General Motors Seeks Partnerships To Move Its Electric Car Plans Forward – CleanTechnica

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Like many legacy automakers, General Motors has dialed back its electric car plans recently as growth in the customer demand for cars powered by electrons rather than molecules has cooled. But that doesn’t mean it has taken its eye off the ball completely. There are three pieces of news about the company this week that offer hints about how it is approaching the electric car future.

The first is that General Motors and EVgo have agreed to a plan that will install 400 fast electric car chargers in “flagship locations” throughout the US. What “flagship locations” are is unclear at this time, but the companies say some of them will be in metropolitan areas in states like Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, New York, and Texas. They will be co-branded as EVgo and GM Energy chargers. GM Energy is the charging and energy management division of General Motors.

As my colleague Jennifer Sensiba has reported, each location will have at least twenty 350 kW chargers available and will be well lit with canopies, pull-through spots, and security cameras, In other words, they will look a lot like modern gas stations. GM and EVgo said the new stations would be located near shopping areas that offer dining, coffee shops, and other amenities. The first is expected to begin operation next year.

The new stalls will make use of EVgo’s prefabrication approach, which can reduce the total cost of a new station by 15% and the deployment time by 50%. Similar to Tesla’s prefabricated Supercharger stalls, EVgo’s ready-made structures come with stalls and accompanying equipment already mounted on a metal base plate which is transported from the factory to the charging site. General Motors and EVgo are already collaborating to build nearly 3,000 DC fast chargers in metropolitan areas. 1,000 of them were operational in August of 2023 and the 2,000th is expected to be activated by the end of this year.

General Motors & Hyundai To Cooperate

This next bit of news evokes conversations that have been ongoing for the past few years about how the electric car revolution will lead to realignments in the auto industry. Some companies may go out of business entirely and some companies may decide to join forces in hopes that there is strength in numbers when the wolf is at the door. We just covered struggles Volkswagen is facing. Now on to GM.

According to CNBC, General Motors and Hyundai Motor Group have agreed to explore “future collaboration across key strategic areas” in an effort to reduce capital spending and increase efficiencies. The announcement on September 12, 2024, said the potential areas of shared interest between the two companies include co-development and production of passenger and commercial vehicles, internal combustion engines, as well as electric and hydrogen technologies.

The agreement is a non-binding memorandum of understanding that comes at a time when the auto industry has renewed its focus on capital efficiency following years of aggressive spending to develop electric, autonomous, and software-defined vehicles. Those efforts have yet to result in profits for the car companies. GM and Hyundai also said they will “review opportunities for combined sourcing in areas such as battery raw materials, steel and other areas.”

Spokespersons for the companies declined to provide additional details about the announcement, including potential capital investments, expected savings, or efficiency gains. The agreement comes months after Barra said now is a “prime time” for industry collaboration to share in capital spending. “GM and Hyundai have complementary strengths and talented teams. Our goal is to unlock the scale and creativity of both companies to deliver even more competitive vehicles to customers faster and more efficiently,” Barra said.

“This partnership will enable Hyundai Motor and GM to evaluate opportunities to enhance competitiveness in key markets and vehicle segments, as well as drive cost efficiencies and provide stronger customer value through our combined expertise and innovative technologies,” said Euisun Chung, executive chair of Hyundai Motor Group. This is the first such agreement for Hyundai, according to a spokesman. GM has had many partnerships or deals. Some tie-ups have led to products, but many others have not worked out or did not accomplish as much as initially expected.

Most recently, Honda and GM agreed to jointly produce the new Honda Prologue electric SUV and an upcoming EV from Acura at Spring Hill, Tennessee, where Cadillac manufactures the Lyriq. Both cars are based on the Ultium platform developed by General Motors, but Honda has now decided to go its own way and produce electric cars at its factories in Ohio. It also says it will build a battery factory in Canada.

General Motors & CATL Deal Announced

Speaking of battery factories, General Motors also said on September 12 that it is in talks to buy electric vehicle batteries that would use technology from China’s CATL. The batteries would be assembled at a new factory in the United States, a person with knowledge of the talks told Reuters. Previously, Ford said it planned to produce low-cost lithium-iron batteries at a battery plant it is building in Michigan by using technology licensed from CATL. That plan has drawn fire from Republicans in Congress. Regardless of any political grandstanding, the idea of using batteries based on CATL technology will require some fancy footwork to avoid running afoul of the domestic content rules that apply to tax incentives provided by the Inflation Reduction Act.

The proposed GM factory would be funded and operated by Japanese consumer electronic firm TDK, according to Bloomberg, and is expected to be located in the south of the United States, where it will create more than 1,000 jobs. Talks are still ongoing and many details are still unclear, the source told Reuters, with no final deal expected immediately. A deal could help GM produce lower-cost batteries and avoid new US tariffs by assembling them in the United States.

“Our EV strategy is focused on designing products that continue to lower cost, improve performance and localize production. Battery technology is a key enabler of that strategy. We won’t comment on speculation,” GM said. CATL did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Industry observers have said that if Ford was allowed to proceed with its CATL deal, other automakers would quickly follow suit so they could also cut costs.

The Takeaway

The common denominator in these three announcements is that General Motors may have lowered the flame on its electric car intentions but the pot is still boiling. The big news we are all waiting for is the unveiling of the next version of the Chevy Bolt, which may be one of the most affordable EVs in America. The rumors are that it will be approximately the size of the previous model. It will be based on the same platform as the new Blazer EV and Equinox EV, which can accept up to 150 kW of power for significantly faster charging that the original Bolt, which was hobbled by only being able to accept 55 kW of power.

The fruits of this week’s announcements won’t be available for some time. Hopefully they will arrive in time to meet the next expansion phase of the EV revolution.