[HN Gopher] GM, LG to upgrade Tennessee plant to make low-cost E...
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GM, LG to upgrade Tennessee plant to make low-cost EV batteries
Author : rntn
Score : 70 points
Date : 2025-07-14 15:24 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.cnbc.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.cnbc.com)
| alephnerd wrote:
| The batteries from this plant are also being used by Honda, as
| Honda and GM are working on sharing their BMS and platform
| jillesvangurp wrote:
| It will be interesting to see when sodium ion production ramps up
| in the US and EU. China is far ahead with this. As it was with
| LFP for the last few years. CATL is actually ramping up
| production for their second generation sodium ion battery
| already. They've been producing the first generation for a few
| years already. Sodium ion is going to be double digit percentages
| of the battery market in a few years. Like LFP is today. In China
| at least.
|
| The advantage is not only cost but also longevity. LFP and sodium
| ion batteries might have decades of useful life. With thousands
| of charge cycles, you could be charging them on a daily basis and
| it would be fine. NMC only has about 1000-1500 cycles. Some LFP
| batteries do 3-4x better than that. Sodium ion even better.
| dralley wrote:
| Sodium ion is more useful (relatively speaking) for grid
| backing than cars. Weight and power density aren't so much of
| an issue in that application, longevity and price definitely
| is. So they can probably pivot if the administration starts
| trying to mess with the electric car market.
| alephnerd wrote:
| > when sodium ion production ramps up in the US and EU
|
| The Ultium announcement isn't Li-S related but but number of
| battery plant announcements over the past 5 years in the US (as
| well as Japan) have been plants that can support both LFP and
| Li-S battery manufacturing.
|
| Japanese, Korean, and American automotive and battery vendors
| have been aligned on this from a capital and IP perspective for
| a LONG time.
| rapsey wrote:
| Sodium is not very good chemistry. High degradation for
| instance.
| happosai wrote:
| Citation needed.
|
| CATL is promising 10k cycles for their latest sodium ion
| cells.
| thebruce87m wrote:
| > The advantage is not only cost but also longevity. LFP and
| sodium ion batteries might have decades of useful life.
|
| > NMC only has about 1000-1500 cycles.
|
| 200 miles per cycle and you're at 200,000 miles, which is
| decades for a lot of people.
| MrVitaliy wrote:
| Also worth keeping in mind that "degradation" usually means the
| battery holds 80% of original charge. Basically your range
| shrinks from 300 miles to 240 miles. Automobile with 240 miles
| range is still a very useful car.
| WorldPeas wrote:
| It is sad that gm essentially sold their entire "skateboard"
| platform they abandoned to SAIC, who now functionally own
| Cadillac/Buick. For all those who claim this was some kind of
| deception, it wasn't. Years of myopia, from the Motorola corvette
| to the EV-1 to the abandoned skateboard to the squandered volt
| and neglected bolt, GM is like Polaroid. They stopped being a
| "car" company and became an "engine" company, like how Polaroid
| stopped being a "camera" company and was a "chemical" company.
| This could shape up to be like JVC and its former parent, RCA,
| would the US gov bail them out again?
|
| https://www.jalopnik.com/chevy-and-motorola-teamed-up-on-a-c...
|
| https://carnewschina.com/2022/03/06/the-big-read-saic-6-6-th...
|
| https://www.scmp.com/business/china-business/article/3308575...
| kjkjadksj wrote:
| The modern corvette absolves a lot of sins imo. It was a big
| decision making it mid engined.
| lucideng wrote:
| I want to agree with you that the "corvette absolves a lot of
| sins". But GM is still operating like they are "too big to
| fail", I hope we don't bail them out again. They make some
| amazing products and have a long history of advancing
| manufacturing and technology in their sector. Even with their
| engineering prowess, almost in spite of it, they continue to
| make some of the most mediocre vehicles that have ever
| existed. I swear the only people that buy their cars are
| former employees and relatives of said employees.
| MisterTea wrote:
| > I swear the only people that buy their cars are former
| employees and relatives of said employees.
|
| Coworker loves loves loves the corvette even though its one
| of the worst vehicles electrics wise. Two people he
| convinced to buy vettes traded them back in within a year
| of purchase for electrical issues.
|
| Brand loyalty is a big part of the American mindset and I
| think GM rested on those laurels to the point where even
| after the bailout they still have the same mindset.
| tw04 wrote:
| >Two people he convinced to buy vettes traded them back
| in within a year of purchase for electrical issues.
|
| Why on earth would you take a bath on a trade-in instead
| of using the lemon law if there were unfixable electrical
| issues?
|
| Also - this sounds pretty anecdotal to be honest, long-
| time corvette owner who follows the forums and I've not
| seen any widespread complaints of electrical issues with
| the c8 besides a battery drain issue caused by OTA
| updates that was resolved.
|
| https://www.tsbsearch.com/Chevrolet/N242435630
| MisterTea wrote:
| C7's, and this was just before COVID. They were bought
| preowned from dealers. One had the entire electrical
| system shit itself after driving through a puddle and the
| other kept killing the battery at random.
| tw04 wrote:
| Given you responded to a quote about the C8 platform
| redeeming GM - it'd probably pertinent to specify you're
| talking about literally a completely different car other
| than the name. The C8 was a ground up redesign.
|
| That being said, the C7 also had no known electrical
| issues. A certified pre-owned would still be covered
| under lemon law. "driving through a puddle" sounds like
| more than a bit of an understatment if it took out the
| entire electrical system. I have driven my car through
| many, many rainstorms and had exactly 0 issues. I'm also
| not clear how he traded in a car with a non-functioning
| electrical system, no dealer would touch that with a 30
| foot pole.
|
| >the other kept killing the battery at random.
|
| That could literally be anything, and again wasn't a
| widespread issue with the C7 platform or there would've
| been a recall, just like with the C8.
| WorldPeas wrote:
| >I swear the only people that buy their cars are former
| employees and relatives of said employees.
|
| I regrettably had to use a rental GMC of theirs, it seems
| car rental companies have quite a stock of them, to say
| nothing of their quality, felt like driving a wheeled
| takeout container.
| WorldMaker wrote:
| Mid-engined is most useful as a transition step to a modern
| skateboard design EV. Gets the center of gravity low and
| closer to the actual center point of the car, which a
| skateboard design then improves.
|
| Corvette can't admit to aspirations of a Pure EV this decade
| (thanks, politics), but in my opinion, that's the only way to
| absolve a lot of the GM executive sins on being wishy washy
| about EV futures.
| WorldPeas wrote:
| I think the path forward for GM, and most other companies
| that still make engines is plug-in/gas hybrids. The
| electric transmission (should be?) more desirable to car
| enthusiasts, and the engine can still be a moat, though I'd
| say it quickly starts to feel redundant(to me).
| WorldMaker wrote:
| I still think 2019 GM was correct in killing the Volt
| that hybrids are a worst of both worlds in engineering
| trade-offs and strictly one or the other is the best
| approach for both. I also still partly agree that 2019
| was about the right year to end that "transition tech"
| phase, at the very least as a political message (that
| wasn't correctly received).
|
| (I say that as someone who still owns a 2012 Volt as my
| only car, but mostly not because I still think I need a
| hybrid but because I want an full electric, reasonably
| sized sedan or hatchback, and all the car companies
| decided Americans only want EV crossovers/SUVs/assault
| tanks/land yachts this decade.)
|
| All hybrids (Prius included, and especially noted) are
| just sub-par Full EVs with extra weight albatrossed
| around their necks when gas gets hard to buy and it does
| seem like past time to stop sinking good money after
| multiple decades of sunk costs in ICE car engines.
|
| I think it would be _more obvious_ if the US had more of
| the cheap EVs that China and Europe are producing, but we
| all know the US right now isn 't politically aligned to
| have nice things.
| happycube wrote:
| They (probably) also had a chance to buy out A123 instead of
| letting it go to a Chinese company in bankruptcy, then they
| would have had control over LFP in general (word is CATL used a
| lot of ex-A123 industrial secres)
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