DETROIT \u2014 General Motors will drop the name \u201cUltium\u201d for its electric vehicle batteries and supporting technologies after spending years promoting the brand as it rethinks its EV and battery operations.<\/p>\n
The Detroit automaker confirmed the switch Tuesday ahead of an investor event. Executives used the day to discuss lowering battery costs and tout efforts to diversify battery chemistries.<\/p>\n
GM also confirmed it is on pace to produce and wholesale about 200,000 EVs for North America this year, achieving profitability on a production, or contribution-margin basis, by the end of this year.<\/p>\n
Aside from EVs, GM touted its lowering capital costs and the company\u2019s flexibility to produce both traditional vehicles with internal combustion engines and EVs. Its commitment to EVs comes amid slower-than-expected adoption of electric vehicles.<\/p>\n
Shares of GM were roughly level aside from a roughly 3% increase during the beginning of the event.<\/p>\n
The change to Ultium comes after GM spent billions of dollars to develop in-house \u201cUltium\u201d batteries and technologies that the automaker previously touted as \u201crevolutionary\u201d and the ultimate technologies to be able to build a profitable EV business.<\/p>\n
The company said the batteries and the technologies will remain, but the name \u201cUltium\u201d will not, other than production operations such as its \u201cUltium Cells\u201d joint venture plants with LG Energy Solution.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs GM continues to expand its EV business, the company is no longer branding its electric vehicle architecture, battery and cells, or EV components with the Ultium name, starting in North America,\u201d the company said in a statement.<\/p>\n
GM has been rethinking its EV battery strategy amid changing market conditions and an influx of new, outside executives, including Tesla veterans JP Clausen, who now leads GM manufacturing, and Kurt Kelty, GM\u2019s vice president of battery.<\/p>\n
The automaker\u2019s EV sales are growing, but not at the pace the company wanted. It reported a roughly 60% year-over-year increase in EVs during the third quarter, to roughly 32,100 units sold. Still, EVs made up only 4.9% of the company\u2019s total third-quarter sales.<\/p>\n
The 200,00 EV target reconfirmed by GM CEO Mary Barra on Tuesday is down from a previous guidance of 200,00 to 250,000 EVs, which had been trimmed from as high as 300,000 units.<\/p>\n
GM has already started moving away from its original Ultium pouch cells, produced with LG with nickel manganese cobalt, to other battery types and chemistries.<\/p>\n
GM earlier this year announced a more than $3 billion deal to manufacture hard-can batteries, known as prismatic cells, with South Korea\u2019s Samsung SDI, a rival of LG.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re moving from a single-source, single-form factor, single-chemistry to a multi-chemistry, multi-form factor, multi-supplier strategy,\u201d Kelty told The Information in a report published Monday. \u201cWhat we\u2019re going to do going forward is really optimize for each vehicle.\u201d<\/p>\n
The automaker is turning to that optimization strategy after spending millions of dollars in marketing and advertising, including back-to-back years of star-studded Super Bowl ads in 2021 and 2022 for Ultium in vehicles that weren\u2019t available yet for customers to purchase.<\/p>\n
GM is rethinking other areas as well. Rory Harvey, GM president of global markets, including North America, in September confirmed to CNBC that the company was completely rethinking its plans for a second all-electric vehicle plant in Orion Township, Michigan \u2014 from production down through the entire supply chain.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe always get lessons. We always get learning,\u201d he said in September. \u201cThe reason that we\u2019re doing what we\u2019re doing with Orion is the fact that, you know, if you looked at the original gradient of EV adoption, there\u2019s no doubt that, both in the industry and from ours, it was slightly more aggressive than it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis gives us the ability to do a stop breath and refocus and say what is appropriate for the customer demands that are out there today?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
GM currently has one plant in the U.S. that exclusively produces EVs, called Factory Zero in Detroit. The Orion plant was expected to be the second by the end of 2024 before the company delayed those plans by at least a year.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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