GM has announced it will be investing $8 million to double the size and capacity of its advanced battery lab in Warren Michigan., considered the most technologically advanced in the world
The expansion from 30,000 to 63,000 square feet is being done to “expedite the development of electrically driven vehicles for consumers,” said GM in a statement. Construction begins this month and will be completed by summer.
“GM is building on its commitment to lead the development of electric vehicle technology – from battery cell design to the charging infrastructure – and today’s investment furthers our work in this area,” said Micky Bly, GM executive director, global electrical systems, hybrids, electric vehicles and batteries. “This addition will benefit consumers by helping us put cleaner, more efficient vehicles, including the Chevrolet Volt electric vehicle with extended range, on the road more quickly and affordably.”
The current state of the art lab, itself an upgrade from the previous lab where the Volt batteries were first tested, began operations in January 2009. It is used by a staff of more than 1000 engineers to test cells, modules, and entire packs with the latter taking up about half the space.
The expansion will improve capability in six key areas:
1. Safety and abuse tolerance.
2. Buildup and teardown
3. Manufacturing and engineering
4. Charger development and integration
5. Thermal development
6. Battery storage
“We’ve made the commitment to design, develop, validate and manufacture automotive battery technology in-house,” said Bly. “Consolidating these testing capabilities at the Global Battery Systems Lab will reduce costs, provide a competitive advantage, quicken the pace of development and ensure we will design, build and sell the world’s best vehicles.”
The lab is actually part of a greater network of GM advanced battery technology labs including facilities in Germany, China and New York state.
The expanded lab will feature 40 pack cyclers and 32 cell cyclers with a total of 176 testing channels. There will be 33 pack and 16 cell thermal chambers.
The facility is not only used to test GM-developed material but also has an “open door policy” to accept cell sample from outside energy storage and battery vendors.
By investing in and expanding its battery testing facility, GM is signalling its continued intentions and enthusiasm for electrification of the automobile.
Source (GM)
+22
Apr 12th, 2010 (6:26 pm)Clearly the Volt is not going to be the only vehicle to use this battery.
Score one for GM!
Harrier1970
+3
Apr 12th, 2010 (6:31 pm)Agreed!
This provides some good insight into the mindset of the current GM upper management. Clearly they are not intending the Volt to be simply a halo car if they are putting further money into the R&D of far off cars.
+6
Apr 12th, 2010 (6:32 pm)Lyle, your timing to re-energize the site is incredible.
What this seems to mean is that quite possibly, a hint that production numbers might come up.
Also, to me, it is a suggestion that more battery benchmarks have been met, and, additional investment into the battery facility is warranted.
This apparently is more evidence that broader commitment is secured.
GM really means business to be not only the very best, but the very best
by far.
When is NewGMCo stock going to be released? This Summer?
+3
Apr 12th, 2010 (6:36 pm)That’s great news, a lot of square footage and an amazing amount of scientists, engineers and technicians. I’d love to be a fly on the wall to see how it develops moving forward. With so many recent battery announcements and breakthroughs they’ll be very busy for a while just verifying initial claims for all the new batteries being submitted.
I’m looking forward to hearing about new technologies for designing and manufacturing battery packs soon after.
+4
Apr 12th, 2010 (6:37 pm)This is just smart smart smart. What great news – and it’s open-door policy to new vendors and battery technologies is just such great strategy on the way forward!
RECHARGE! James
IF YOU BUILD THEM THEY WILL COME.
+2
Apr 12th, 2010 (6:44 pm)This is good news. Makes me feel more positive to mitigate my recent worries about GM possibly eventually weakening their commitment if they’re forced to price Volts at a loss.
+6
Apr 12th, 2010 (6:48 pm)Dan, this is not a production facility…what it means to me is that GM is taking this seriously, the batteries are the heart of a BEV.
Apr 12th, 2010 (6:50 pm)So, is GM developing battery chemistries and their supply? Or everything after that?
Seems like one giant competitive advantage will be the former, in addition to the latter.
In sports lingo, player development is huge, but first you gotta have great talent.
+1
Apr 12th, 2010 (6:51 pm)I think what this means is that :
+ Preproduction is going good with no showstoppers
+ A reevaluation of projected volumes for 2011 & 2012
+ Possible move to earlier in 2010 for release
Keep your eye on any announcement regarding the battery plant.
All supposition on my part. They are going to go gangbusters to try to take dollars out of the battery production. Best and easiest way to take big bucks off the selling price.
+1
Apr 12th, 2010 (6:55 pm)Good news for sure!
With all that room they can come up with a big enough battery for an AWD variant!
Cheers!
-36
Apr 12th, 2010 (6:58 pm)(click to show comment)
+1
Apr 12th, 2010 (6:59 pm)That’s a whole lot of battery testing…
Good to see it going.
Apr 12th, 2010 (7:05 pm)I wonder what this means in terms of their battery suppliers. Is GM looking to do more extensive testing, or just more testing from different battery manufacturers? It would be interesting to see if GM is looking into all the different types of “breakthough” chemistries you here announced every month or so. Carbon-Flourine, Manganese, whatever.
+1
Apr 12th, 2010 (7:12 pm)$8M is not a ton of money in the car business but the schedule is very aggressive. Obviously GM thinks it needs to expand the facility which for those in favor of the electrification of transportation is good news. Things always move more slowly than you’d like ….
+2
Apr 12th, 2010 (7:19 pm)GM expands the battery lab.
What can we glean from this news? For one, GM expects more people than originally was thought to buy a battery car. And as mentioned here a month ago these will primarily be 2 mode GM hybrids. The second possibility is that GM may be considering keeping up with consumer demand of EREV vehicles. And the third (oh please God) is that GM will produce a 5 passenger Voltec crossover. Such as the Equinox or Orlando.
Recent news…
Price of oil is rising: National average for regular unleaded is $2.86. Here is Southern California regular unleaded is $3.07 per gallon.
Tax credit for buying green: For battery cars bought after December 31, 2009. The minimum credit given is $2,500. The maximum credit is $7,500. The amount of the discount depends on the battery capacity and battery range. There are other factors as well. The car must weigh less than 14,000 pounds, and also must have at least four wheels. The battery also must be able to be charged externally.
More money in circulation: Monday April 12, 2010, 6:44 pm EDT NEW YORK (AP) — The Dow Jones industrial average closed above 11,000 for the first time in a year and a half on investors’ rising hopes about the economy.
=D-Volt
Chevy Orlando (Voltec?)
+1
Apr 12th, 2010 (7:24 pm)GM must be seeing a patten of new innovation, especially since the battery is the
“pot of gold” that can “claw back” lots and lots of petro-dollars.
A pattern of new innovation can clearly yield a quicker development and test timetables,
since lots of preexisting datum already exist in GM’s broad studies on the various battery
chemistry submissions to date.
This can also mean that, say, submission “X-24″ a Lithium-[your element here] chemistry
submission has been seen before in a slightly different chemistry, which attributes are
already known. However, submission “X-24″ inventor has apparently made some breakthrough
with an advance that extends the usefulness and characteristics toward an economic solution worth testing.
Knowledge building upon knowledge is an exponential advancement advantage. This means
that possibly, production numbers might come up due to an increasing confidence level that quick, easy, and economical changes can easily be made to remedy significant problems (such as the heat of the Southwest), right during the initial production runs.
We have heard of this sort of quick, easy, and economical advancement situation several times before with the A123 cells. This larger testing facility is great news.
+1
Apr 12th, 2010 (7:36 pm)While this won’t affect the current version of Volt, it will expand the ability to evaluate newer chemistries and methods. They also may start working on going to the cell level rather than buying cells. Or at least designing their own and farming it out for production.
This is one more step in GM becoming the go-to company for advanced EV designs. It’s all about the battery.
+1
Apr 12th, 2010 (7:42 pm)and to continue the sports anology, all you need to do is BUY that talent. (and if you can afford it create a dynasty!)
WOT
+1
Apr 12th, 2010 (7:52 pm)______________________________________________________________________
This means GM needs the space to start testing Gen2 (smaller and less expensive) pacs.
+1 for the GM Battery Team
______________________________________________________________________
+4
Apr 12th, 2010 (8:06 pm)“GM doesn’t develop Cells. LG does.” Wrong GM is working in collaberation with its battery suppliers to advance cell development. These additional testing facilities enable GM to supply those suppliers with data on their battery designs and engineering, all of which goes to your first sentence. Go back and reread the article carefully; you might note the part covering what the expansion is all about.
Additionally, these facilities will allow for the reduction in battery cost through use of new materials to make a lighter and higher capacity battery, to mention a few goals. They address the vary issue you mention in your first sentence. Besides, the new facilities are devoted to improve battery performance not just for the Volt but additional model EVs. When owners of other manufacturer’s EVs begin to show signs of battery malfunction because the demands upon them are excessive or the need for a battery management systems, it will show that they failed to consider those issues sufficiently. GM will have proven itself superior to the others. The eMini is a good example of what happens to a battery under extreme conditions. It will take a battery design using advanced materials to weather cold or hot climates. Technology is advancing battery development to the point where we will see batteries that can be stressed to those limits. For now GM’s battery management system guarantees that the Volt will function as planned in a wide variety of climates. Nissan’s Leaf will be functional in a limited market where climate will not be a factor.
The Volt will go where other EV’s can’t.
Happy trails to you ’til we meet again,
+3
Apr 12th, 2010 (8:08 pm)1) (as others have pointed out) there are many more types of cell to evaluate than were envisioned when LG Chem was selected for the Volt.
2) GM is planning to build plug-in two-modes and BEVs as well as the Volt. The requirements for these uses will differ from those for EREV.
3) While we continue to hear that Volt numbers can be ramped up, GM has made no change in it’s stated plans.
While we can say that this commitment to research argues well for an expansion of Voltec, there are other reasons why GM might feel the need to do this. I hope that Voltec will be a beneficiary of the bigger battery lab, but I also think we may be breathing just a tad too much into this news.
Apr 12th, 2010 (8:09 pm)This battery lab, in addition to the opening of the electric motor manufacturing plant in Maryland:
http://gm-volt.com/2010/01/16/gm-to-open-electric-motor-plant/
I think this means it’s obvious the commitment by GM is strategic and long-term.
From January:
The third leg is the power electronics that control the manner in which the battery and the motor interact.
Stephens didn’t specifically say if GM plans to build those in house as well, but presumably they will.
“Electric motors, batteries, power-control electronics — you need core expertise in those,” he told USA Today.
+2
Apr 12th, 2010 (8:13 pm)Since speculation is part of the fun of this site…. GM has created a new platform/system/technology in the Voltec and the performance of that system is largely, though far from entirely, dependent on the performance characteristics of the battery pack. As most of us who follow the Volt know, battery performance has dramatically increased in the last decade, especially in the last 5 years. And there has been a lot of money poured into battery technology research with some fairly significant claims being made recently.
If you want to maximize penetration of your Voltec system you would want to use the latest and greatest battery technology within the confines of your pricing window and to do that you need to understand how the batteries perform under real world Voltec driving conditions. You’ve tested the Voltec system enough to start production (well, pre-production) and now you want to be able to test as many battery technologies as possible to see what works best in your new system.
And to do that, you may want to double your existing world class battery testing center AND you would want to structure your contracts with your battery providers in such a way as to allow a rapid transition to a different company should a better battery technology come along.
Well, it makes sense to me but I’ve learned long ago that just because something is plausible does not mean it is true. But it would be great to know that the Voltec system is flexible enough to take advantage of a, hopefully, rapidly, potentially revolutionary, accelerating battery improvement environment so as to maximize their market share and quickly spread the use of the Voltec system.
+1
Apr 12th, 2010 (8:15 pm)Where is your data to back up your comment about GM over-designing their battery pack ? Have your driven you Mini-E for 10 Years ? Have you even seen the Nissan Leaf on the road ? Show me the data ?
+7
Apr 12th, 2010 (8:39 pm)+1
Apr 12th, 2010 (8:46 pm)My guess is this is in response to the Leaf costing so little (compared to what most of us thought it would cost). They probably asked what do we need to do today to get our Gen 2 costs down and ramp up production to a level that gets the price point near the leaf. Although this isn’t the battery assembly facility it is a testing facility and more testing can give a higher assurance that the packs will last the claimed 150,000 miles. Mote testing capacity will allow different variants of the pack and hopefully show places that are over engineered
+1
Apr 12th, 2010 (8:52 pm)I believe the Volt’s battery pack is supposed to weigh in at about 400 lbs (180 kg), but does anyone know how much the cells weigh?
The reason I ask, is that the production cells seem to be performing better than initially anticipated. See this recent presentation from CPI;
http://www.electricdrive.org/index.php?ht=a/GetDocumentAction/i/15307
On slide 2, it is stated that production cells are providing ~200 Wh/kg (energy storage) and 3000 W/kg (power). So if only 80 kg of the 180 kg battery pack weight is for cells, this equates to a 16 kWh battery pack. However, the power available from these cells is 240 kW!!
It is possible that the pack may contain more than 80 kg of cells, yielding a pack with more than the 16 kWh of energy originally spec’d.
I think working with LG Chem/CPI, along with verification in the lab has helped to push the Li-Ion batteries to new levels of performance. Certainly will be interesting to see the final performance for the Volt’s battery pack!
+1
Apr 12th, 2010 (8:59 pm)Good news just keeps coming.
Tom
Apr 12th, 2010 (9:01 pm)Probably ramping up testing so they can produce and sell all those GM BEV’s … . . . . . in India.
http://blogs.edmunds.com/greencaradvisor/2010/04/gm-says-it-will-launch-electric-chevrolet-spark-in-selected-indian-cities-this-year.html
+1
Apr 12th, 2010 (9:28 pm)As much as anything, imagine the talent and brainpower GM will pack in here. Now look at the competition–NO, not @ Ford, Toyota, Tesla, etc., but at LG Chem, A123 and others.
This strikes me as ‘GM vs. The Batteryheads.’ If I am right, it is a hugely audacious move by what is still an industrial giant to create an in-house vehicle(pun intended) that will compete against companies you would expect to be more nimble and innovative.
However, when I talked with GM officials @ NYAuto Show, it was made clear to me that they have huge faith in their own research/testing that was sparked by the Volt project.
I can only suggest we sit up and ‘enjoy the ride,’ while we see if this enhanced competition will give us a dramatic variant on Moore’s Law.
-14
Apr 12th, 2010 (10:20 pm)(click to show comment)
Apr 12th, 2010 (11:15 pm)Kewl!
Apr 12th, 2010 (11:17 pm)The over-engineering angle is where my little mind went to first, as well. GM’s Volt has waded into the pool with enough life-preservers on to mimic the Michelin Man. Once they find that sweet spot(s), such that they may not need to tote twice the battery power around in order to *conservatively* insure long-life and performance, they will be even farther ahead of the game. And then fold in new chemistry advances being tested in what amounts to real-time, and they have a huge *ongoing* leg-up on the competition!
All this intense speculation sure gets the juices flowing! (pun intended).
Note to Lyle: Not too sure that late night posts are a great thing – how is one supposed to *sleep* now!?! (lol). I don’t get out much…
Be well and believe,
Tagamet
Let’s Just Get The VOLTS ‘ Wheels On The Road!!****NPNS
Apr 12th, 2010 (11:57 pm)Keep ‘em coming for us west coasters!
-1
Apr 13th, 2010 (12:04 am)This is a positive step. I hope by now GM management noticed the massive impressive step given by Nissan and they will try to prepare true EV cars ahead. Remember that if Nissan is successful, we may see the Volt design last only one generation.
Apr 13th, 2010 (12:12 am)Just please pick someplace that doesn’t resemble Moscow cercia 1992. I’d love to work on EVs again, there is just no way I’d ever live in Detroit.
Apr 13th, 2010 (2:32 am)Right, It’s kinda nice for once to be able to post a response without having to wade through 150 others first to see if someone else has said the same thing.
+1
Apr 13th, 2010 (2:39 am)Exciting news to get an insight into GM’s expanding range in EVs. Shows they are not writing this off as a niche vehicle, but a base of an entire new vehicle paradigm shift.
Apr 13th, 2010 (2:40 am)That was my immediate thought, as well. but I know nothing about how GM makes decisions or how long it would take after a decision before an announcement like this. Is there any chance this could have been triggered by Nissan’s price announcement?
Apr 13th, 2010 (7:54 am)This is obvious.
GM expanded their battery lab so they can test E-Store batteries.
There gonna need AT LEAST 1000 engineers for that.
+1
Apr 13th, 2010 (7:57 am)It is my hope that GM will overtake every other auto manufacturer in the new area of electrically driven autos. I can see GM actually being in the forefront of this new era if they play their cards right.
It is important to be aggressive here. This is where the Volt should be released in sufficient numbers to put one in every driveway, not one in each city. The ramp up to capacity should go quickly. I know a lot of people who do not read this site nor keep up with the Volt progress except for the information I give them from time to time. These people all want a Volt and if its not available to them when they want one they’ll become disenchanted. That would be a big problem for GM after I’ve talked the car up for three years.
+1
Apr 13th, 2010 (9:57 am)I agree, this is more good news and seems like a bit of confirmation senior management hasn’t pushed EV/EREV technology off to the back burner.
Don’t want to read too much into it either – I’ll be really happy if they announce their tripling the intended capacity of their battery manufacturing facility. But this is good news. Keep it coming GM..
+1
Apr 13th, 2010 (10:04 am)Cool news, if I weren’t fairly close to retirement I’d be putting in my resume. As others have said $8 million is a drop in the overall bucket, but it still shows a commitment. If nothing else perhaps the lead-acids we haul around in our conventional cars could be replaced with something lighter.
People post press release links for super-fantastic new battery types all the time, here and elsewhere, it’s good that someone will be separating the wheat from the chaff. Many of these cells with amazing performance numbers have “minor little issues” they forget to mention, such as a very short lifetime.
Apr 13th, 2010 (10:52 am)It’s time for GM to become independent and not rely on Korea for their Batteries! Good step!
Apr 13th, 2010 (10:55 am)Excellent news. I wonder of this will help them in the effort to get the DOE grants statik discussed in his op-ed recently?
Apr 13th, 2010 (11:03 am)I was convinced looking at the first lab photos that 30,000 sq.ft. was rather tight. This is more like what it should be than some sort of statement. Otherwise, if a statement is being made its that Leadership is ramping up playing catch-up.
Apr 13th, 2010 (1:28 pm)Just a SWAG, but I’d guess the weight of the actual cells is under half the weight of the pack. There is a lot of “other stuff” there — thick shell, insulation, connectors, heat transfer apparatus, balancing circuitry, wiring, etc. So 80/180 sounds about right to me.
I’m sure the Volt’s existing cells can deliver power way in excess of what will ever be required. The load determines the current draw, not the battery, unless the battery is a limiting factor, which would be a poor design. Plugging a 100 watt bulb into a 20 amp circuit at home doesn’t make the bulb pull 20 amps. Hobby lithiums have reached the point (35-40C discharge) where if you used them at their full possible current draw, they would be empty in under 2 minutes. The battery current should never be a limiting factor for electric vehicles, even at the current technology level, unless perhaps you are an electric drag racer. So while higher discharge currents are always nice, what we have now should be good enough.
I just wish I could get some of these CPI cells for model airplane use! Although I generally fly much smaller models.
Apr 13th, 2010 (6:43 pm)Good to see the increased capacity… more employees… etc… what about making your own batteries? and Motors?
I’ve been saying it since 2000 when I rented a EV1 …. once enough people drive a electric driveline people will choose the electric for it’s simplicity … no transmission effortless power…. when GM starts putting in the hydrogen fuel cell … it will put the ICE out of business.
Apr 13th, 2010 (7:35 pm)Although GM will eventually get into manufacturing their own cells, I think this is to evaluate more of the new chemistries being announced frequently. They are very thorough in their research and won’t choose the next chemistry on vendor hype. Don’t forget it took them 3 years to decide that LG Chem was the best. Just based on my limited knowledge, I thought it was obvious, but this is only by reading, and certainly there are many important points like performance at different temperatures that are not available just by searching the web. That said, I hope they take a good look at my current favorite, Dr. Nazar’s Lithium Sulfur battery
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2009/05/canadian-research-team-reports-major-breakthrough-in-lithium-battery-technology?cmpid=WNL-Friday-May22-2009
As far as I can tell, this has got every feature you would want, much higher energy density, very high cycle life, non-toxic cheap materials, high power, wide temperature range. But this is still in the lab and needs to be developed into a commercial reality.
Apr 15th, 2010 (6:22 am)The quicker companies start upping their EV efforts the better. The world won’t wait forever, and the sooner EV usage becomes ubiquitous then the sooner mother nature can start sewing herself back together again – EV is just the shot in the arm that she needs. I know that sounds a little pious and didactic but it’s true.