The future of mobility and energy infrastructure is rapidly changing, and it’s all thanks to battery advancements. During the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI) Fall Colloquium, Kurt Kelty, who heads up battery, propulsion, and sustainability work at General Motors (GM), shared some exciting insights. He delved into GM’s ongoing endeavors to transfer highly-touted, next-generation battery technologies from the realms of research to commercial application. Kelty’s presentation was a central segment in the MITEI Presents: Advancing the Energy Transition speaker series.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s driving GM\u2019s battery innovation strategy? Three major aspects undergird their approach: affordability, performance, and supply chain localization. As Kelty emphasized, the high costs associated with batteries pose a significant obstacle to the widespread adoption of electric vehicles (EV). Specifically, batteries constitute around a third of an EV\u2019s total expense. “How do you drive down the cost? It’s the batteries,” he shared with the colloquium attendees.<\/p>\n
But the cost isn’t the only concern. GM is also investing considerable efforts to boost battery performance, focusing primarily on aspects such as charge speed and energy density. Furthermore, localizing the supply chain is a third, crucial element. According to Kelty, “We’ve got to build up our resilience and our independence here in North America, so we’re not relying on materials coming from China.”<\/p>\n
Of the several strategies being adopted to hasten this innovative process, two stand out. GM is pouring resources into virtualization and artificial intelligence technologies. These techniques offer a streamlined approach to model and simulate battery performance even before constructing physical prototypes. Kelty illustrates this idea, \u201cIf you want to modify the nickel content ever so slightly, we can very quickly model: \u2018OK, how\u2019s that going to affect the energy density? The safety? The charge capability?\u2019\u201d Such technology has drastically cut down the testing phase from months to merely a few days.<\/p>\n
A key development GM is working on is the use of lithium manganese-rich (LMR) batteries. These batteries, compared to the high-nickel batteries frequently used in U.S EVs, reduce nickel content and up manganese levels. The result? A cost-effective battery that doesn\u2019t compromise on the range. Kelty underscores this point, \u201cThat\u2019s what\u2019s really a breakthrough. LMR batteries offer performance levels similar to high-nickel batteries but with cost metrics closer to lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) batteries.” LFP batteries are popular in the Chinese market owing to their cost-effectiveness and high safety. GM has ambitious plans to be the first automaker to bring LMR batteries to market, projected for 2028.<\/p>\n
But GM\u2019s battery innovation isn’t just limited to moving vehicles. The company is leveraging its capabilities for grid-scale energy storage, an area witnessing high growth, especially with the rising demand from data centers. Kelty marked this point, \u201cIt\u2019s a big market right now, but it\u2019s growing very quickly.\u201d And on top of that, GM is evaluating how EV batteries can contribute to the broader energy ecosystem. Vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technologies feature high on their list. V2G allows EVs to both charge and return electricity to the grid, offering possible economic benefits and grid-stability advantages.<\/p>\n
Kelty remains hopeful about the future of battery technology and manufacturing in the United States, given the combination of ongoing innovation, increased manufacturing capabilities, and supply chain localization. In his words, \u201cWe\u2019ve got the technology here to make it happen. We\u2019ve always had the innovation here. Now, we\u2019re getting more and more of the manufacturing,\u201d he said. Kelty believes that the United States is on track to become a worldwide leader in battery production.<\/p>\n
You can keep abreast of this rapidly-evolving field and future events at the MITEI\u2019s Events page<\/a>. Find the original article hier<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Revolutionizing Energy with Battery Innovation The future of mobility and energy infrastructure is rapidly changing, and it’s all thanks to battery advancements. During the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI) Fall Colloquium, Kurt Kelty, who heads up battery, propulsion, and sustainability work at General Motors (GM), shared some exciting insights. He delved into GM’s ongoing endeavors to transfer highly-touted, next-generation battery technologies from the realms of research to commercial application. Kelty’s presentation was a central segment in the MITEI Presents: Advancing the Energy Transition speaker series. The Road to Advanced Batteries: Key Goals and Breakthrough Technology What\u2019s driving GM\u2019s battery innovation strategy? […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":7509,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ai-news","post--single"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aitrendscenter.eu\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aitrendscenter.eu\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aitrendscenter.eu\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aitrendscenter.eu\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aitrendscenter.eu\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/aitrendscenter.eu\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aitrendscenter.eu\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aitrendscenter.eu\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aitrendscenter.eu\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aitrendscenter.eu\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}