GM boards go with MIT spin-out to cut EV battery costs by 60%

General Motors has signed a deal with a Massachusetts Institute of Technology spin-out to jointly develop the next generation of electric vehicle batteries that are expected to reduce the cost of the technology by 60%.

The partnership with Singapore-based SolidEnergy Systems, which was founded by MIT grad Qichao Hu, focuses on new battery chemistry to reduce the size of the batteries while increasing the range of an electric car. This then helps to reduce the costs of the vehicles.

As part of the deal, GM and SolidEnergy Systems plan to build a prototype production line in Woburn, Massachusetts, by 2023, for a “high-capacity pre-production” battery.

GM previously announced that the second generation of its EV batteries and platform, known as Ultium, would cut the cost of current EVs, such as the Chevrolet Bolt EV, by 60% by the middle of the decade.

“The Ultium platform was actually designed and built with changes like this in mind,” Kent Helfrich, GM’s executive director of global electrification and battery systems, told CNBC. “We know battery technology changes very quickly … so we had to build that kind of flexibility and bandwidth into our platform.”

Officials declined to disclose financial details of the commitment. GM’s venture capital division initially invested an undisclosed amount in SolidEnergy Systems in 2015.

The new batteries are made from lithium metal instead of lithium ion, as modern electric vehicles use today. The switch changes the chemistry of the battery to allow for higher energy density and longer range from a battery of similar size or range with a smaller battery.

According to the automaker, the first prototype batteries have already traveled 150,000 simulated test miles at research and development labs at GM’s Global Technical Center in Warren, Michigan.

Further development of the future batteries comes for the automaker that will release EVS later this year with its first generation Ultium battery cells, starting with the GMC Hummer EV for $ 112,595.

The Hummer is part of GM’s plan to launch 30 new or redesigned EVs by 2025, under a $ 27 billion investment in electric and autonomous vehicles. GM also recently announced plans to sell exclusively electric vehicles by 2035.

GM’s announcement comes a day after a new report from Cairn Energy Research Advisors stating that EV leader Tesla is expected to continue to have the lowest costs in the EV industry through the end of this decade, with GM bridging the gap.

Helfrich specifically declined to discuss those findings, but he said GM plans to “innovate faster than anyone in space” and be “the world’s largest partner in terms of developing solutions that will drive the auto industry. electrify. “