General Motors has announced a joint venture SolidEnergy Systems to improve the battery life of its electric vehicles. SolidEnergy Systems was a company spun off from MIT. The companies plan on building a test facility in Woburn, Massachusetts, for a high capacity preproduction battery by 2023. This partnership was announced by GM president Mark Reuss. Kent Helfrich, the executive director or GM's global electrification and battery systems has stated that the entire fleet will be powered by batteries by 2035. "In the long run, what this is going to mean is more range and lower cost," Helfrich said. "And it'll also mean most likely smaller batteries, so a lighter weight vehicle," he added on the importance of improving the efficiency of batteries and their density.
The Hummer EV will be the first car based on the GM ultium batteries
GM, of course, has been hard at work developing its ultium battery platform which could enable vehicles with more than 700 kilometres of range. The first vehicle is based on the ultium batteries will be the GMC Hummer EV which will have a slightly lesser range at upwards of 500 kilometres. But then again, this will be the first generation product that will go into production by the end of 2021.
With this new joint venture with SolidEnergy Systems, GM could be looking at elevating its battery efficiency even further, however, GM is sticking to the 720 kilometres range that it has touted since last year.
"Founded in 2012 by MIT alumnus and former postdoc Qichao Hu '07, SolidEnergy Systems has developed an "anode-free" lithium metal battery with several material advances that make it twice as energy-dense, yet just as safe and long-lasting as the lithium-ion batteries used in smartphones, electric cars, wearables, drones, and other devices," states the MIT website about SolidEnergy Systems.
Ultium Batteries will be used in GM's third gen EVs
This technology shouldn't be mistaken for solid-state batteries, but instead should be focussed on standard liquid electrolytes. GM also admits that it has been doing some R&D towards solid-state batteries which are being pursued by companies like QuantumScape which is backed by Volkswagen and Bill Gates.
GM has been an investor in SolidEnergy Systems since 2015 through its VC arm so this JV is no surprise. GM has also invested $3.2 million in another startup called Sakti3 that has been working on solid-state batteries. It is also working on building a new battery factory.
