General Motors furthers its ‘all-electric future’ efforts

Advancing its mission to develop an ‘all electric, zero emissions future’, General Motors (GM) is set to launch its Ultium Cells LLC battery cell manufacturing facility in Lordstown, seeking to employ over 1,100 people in Ohio.

Since May 2020, GM has been in partnership with LG Chem, participating in a joint venture known as Ultium Cells LLC. The joint venture will mass-produce Ultium battery cells for electric vehicles.

“We are excited to share our vision of an all-electric future as we begin adding members to our highly-technical battery cell manufacturing team,” said Thomas Gallagher, plant director, Ultium Cells LLC. “This facility will lead us into a new era of manufacturing and sustainability as we push toward a zero-emissions future. We are very grateful for the Lordstown community’s continued support.”

Across its US facilities GM is investing billions of dollars to support electric vehicle manufacturing, investments include US$2.3bn investment into the Ultium Cells LLC facility which will have a capacity of over 30 gigawatt hours with potential for expansion.

“We want to put everyone in an EV. The Ultium propulsion system allows us to provide customers with exactly what they want – whether it be a car, truck or SUV. Our joint venture with LG Chem is exciting because we’re working together to drive down battery cell costs to accelerate EV adoption,” added Ken Morris, GM vice president of Autonomous and Electric Vehicle Programs.

As part of its joint venture with LG Chem, the two companies predict that the development and mass production of battery cells by its facility will drive down the cost of cells to below US$100 per kilowatt-hour at full volume. In addition, the new batteries are expected “to have some of the highest nickel and lowest cobalt content in a large format pouch cell,” commented GM.

In the past few months, GM has made significant efforts towards an ‘all-electric, zero emissions future’ including its unveiling of Factory ZERO and its investment of US$2bn into transforming its Spring Hill plant for electric vehicle manufacturing.

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Image source: General Motors