General Motors is trying to revive its flagging electric vehicle fortunes with the white whale of battery tech.
Driving the news: Kurt Kelty, the man in charge of EV batteries at GM, doubled down on his team’s controversial plan to become the first major automaker to exclusively use lithium manganese-rich (LMR) battery technology in an interview with the Financial Times.
“If LMR has failed, then I have failed… but if you don’t take any risk, we’re just going to be making the same old thing,” Kelty said with a surprising level of candour.
Catch-up: Some believe that LMR tech is a pipe dream due to the persistent issue of voltage fade, wherein energy storage declines after repeated charging. But, if perfected, it presents a Goldilocks solution for EV battery production. Not too cheap, not too pricey, juuuust right.
By swapping out high levels of precious nickel and cobalt for the relatively abundant manganese, LMR tech can slash prices of batteries currently used in Western EVs.
And while LMR tech will still cost more than the lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries preferred by Chinese companies, they promise significantly better range.
Why it matters: EV uptake isn’t going to happen unless cars get cheaper, and the main way to lower prices is through battery production, which is estimated to account for 30% to 50% of the total cost of manufacturing an EV. GM (and Ford) are adamant that the LMR tech is the way to solve the battery cost problem.
What’s next: Kelty said that his team has solved voltage fading and plans to roll-out the first LMR-powered vehicles in 2028.—QH