- General Motors’ new lithium-manganese-rich batteries will be manufactured in Spring Hill, Tennessee.
- The Ultium Cells joint venture with LG Energy Solution also manufactures lithium iron phosphate batteries for energy storage systems.
- Electric vehicles equipped with LMR batteries are expected to be deployed in 2028.
General Motors may be investing heavily in gas-powered trucks, but the company’s plans for electric vehicles are still moving forward. It announced Tuesday that its next-generation lithium-manganese-rich (LMR) battery will be mass-produced at its Ultium Cells joint venture factory with LG Energy Solution in Spring Hill, Tennessee. This is the first time the automaker has recognized a production site for its new EV battery technology.
GM said upgrades to the plant would begin toward the end of this year and be completed by 2028. It added that it would be the first plant in the world to mass produce prismatic LMR cells. Last year, GM invited InsideEVs for a detailed tour of the Warren, Michigan, R&D facility where the cells are developed.
GM Prismatic EV LMR Battery Cell.
Photo by: General Motors
The automaker expects LMR chemistry to deliver 33% more runtime than current lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) batteries, which dominate in China and are the preferred low-cost cells across the industry. The LMR batteries will be installed in GM’s full-size trucks and SUVs, and the automaker said they will deliver north of 400 miles of EPA range.
At their core, LMR batteries are similar to traditional nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) cells. They simply use a much lower percentage of cobalt and nickel, which are dirty and expensive to mine. Instead, the LMR battery will use a much higher percentage of manganese, which GM says is easier to obtain and costs less to mine and process.
That’s part of the reason GM said the LMR battery would cost almost the same as the LFP batteries, while still offering more range. The highest range GM EVs will still use NMC batteries – the LMR will be between these and low-cost LFP cells.
The first electric vehicles equipped with LMR cells are expected to roll out in 2028, and we’ll see if they significantly change the economics of driving large SUVs and trucks compared to what’s on sale today.
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