M/T: GM's EV strategy

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kevm14
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Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

M/T: GM's EV strategy

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https://www.motortrend.com/news/gm-outl ... 84EFDFCD38
The EVs are coming, says General Motors, and they will be fast, furious, and profitable. The rollout will start with an updated Chevrolet Bolt this year, and then comes the really big and new stuff: electric pickups for GMC and Chevrolet, SUVs and a enormous flagship for Cadillac, the return of the Hummer name, and a flotilla of midsize electric crossovers filling the gaps in between.

It is all designed to show that, while Tesla has been out front on electric vehicles, GM has the might and volume to take over leadership, according to GM CEO Mary Barra during a day of EV immersion for automotive media and investment analysts at the Warren Technical Center outside Detroit.
I like this. GM actually has a lot of experience in this area and they should leverage it.
There is a lot on tap that we know about as GM plans to have 20 new EVs for sale by 2023.
Here is some of what is coming up.
Some of it we knew was coming, like updates to the Chevrolet Bolt that has been the sole GM EV for sale in the U.S. since its introduction four years ago. But there is a second, longer, crossover version of the Bolt coming for the 2022 model year to be sold alongside the regular Bolt.
We have also been promised a Cadillac midsize crossover that we now learn goes by the name Lyriq. It is coming in early 2022 with a giant curved OLED touchscreen, and we'll see the production model on April 2. We did not know Cadillac was working on a new full-size flagship sedan called the Celestiq; it will have a giant glass roof, four doors, and four seats, and it will be hand-built in the Detroit area within the next few years.
A Super Bowl ad that teased the return of the Hummer name ramped up anticipation for that new electric pickup. Now we know GM has plans for a GMC Hummer EV SUT long-wheelbase pickup truck that goes into production in late 2022 at the Detroit-Hamtramck plant. The truck will be unveiled May 20. But there is also a short-wheelbase GMC Hummer SUV coming at a later date. Chevrolet will also get a full-size electric pickup, while the same basic electric underpinnings will serve under a full-size Cadillac SUV.

GM has a flexible dedicated electric vehicle architecture (BEV3), motors developed in-house, and battery modules it calls Ultium to be able to make models ranging from 250 to 1,000 horsepower. It can offer vehicles with one, two or three motors, any number of battery modules, base models and ones with off-road chops and all-wheel drive.
Click on this to make it animate:
GM-EV-Teaser.gif
Some battery info:
GM has partnered with LG Chem to make proprietary Ultium-branded battery cells for its electric vehicles; they'll be produced at a former GM car plant in Lordstown, Ohio. GM says the pouch-style Ultium cells are unique because they can be stacked vertically or horizontally inside the battery pack and thus be tailored to each vehicle's layout. In terms of energy, the overall battery packs range from 50 to 200 kWh, the latter of which would provide range of up to 400 miles. They're designed for Level 2 and DC fast-charging. While most vehicles will have 400-volt battery packs and up to 250-kW fast-charging capability, the trucks will have 800-volt packs and 350 kW fast-charging. To date only Porsche's Taycan is designed to use 800-volt packs.

The goal is to reduce the cost of the cells to less than $100 per kWh early in the platform's lifecycle and drastically reduce the overall cost of electric vehicles. Honda is also working with GM and LG Chem to develop an advanced battery that is smaller and more power dense. The whole industry is working on a breakthrough in batteries to reduce cost while extending vehicle range.
I was reading a Volvo article about EVs and I think there is some confusion on battery engineering. There is a difference between battery cell production, and battery cell integration, which I would refer to as battery pack production. As far as I can tell, neither Tesla or Volvo are going to make their own cells, but Tesla engineers its own packs and I guess so will Volvo. Judging from the above, GM is still partnering with LG Chem for cells but seems to be making their own packs (rather than outsourcing the entire thing). They need to spin this just as hard as Tesla and Volvo so people understand. Also, "pouch-style" sounds more like a Li-Poly (not sure what the actual chemistry is) and is different than what Tesla uses.

Oh, see that little nugget on the Porsche Taycan using 800V packs? Well this did happen:
https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a3098 ... nl19429401

Of course the article reads with a certain bias but their points are still well taken. It's not like this isn't going to get scrutiny and made as safe as possible. But I digress.

This gets more into the business side (and probably the reason for more PR noise on this, and rightly so):
The General has no plans to abandon profitable conventional trucks and SUVs or to neglect any of its brands. But Barra is clear: The future is electric and the majority of the company's resources have been shifted to this work. GM will spend more on electric vehicles over the next five years than it will invest in gasoline-powered vehicles. GM is allocating more than $20 billion in capital and engineering resources to its electric- and autonomous-vehicle programs. The plan is to be selling a million EVs a year in North America and China by mid-decade.

All this while being profitable and maintaining margins. "That's our job," Barra says.

So far Wall Street has not shown GM much love for its EV efforts, and Tesla remains the darling. Tesla has a market-cap value more than three times that of GM despite its spotty earnings and much smaller total volumes. Even so, Tesla is the electric-vehicle sales leader, moving 367,500 EVs globally in 2019. In comparison, GM sold 16,400 Chevrolet Bolt EVs in the U.S. and another 60,000 electric vehicles in China. Electric-vehicle sales in the U.S. are forecast to more than double from 2025 to 2030, reaching about 3 million units annually.
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