GM's Ultium Batteries

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/17/gm-is-betting-its-ultium-batteries-will-lead-the-automaker-to-ev-dominance.html

by MrVitaliy • 4 years ago

11 9 4 years ago

MrVitaliy• 4 years ago

Can they out-tesla Tesla in battery market?

panick21_4• 4 years ago

Not really. This is basically the Tesla playbook from 2014. Sign large capx sharing deal with battery maker for a new factory. Ultium is pretty traditional type of platform, nothing really amazing about it. Comparable to the MEB platform from VW but VW had it out for much longer.

Tesla has vehicles selling today with batteries from 4 different battery makers (Panasonic, LG, CATL and Tesla). In addition they use a multitude of different cell types, 2170, 4680, 18650 and some prismatic as well. That is what you need to be able to handle if are the largest consumer of batteries on the plant.

GM basically makes zero BEV right now and they will slowly start with these Ultium batteries over the next couple years. Essentially they way, way behind. And of course they don't even have plans to make their own cells the way Tesla did.

BYD and VW are far more real in terms of competition.

toomuchtodo• 4 years ago

I simply don’t understand it. As a Tesla investor from IPO (no current holdings besides a sentimental single paper share), it was exceedingly clear during investor presentations that cells were going to be the bottleneck to mass EV production, and the gigafactory methodology was the path to success. Why did legacy automakers make no effort? My only explanation is that they thought I’d that they were overly confident in the status quo.

https://www.tesla.com/sites/default/files/blog_attachments/g...

The first page tells you everything you needed to know. "It always seems impossible until it's done."

Tagbert• 4 years ago

Ultium is GM’s 4th EV platform.

- EV1 was really a prototype.

- The Volt was a transition vehicle but it cost too much to build in volumes.

- They are selling 2 versions on the Bolt platform. The standard Bolt and the EUV.

- GM started selling small numbers of the Hummer on Ultium last last year.

- The Cadillac Lyriq began shipping to customers last month.

Next year, they have 3 models scheduled to launch: Silverado pickup, Blazer CUV, and the much less expensive Equinox. This battery plant is the first of 3 that they are building in the US.

rschapman• 4 years ago

They are building this plant right up the road from me. It is huge. Displaced a large section of farm land they had bought when building out the Saturn plant.

karmakaze• 4 years ago

This page from 2020 has some details on Jltium batteries[0]

I don't know enough to compare to others' with it being proprietary and using less cobolt perhaps making it significant for GM.

panick21_4• 4 years ago

Ultium uses pretty standard high nickel batteries. You wont find a huge difference in cobalt content between the major battery producers. Pretty much all of them are pushing cobalt out of their high nickel cathodes but nobody has really managed that yet.

GM's Ultium Batteries

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