GM's new “manganese-rich” battery promises cheap electric cars in 2028

GM revealed on Tuesday that the new battery chemistry reaction called Lithium-Manganis rich in lithium (LMR), it said it should cut costs when it comes to providing the most advanced batteries on the market.

“With LMR, we can offer over 400 miles of range in the truck while significantly reducing battery costs,” Kurt Kelty, vice president of battery, propulsion and sustainability, told TechCrunch.

Compared with GM's most advanced cells, LMR will also significantly reduce the amount of nickel and cobalt, two key minerals not readily available from domestic sources in the United States.

Today, Chevrolet Silverado EV uses nickel-Mangana-copper vesicular (NMC) cells to drive 492 miles with full charge. The impressive range comes with a high price. Electric trucks start at over $73,000 (the cost reduction for the fleet version). GM is planning to use a cheap version of lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cells that will reduce the price by $6,000, but will also reduce the range to 350 miles.

New technology will retain LFP price cuts without sacrificing too much range.

GM says new cells will be cheaper for several reasons. First, manganese is cheaper than cobalt or nickel. LMR chemical cobalt will be zero to 2%, nickel will be 30% – 40% and 60% – 70% manganese. This is significantly less than today's leading NMC cells, which are as high as 10% cobalt and 80% nickel.

Previous attempts to degrade manganese-rich batteries tend to rapidly degrade. General Motors thinks it has solved the problem. The automaker experimented with a range of materials and manufacturing processes to achieve current formulations.

The LMR battery pack will contain prism cells instead of pouches. Today's Ultium batteries use the latter. Switching to prism cells with rigid shells will help the company make a battery pack with more than 50% less parts, Kelty said.

“We will save a lot of money,” he said.

GM has grand plans for LMR, and chemistry may spread throughout the EV lineup. Andy Oury, business plan manager at GM, said LMR could “take up a large part of the market”, pushing LFP to entry-level vehicles and expensive NMC to applications that require long distances and high energy density.

The new cells will be manufactured by Ultium Cells, a joint venture between GM and LG Energy Solutions. Through Ultium, the two companies invest billions of dollars in battery manufacturing in the United States.

Both have been pursuing LMR for many years. General Motors owns more than 50 patents on LMR, although LG has been working on the technology itself as well. Kelty acknowledged that LG might make its own version of LMR units, and that LMR cells do not invade GM's patents, thus making the chemical reaction more extensive. “It would be fun to see what it all is going to be like,” Kelty said.

General Motors' LMR research has been underway for ten years. Its efforts have become high over the past few years as engineers successfully produce large cells similar to those of electric vehicles on the road today.

General Motors' test method has resulted in about 300 large format cells, which is equivalent to a typical driving of about 1.5 million miles, said Kushal Narayanaswamy, senior director of cell engineering at the automaker.

The company can modify its existing manufacturing plants in just a few years to adapt to new chemical reactions and then expand production. In particular, the scale scale jumped the first Ultium cell.

Kelty is confident that GM can reach its 2028 target.

“It fits all our performance metrics, we have a partner that we are going to manufacture, and we have a manufacturing location,” he said. “The other thing is that the supply chain is more local than Gaunik or LFP, so we really motivate to do that. There’s a lot of things together here, and that really makes us want to grow quickly.”