his life with the conscience that Taiwan and our own livelihoods and liberties is now in danger thanks to his actions ripping him to pieces.
In the spring of 2000, China was trying to become a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The U.S. House of Representatives had just approved normalizing trade relations with China. The vote was effectively a U.S. endorsement of China’s accession, and President Bill Clinton, a major proponent of China’s bid, voiced his economic and strategic hopes for the U.S.-China relationship.
This effort should have been given to India, another democracy. NOT a country that still showed clear signs of authoritarianism. Clinton thought that by doing this it would limit IP theft which was already happening leading into this bid. This only accelerated the IP theft and allowed the dragon to grow in power and more authoritarian. What was the thinking? Oh Japan democratized and so did South Korea, therefore, China will do so as well? Meanwhile the CCP took Lenins words out of his mouth and said “A capitalist will sell for profit, the rope that is going to be used to hang him.” Clinton was either delusional or he knew what he was doing and had a hatred for the American worker. We have a saying in Spanish. “Se tiro el pedo mas grande que el culo.” I’ll leave that one to you to translate.
Oh god. Don’t get me started on Newsom. If there is anyone who should be seen as a threat to our national security is him. He had no business trying to play president and visiting China and then to promote BYD when he should have been promoting American EV manufacturers like Tesla. But since he is butthurt that Elon moved his HQ from Palo Alto to Texas he decides to openly show support his biggest Sino rival going so far to say “I would buy two of these.” I’m not one that buys into conspiracies but it does make you wonder when people claim he is in the CCPs pockets and he does things like this. And he’s looking to run for president? God help us.
Sounds like the new AI System I believe Google has is doing research into crystal materials, in one week it discovered 17,000 new materials,500 previous materials once they point this AI system at the Fuel Cell problem . Exciting times are ahead!-GNoME is the program
TRUMP WILL ADD A TAX OF 100 PERCENT IF GM DECIDES TO BUILD THE BATTERY PLANT INMEXICO BECAUSE IT’S A CHYNA BASED PART OWNERSHIP. SOMEBODY BETTER WARN ELECTRIC MARY BARRA THAT SHE WILL GET FIRED IF GM PICKS MEXICO AND THIS BATTERY COMPANY OWNED IN CHINA.
Nothing like throwing more money away for something that is not going to generate anything near the demand that was projected.
There are far more suitable partners than the CCP.