General Motors (GM) is building a battery cell lab to reduce battery costs and increase the driving range of its electric vehicles (EVs).
The Wallace Battery Cell Innovation Center is set to be the facility that will build large-format, prototype lithium-metal battery cells and will be created based on GM’s proprietary formula.
“Introducing the all-new Wallace Battery Cell Innovation Center, which will serve as the accelerator of our next-gen Ultium battery chemistry and the key to helping us build more affordable EVs with optimal range,” GM stated in an Oct. 5 Tweet.
Named after GM’s late director of global battery systems, Bill Wallace, the center is a 300,000-square-foot building being constructed in Warren, Michigan, on the campus of GM’s Global Technical Center. It will include a forensic lab, cell test chambers, cell formation chambers and a material synthesis lab to equip GM to design its own cathode active materials, according to GM Corporate Newsroom.
The center will allow researchers, developers and manufacturing engineers to come together to improve the performance of next-generation Ultium battery cells and work towards reducing the cost of the batteries by 60%.
The center is expected to have its first prototype cells built by the end of the fourth quarter in 2022, GM Corporate Newsroom says.
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