GM’s New Battery Tech Could Be a Breakthrough for Affordable EVs | EUROtoday

The earliest NMC cells used roughly equal thirds of nickel, manganese, and cobalt. GM’s present “high-nickel” Ultium cells swapped out a lot of that cobalt for nickel whereas including aluminum. They use roughly 5 p.c cobalt and 10 p.c manganese, mentioned GM battery engineer Andy Oury, with the remainder being nickel and aluminum.

The LMR cells, nevertheless, substitute manganese—which is cheaper and extra globally plentiful—for a number of the pricier nickel and nearly the entire cobalt. They are, Oury mentioned, 60 to 70 p.c manganese, 30 to 40 p.c nickel, and solely as much as 2 p.c cobalt.

The new chemistry, in a second sort of cell, can even use a brand new module format. Standardized Ultium NMCA modules for each car have been the proper answer for GM to launch its present lineup of 12 totally different EV fashions, its execs mentioned. Going ahead, the corporate envisions utilizing totally different chemistries for various functions: NMCA for high-performance and its most succesful fashions, now LMR for lengthy vary at decrease value, and LFP for its least costly fashions.

Cheap Long-Range Electric SUVs and Trucks

If LMR chemistry truly produces a cell that prices as little to make as LFP with larger power density, that could possibly be a recreation changer—together with for North American competitiveness towards China within the crucial sphere of battery improvement and manufacturing.

“LMR will complement our high-nickel and iron-phosphate solutions to expand customer choice in the truck and full-size SUV markets,” mentioned Kurt Kelty, GM’s vp of battery, propulsion, and sustainability. It will, he mentioned, “advance American battery innovation and create jobs well into the future.”

A battery technician on the General Motors Wallace Battery Cell Innovation Center in Warren, Michigan, takes a chemistry slurry pattern.

Photograph: Steve Fecht for General Motors

Specifically, LMR packs will decrease the price of some full-size EV truck and SUV fashions to convey their costs nearer to these of their gasoline counterparts. That’s essential to boosting gross sales of the full-size EV fashions, which haven’t reached the identical volumes and market penetrations as these of GM’s compact and midsize EV crossovers.