General Motors and Manganese-Rich Lithium Batteries: A Revolution in the World of Electric Vehicles

GM's Efforts in Battery Development

In General Motors' Advanced Laboratories: Located on the outskirts of Detroit, battery experts and engineers are working to understand and optimize lithium-ion batteries. They simulate harsh usage conditions such as high temperatures in deserts, extreme cold in polar regions, and high humidity in tropical forests, in addition to intensive charge and discharge cycle testing. These capabilities allow General Motors to simulate battery performance over 10 years and 250,000 miles of real-world driving in just six months, accelerating the development of electric vehicle batteries.

Challenges Facing the Electric Vehicle Industry

Significant Challenges: The electric vehicle industry is currently facing significant challenges. This is partly due to the persistently high costs of electric vehicles. Additionally, there's a decline in anti-pollution regulations and fuel economy standards, pushing automakers to refocus on traditional fossil fuel vehicles. These challenges have been exacerbated recently by the cancellation of $7,500 federal exemptions for clean cars, which were a key attraction for EV buyers and a sales driver for companies like General Motors. This cancellation resulted in a $1.6 billion loss in General Motors' third-quarter earnings.

Unveiling Manganese-Rich Lithium Batteries (LMR)

Steadfast Commitment: General Motors continues to develop electric battery technology. At its vast technical center, General Motors unveils its groundbreaking 21st-century innovation: Manganese-Rich Lithium (LMR) batteries. LMR batteries are an advanced type of lithium-ion battery, characterized by a high manganese content in the cathode, providing an ideal balance between high energy density and low cost, while enhancing safety aspects (S&P Global, July 18, 2025).

Advantages and Goals of LMR Batteries

LMR Superiority: General Motors asserts that its economical and more sustainable LMR batteries will decisively outperform the best Chinese Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) batteries – currently the globally preferred solution for low cost due to their safety and long lifespan (IEEE Spectrum, August 5, 2025). The company’s new cells are expected to offer a third longer driving range than LFP batteries, at a similar cost. General Motors aims to deliver a range of up to 400 miles according to EPA estimates from its largest SUVs and pickup trucks when these batteries are introduced in 2028. They will also save General Motors at least $6,000 per battery pack, compared to today’s expensive high-nickel cells.

Kurt Kelty's Statements: Kurt Kelty, GM's vice president of batteries, propulsion, and sustainability, considers LMR batteries a true paradigm shift in the industry, far beyond promises that remain confined to laboratories. Kelty has spent his career in this field, having been at Sony in 1991 when the company introduced the first video recorder with a lithium-ion battery, and he spent 11 years leading battery technologies at Tesla. He asserts that these batteries have balanced chemistry, offering high power without sacrificing cycle life or cost.

GM's Investments and the American Supply Chain

Massive Investments: General Motors is currently investing $900 million to build two new battery centers, in addition to over $5 billion already invested in battery operations in the United States. LMR batteries can help overcome China's current dominance by relying on an American supply chain. While Nobel Prize-winning LFP technology was developed at the University of Texas, American companies lagged, allowing China to capitalize on expired patents to build an LFP empire. General Motors asserts that by using LMR, it can surpass LFP performance while maintaining a similar cost.

Overcoming "Voltage Fade" in LMR Batteries

Voltage Fade: LMR technology has been around for a decade, but researchers couldn't overcome voltage issues that faded over time, known as "Voltage Fade," which leads to a gradual decrease in available power and battery life (General Motors News, May 13, 2025). After accelerating its development five years ago, GM started with coin-sized cells, successfully solved durability issues, and gradually developed them into a larger prismatic form factor – stacks of thin cells, roughly the size of a laptop case – which will be used in vehicles.

Ford and Similar Battery Innovations

Similar Development: Ford is also working on developing Manganese-Rich Lithium (LMR) battery chemistry, aiming to introduce electric vehicles with longer range and affordable cost by the end of the decade. This indicates a broad industry trend towards more sustainable and efficient battery solutions (MachEforum, April 24, 2025).

General Motors' Current Battery Strategy

GM's Early Bet: GM bet early on building its own high-nickel NCM batteries, which are the most energy-dense and are currently used in almost all electric vehicles in America. In partnership with LG Energy Solution, GM now produces more lithium-ion cells than any other automaker in North America.

The Chemistry Behind LMR Batteries

LMR batteries: are an innovative compromise, utilizing a healthy dose of abundant manganese, sacrificing only modest range compared to the most powerful high-nickel battery designs, but significantly cheaper and outperforming the driving range and performance of LFP. While today’s NCM batteries contain up to 85% nickel, 10% manganese, and 5% cobalt in the cathode, LMR batteries invert this, with cathodes containing up to 70% manganese, 30% nickel, and 2% or less cobalt (TechCrunch, May 13, 2025). Manganese is extremely inexpensive, offering a significant raw material benefit.

Efficiency and Future Directions

Internal Development Efficiency: GM affirms that its internal processes for developing batteries can reduce the time needed to bring new batteries to showrooms by a full year, with lower costs and higher quality. The company has reduced the testing time for new batteries by 60%, using digital twins and virtual modeling to simulate hundreds of real-world scenarios.

GM's Future Plans: GM still plans to use LFP batteries in lower-cost, shorter-range models, as well as in static energy storage applications. In the absence of government exemptions, GM has opted to absorb the $7,500 cost itself through subsidized lease offers, to maintain electric vehicle sales. Kelty emphasized that the EV industry must be able to stand on its own without subsidies, and that EVs can already match internal combustion engine cars in total cost of ownership. He added that once initial prices are similar, the game will be over for internal combustion engine cars in most applications, because the electric vehicle driving experience is superior.