Charging ahead with new EV batteries

May 16, 2025Newsletter Archives

This week, General Motors lifted the curtain on our work on the electric vehicle battery technology known as LMR, a reference to “lithium manganese rich” cathodes. Researchers have been studying LMR since the 1990s, attracted by the potential for a new class of EV batteries offering both long range and affordable pricing.

Historically, LMR has been hampered by technical barriers, in particular short battery life and voltage decay, which made them an impractical option. But as Kushal Narayanaswamy, director of advanced battery cell engineering at GM, explained in a post on GM News this week, we and our collaborator LG Energy Solution have engineered solutions to those issues.  

As we announced this week, GM aims to be the first automaker to deploy LMR batteries in EVs. Ultium Cells, a GM and LG Energy Solution joint venture, plans to start commercial production of LMR cells in the U.S. in 2028, using a rectangular, “prismatic” form factor. 

Today, GM EV trucks and SUVs use a battery technology known as NMCA, or nickel manganese cobalt aluminum oxide. While NMCA chemistry offers long range, by integrating LMR battery technology and the manufacturing and space efficiency benefits of prismatic cells, GM aims to offer more than 400 miles of range in an electric truck while achieving significant battery pack cost savings compared to today’s high-nickel pack. 

GM has been researching lithium-ion battery cells with manganese-rich cathodes since 2015, with our work accelerating in 2020. By the end of 2024, we had coated about one ton of LMR cathode in our Wallace Battery Cell Innovation Center, in Warren, Michigan, testing hundreds of large format prismatic cells in 18 different prototype varieties and 3 different cell dimensions, testing them to the equivalent of 1.4 million miles of EV driving.

The bottom line: LMR is going to make it possible for GM to offer EVs with premium range at considerably lower cost. We can’t wait. 

-- Eric Savitz, editor-in-chief, GM News