GM signs over MIT spinout to reduce EV battery costs by 60%

General Motors has signed an agreement with a Massachusetts Institute of Technology output for the joint development of next-generation electric vehicle batteries that are expected to reduce the cost of the technology by 60%.

The partnership with Singapore-based SolidEnergy Systems, founded by MIT grad Qichao Hu, is focused on new battery chemistry to reduce batteries while expanding the range of an EV. This then helps to reduce the cost of the vehicles.

As part of the agreement, GM and SolidEnergy Systems plan to build a prototype production line in Woburn, Massachusetts, for a “high-capacity pre-production battery by 2023.”

GM had earlier announced that the second generation of its EV batteries and platform, known as Ultium, would reduce the cost of current EVs, such as the Chevrolet Bolt EV, by 60% by the middle of the decade.

“The Ultium platform was actually designed and built with change like this in mind,” Kent Helfrich, GM’s executive director of global electrification and battery systems, told CNBC. “We know that battery technology is changing really fast … so we had to build that kind of flexibility and bandwidth into our platform.”

Officials did not want to disclose financial details of the mortgage. GM’s venture capital arm initially invested an unknown amount in SolidEnergy Systems in 2015.

The new batteries contain lithium metal instead of lithium ion as the current EVs use. The switch changes the chemistry of the battery to allow higher energy density and longer range of a similar battery or comparable series with a smaller battery.

The initial prototype batteries, according to the automaker, have already completed 150,000 simulated test miles at research and development laboratories at GM’s Global Technical Center in Warren, Michigan.

Further development of the future batteries comes before the carmaker that EVS releases with its first generation Ultium battery cells later this year, starts with the GMC Hummer EV for $ 112,595.

The Hummer is part of GM’s plan to launch 30 new or redesigned EVs by 2025 under a $ 27 billion investment in electric and autonomous vehicles. GM also recently announced plans to sell exclusively electric vehicles by 2035.

GM’s announcement comes a day after a new report from Cairn Energy Research Advisors says that EV leader Tesla is expected to keep the lowest costs in the EV industry at the end of this decade, with GM taking the gap will decrease.

Helfrich did not want to discuss these findings specifically, but said GM intends to “innovate in space faster than anyone else” and “be the largest partner in the world in developing solutions that will electrify the automotive industry”.