General Motors Revises Future of its Electric and Autonomous Vehicles

GM will be introducing the GMC All-Electric Supertruck Hummer EV in 2021 to kick off its future lineup. (Image courtesy of GM.)

General Motors is expanding its development of electric and autonomous vehicles (EVs/AVs) by boosting spending by more than a third to a whopping $27 billion in its efforts to introduce 30 battery-powered models by 2025. As a part of this plan, it will be building a $2.3 billion battery factory in Ohio in partnership with South Korea’s LG Chem, as well as releasing new and improved Ultium cells.

The mega-company is adding $7 billion more to the investment and releasing 10 more EVs than previously planned. Many of its competitors are also pushing to develop more EVs and AVs. This may be partly due to President Joe Biden’s EV-friendly policy changes.

GM aims to invest in a zero-emissions future. (Image courtesy of GM.)

According to the company, 40 percent of the company’s inventory will be battery EVs in the next few years. It plans to release some stock earlier than expected, including the Hummer EV; three GMC models, including an EV pickup; four Chevrolet models, including a pickup and compact crossover; four Cadillacs; and two Buicks.

To speed up the development and leverage its software-powered innovations, GM is hiring 3,000 electrical, infotainment software and control engineers, plus developers for Java, Android, iOS and other platforms.

The new Lordstown battery plant will manufacture 250 million Ultium cells per year. It plans to meet this threshold by 2025. The new cells will be in the form of their original large-format pouch cells, which differ from the cylindrical-can cells Tesla and Panasonic produce for its EVs.

With GM’s new Ultium batteries, the vehicle could travel up to 450 miles on a full charge—(previously it supported a 300-mile range—and can go from 0 to 60 miles per hour in just three seconds. It also allows for 350-kilowatt fast charging.

The new batteries also offer 200 kilowatt-hours of energy using nickel-cobalt-manganese-aluminum (NCMA) chemistry, a step up from the original Ultimum batteries. The NCMA chemistry enables long-term cycling stability, battery life and the thermal stability of the cathode, as well as minimizes complexity, reduces part counts, simplifies cooling needs and eliminates nearly 90 percent of the battery pack wiring. The batteries feature planar electrodes surrounded by polymer electrolytes in an aluminum-polymer pouch. The cells are stacked vertically or horizontally.

GM set to release its second-generation Ultium packs mid-decade. (Image courtesy of GM.)

A first for EVs, GM has developed a wireless, networked battery-management system comprised of circuit boards to power RF antennas and a 2.4-gigahertz wireless protocol and exchange data with an internal battery-management computer. The internal battery-management computer can control the batteries at the module level for easy servicing. It can also monitor its state, calculate secondary data, report that data, protect the battery, and control and balance its environment. This will make repair costs less than having to replace the whole pack.

Co-developed with LG Chem Ltd, the new cells reduce manufacturing costs by 60 percent with twice the energy density. It also has less non-active material, better integration for fewer cells and less expensive cathodes to make it more cost-effective. The EVs can cost as much as gasoline-powered cars in the next five years. GM is aiming to reduce cell costs to below $100/kWh, less than Li-ion cells, which have been priced at $156/kWh since 2019.

GM is already testing out the next generation of the battery, expected to be available in the next five years. The company will be releasing its first Ultium-powered model, the GMC Hummer pickup, in late 2021.