GM’s ultimate electric battery strategy replicates Chinese script: Super Cheap Cell
General Motors Its latest final work has just been announced, and now it seems to be a three-pronged cellular chemistry strategy that can push the general manager’s lineup in a dozen electric vehicle rosters in a decade and beyond.
General Motors today said it will build low-cost lithium phosphate (LFP) battery batteries in Spring Hill, Tennessee. Spring Hill Complex’s cell plant is owned and operated by Ultium Cells, a joint venture battery company of GM and LG Energy Solution. The GM assembly plant in the same complex built the Cadillac Lyriq and Acura ZDX electric SUVs.
Led by Kurt Kelty, vice president of battery, propulsion and sustainability, the company has diversified from its previous “one cell for all electric vehicles” strategy. Kelty was hired in February 2024 after serving in Tesla and Panasonic and is widely respected in the industry.
Eutium-made LFP cells are expected to be used in the updated 2026 Chevrolet Bolt EV, and GM should be revealed within two to three months. It will be produced at a Kansas factory by the end of this year. In the first two years, it will have to use LFP cells imported from another LG plant, one from South Korea. These imports allow General Motors to bring cheap iron-phosphate batteries to the U.S. road within three years before its next cytochemistry called LMR, at a cost of no more than LFP, but with higher energy density.
Nevertheless, converting plants to unspecified costs to build LFP cells, suggesting that they will be used in the lineup for a while.
The future commitment of LMR
So far, all GM EVs after the 2017-2023 Chevrolet Bolt EV use nickel-thyroid-mucus aluminum (NMCA) cells. They have the greatest energy in a given volume, but they are also the most expensive due to their nickel and cobalt content. From the end of 2022 to the beginning of 2024, the production of these cells was delayed, pushing these cells out of 12 to 18 months of delivery. (GM EV sales have steadily risen by three quarters, suggesting that these troubles may be in the past.)
Ultium announced a second cytochemical reaction in May this year, called “lithium is rich in lithium and lithium” or LMR. It claims LMR chemistry provides one-third of the energy density than the same volume of lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cells (at comparable cell costs) and will reduce the cost of its largest EV trucks and SUVs. Those vehicles from Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC use giant battery packs of 109 to 205 kWh.
The first LMR unit will leave the pilot line in 2027; it has not been disclosed that it will be fully produced in 2028 in 2028. With Spring Hill now going to produce LFP cells, it seems like the LMR cells may be from other Ultium cells in Warren, Ohio, are now in production.
Compact chemistry
From this year to the early 2030s, joining the Chemistries GM kit may be used in its electric vehicles. Applicable to at least those produced outside China; various models it has established in China have long included LFP chemistry, the country’s main chemical reaction.
Many of the intellectual property around the LFP chemical composition is owned by Chinese companies, which has caused trouble for Ford as it attempts to add LFP cells to future EV models. A GM spokesman told Wired that the intellectual property rights of LFP cells produced using partner LG Energy solutions are owned by any Chinese entity.
