GM’s $900 million bet on a battery chemistry no one has commercialised could slash EV prices by 2028

TL;DR

GM opened a 500,000-square-foot Battery Cell Development Centre to bridge R&D and factory production for its new LMR battery chemistry. If successful, LMR could cut EV battery costs by $6,000 per vehicle and reach trucks by 2028.

Hidden among the landmarks of General Motors’ Warren Tech Center outside Detroit is a pair of nondescript off-white buildings that house the company’s most consequential investment in years. The new Battery Cell Development Centre, spanning 500,000 square feet, is the lynchpin of GM’s plan to bring a new class of cheaper EV batteries to market a year earlier than planned.

The chemistry in question is LMR, or lithium-manganese-rich. GM says it is almost as energy-dense as the nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) cells in its current EVs, but at a cost comparable to the lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) cells that power budget models like the Chevrolet Bolt. In a truck like the Silverado EV, GM...

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