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GM announcing this means they have secured their battery supply. Likely they feel there's a scramble for supply coming and they didn't want to be left behind. T
by thinkcontext 6y ago
GM announcing this means they have secured their battery supply. Likely they feel there's a scramble for supply coming and they didn't want to be left behind. They also must have looked at the future of the technology and like what they see.
To secure supply they would have had to make a major deal with China, where most of the world's lithium gets processed. GM also sells more cars in China than the US (though less revenue). That also likely factored in the decision since China has announced aggressive EV targets. Given GM's integrated global production they would lose advantages of scale by having a split lineup of EVs and ICEs.
- jbob2000 6y agoGM can secure whatever they want, they don’t have the talent or culture to do anything with what they secure. At most, GM will purchase someone else’s electric car design to use their battery supply. Then they’ll hire a contractor to build and design the factory. Then all of the staff that build it will be part time contractors from a temporary workforce company. The end result will be a piece of faulty garbage that barely drives, with nobody in the company to blame for its failure. Most likely, GM will sell these contracts to someone who can actually execute, and they’ll make a tidy 2% profit to continue their mediocrity into the next decade.
- free_rms 6y agoThey have a lot of experience in every part of the car except the drive train. And once you have the battery, the rest of the drive train is.. pretty easy? I think? You're just hooking 2 motors to 2 wheels? Someone tell me what I'm missing here. Edit: someone down thread pointed out charging station build out.
- gmueckl 6y agoAn electric drive train is mechanically a lot simpler than a combustion engine based one. But you still need a battery management and charging control system to keep the battery alive. I think that this is the other half of the battle for efficient electric cars (besides battery chemistry and manufacturing).
- m463 6y agoYou could arguably say they've been working on electric drivetrains longer than anyone with the EV-1, then volt, spark, bolt, etc.. Now were they GOOD drivetrains, I don't know. There are a lot of tradeoffs there I don't understand, like is AC induction what we want, or should permanent magnets be a part of the design.
- chihuahua 6y agoI'm really hoping that the electric car future doesn't involve every manufacturer having to build their own network of charging stations.
- rasz 6y ago>They have a lot of experience in every part of the car except the drive train. and to this day they cant make a truck dash that doesnt crack after 5 years in Nebraska sun.
- m463 6y agoI wonder about the lithium after seeing musk's battery day video. He said they could do all the lithium locally (since it's not really a scarce item)
- agumonkey 6y agoYeah he claimed the Lithium logistics are absurd (due to market legacy) and it was easy to change the whole supply chain. I didn't hear much about it since, I simply wish it's true and not just stage-talk
- LordGrey 6y ago> GM announcing this means they have secured their battery supply. GM has announced that they're moving away from fossil fuels, not that they were going all-electric. Granted, electric is most feasible, but they could also be hedging their bets with alternate sources like hydrogen.