Common Motors has determined that it’ll ditch the “Ultium,” the title of its electrical automobile and battery applied sciences mission, after a number of years of utilizing it to indicate issues associated to its improvement of EVs.
Earlier than its Investor Occasion on Tuesday, GM stated that it might drop the title in an announcement, bringing an finish to a number of years of developments which have fallen underneath the moniker:
“As GM continues to increase its EV enterprise, the corporate is now not branding its electrical automobile structure, battery and cells, or EV parts with the Ultium title, beginning in North America.”
Make no mistake, the corporate is not ditching its improvement of EVs, batteries, or different applied sciences. All of these issues will nonetheless be developed and stay underneath GM’s enterprise, however the firm noticed it as time to lose the Ultium label for these initiatives.
Why? GM has already shifted its battery technique to include varieties and chemistries outdoors of the Ultium pouch cells. These are produced by LG with nickel, manganese, and cobalt.
It has already put $3 billion right into a battery manufacturing deal for prismatic cells with Samsung SDI, and its VP of Battery, Kurt Kelty, advised The Data earlier this week that it’s hoping to simplify its battery technique throughout a number of suppliers to optimize manufacturing and its autos:
“We’re transferring from a single-source, single-form issue, single-chemistry to a multi-chemistry, multi-form issue, multi-supplier technique. What we’re going to do going ahead is actually optimize for every automobile.”
It’s additionally no secret that GM has struggled to really get its EV phase transferring to some extent the place it’s snug. Chevrolet, a GM model, was fourth in general EV market share in america final yr with 5.6 p.c. Cadillac had 0.8 p.c, GMC had 0.3 p.c.
GM was the third-best-selling EV maker within the U.S. final yr, holding 5.6 p.c of the market. Tesla was first with 59.1 p.c, and Ford was second with 6.5 p.c, in response to CleanTechnica knowledge.
Though GM has its place on the rostrum, it, like Ford, has actually struggled to make a substantial dent in Tesla’s dominating market share. Ford determined to prioritize hybrids over EVs in an announcement earlier this yr, shifting its focus as prospects are extra involved in the very best of each ICE and EV engines.
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