GM promises profitable EVs with Tesla-beating range
SOUTHFIELD, MICHIGAN: General Motors Co unveiled plans on Wednesday to roll out an electric vehicle for every one of its brands starting this year, vowing they’ll make money and boast top-end range better than any Tesla model currently on the market.
The first of GM’s flotilla of new EVs will be the Cadillac Lyriq luxury SUV debuting in April and a redesigned Chevrolet Bolt small car launching late this year.
A bigger utility-vehicle version of the Bolt will land in showrooms in summer 2021, followed by the electric GMC Hummer pickup that LeBron James teased in a Super Bowl ad.
The battery packs powering GM’s next-generation EVs will be branded Ultium and have pouch-style cells that can be stocked vertically or horizontally.
Their design allows engineers to tailor batteries to different vehicle sizes and body styles, and the company estimates they’ll achieve as much as 400 miles of range, more than the 390 miles Tesla Inc now advertises for its top-end Model S.
Chief executive officer Mary Barra has been on a mission to remake GM
— once the largest automaker in the world — by pulling the company out of regions where it underperformed and shutting down parts of the business that aren’t making money.
The savings wrought by those moves are freeing up resources to invest $20 billion into self-driving and electric vehicles by 2025.
“This is a historic moment for GM,” Barra said in an interview on Wednesday at the automaker’s design centre north of Detroit.
“We will offer EVs from every brand, in every segment and every price point. The path we’re on will get us to an allelectric future profitably.”
The new battery packs will be built using cells made jointly with South Korea’s LG Chem Ltd at a cost of less than $100 per kilowatt hour, the price at which GM has said EVs will rival those of gasoline-powered cars. They’ll use a proprietary low-cobalt chemistry, though the company also said it will license technology to other manufacturers.
During an investor and media event in Warren, Michigan, GM went into greater detail than it has before on how it will be able to bring EV costs down.
One way will be less complexity: The company plans just 19 different battery and drive-unit configurations initially, compared with 550 combinations of internal-combustion powertrain combinations available now.
In a nod to legendary chairman Alfred Sloan’s goal to sell “a car for every purse and purpose,” GM showed off nine different vehicles that will come to market by 2025.
Buick has two different SUVs coming, and GMC will get a Hummer-badged large SUV in addition to the pickup. There’s also a Chevrolet plug-in truck that GM showed on a video screen.
In addition to the Lyriq, GM showed a full-size Cadillac SUV with three rows that looks much like a battery-powered Escalade.
GM president Mark Reuss also revealed a long, hand-built Cadillac flagship sedan called Celestiq that’s envisioned to be the brand’s answer to Bentley.
“The idea is to make a statement that the struggling luxury division can build ultra-premium vehicles with the latest technology,’’ he said.
“Do you think the Cadillac brand is in good shape? No, it isn’t,” Reuss said after the reveal. “But it will be. We will have a whole portfolio of new Cadillacs, one of which will be this transformational brand statement.”
“The keys to offering other models at more affordable prices will be battery chemistry and pack design. Cobalt is the most expensive commodity in a battery cell, and GM will reduce the use of it by 70%,’’ said Andy Oury, lead engineer for GM’s new packs.
The company also is working on a chemistry that has no nickel or cobalt that would eliminate the two most expensive ingredients for EV chemistry.
GM beat Tesla to the punch bringing out an affordable EV with more than 200 miles of range in 2016, a year ahead of the Model 3.
But the company was said to expect to lose as much as $9,000 on each Chevy Bolt sold, and volumes have trailed well behind Tesla’s cheapest sedan.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s next model, the Model Y crossover, is now slated to start deliveries this month, getting a jump start on GM’s new Cadillac.