GM will discontinue the Ultium brand of batteries as it looks to expand the cell types and chemistries it uses in its electric vehicles.
During an investor event today, Kurt Kelty, GM's vice president of batteries and former Tesla executive, announced plans to adopt lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery technology to reduce the cost of its electric vehicles by “up to $6,000.” “. GM Ultium batteries use the most common nickel cobalt manganese (NCM) batteries.
Some automakers are already using LFP-based cells, including Tesla and Ford. LFPs are less complex, cost less to produce, and do not depend on the excess cobalt used in NCM batteries. Cobalt has a bad reputation as the “blood diamond of batteries” and many automakers are trying to avoid it in the long term.
GM launched its Ultium batteries in 2020 as the platform that would eventually underpin the automaker's lineup of electric vehicles, including the Chevy Equinox and Blazer electric vehicles, the Cadillac Lyriq, the Hummer EV, and partner vehicles like Honda's Prologue SUV. But “Ultium” never became a household name, and now GM is moving away from the brand and its “one-size-fits-all” approach to its battery system.
Kelty says GM will open a battery cell development center in 2027 at its technology center in Warren, Michigan, to better compete with Chinese battery makers, which dominate the global supply chain. He said GM is prepared to “meet production demand through 2025” and that the battery manufacturing issues we face in late 2023 “are behind us.”
GM will continue to work with its battery partner LG, as well as Samsung SDI, to build a new $3.5 billion electric vehicle battery plant in Indiana.
GM reduced its battery costs to $60 per kilowatt hour on average from 2023 to 2024 and expects another $30 reduction in 2025 with LFP, Kelty said. The automaker could also include LFP batteries in its large EV chassis that typically houses Ultium NCM pouch-style batteries and still achieve “more than 350 miles” of range, he noted.
GM is also reducing the number of modules in its package by up to 75 percent by using new prismatic cells, while higher-end cylindrical cells will be relegated to “performance” vehicles, Kelty said.
Historically, GM is known for having larger and denser EV batteries than its competitors. Now, it's following in the footsteps of Ford, which insists that a range of 200 to 300 miles is more than adequate for most owners.
