General Motors President Mark Reuss has used a Washington Post Live event to announce a new Li-Metal battery partnership.
Details are limited, but the automaker is teaming up with SolidEnergy Systems to jointly develop Li-Metal batteries.
These hold great promise as Reuss noted they have twice the energy density as traditional lithium-ion batteries, while also being up to 60% cheaper. The cost reduction promises to make EVs available to everyone, even at the “low end.”
Li-Metal batteries could also make range anxiety a thing of the past as Reuss suggested they could enable future EVs to travel 500-600 miles (805-966 km) on a single charge. This is nearly twice as far as the 2022 Chevrolet Bolt and up to 150 miles (241 km) farther than GM’s first-generation Ultium batteries, which will be used in the Cadillac Lyriq and GMC Hummer EV.
If that wasn’t exciting enough, Reuss also noted potential performance applications. Given that Li-Metal batteries have twice the energy density, it would be possible to use lightweight battery packs in high-performance models while still allowing them to have decent ranges.
The company has already seen their potential as initial prototype batteries have been subjected to 150,000 miles (241,402 km) of simulated testing at the Warren Tech Center. The automaker also revealed plans for a joint a prototyping line in Woburn, Massachusetts which will build “a high-capacity, pre-production battery by 2023.” If everything goes according to plan, we could seen them in production vehicles in the middle of the decade.
In a statement, Reuss said “Affordability and range are two major barriers to mass EV adoption. With this next-generation Ultium chemistry, we believe we’re on the cusp of a once-in-a-generation improvement in energy density and cost. There’s even more room to improve in both categories, and we intend to innovate faster than any other company in this space.”
