Times are always changing. Trends, research, and new products provide a new way to live life as the years pass. Soon, we will all have access to affordable fully electric cars, but what will this entail?
What’s new:
Electricity changes the potential for many different everyday tools. For example, now that we have washers and dryers, we do not have to panic when we realize all of our socks are dirty. We simply throw them into the washer and follow up with the dryer.
Voila- We have clean socks. On a much grander scale, electric cars are beginning to advance year after year. Sure, we could have an incredible, electric car made if were a billionaire. However, the production and charging stations do that supply what the average Joe needs quite yet.
General Motors has announced that they will create a new electric vehicle battery that offers up to four hundred miles of range. These batters will also be cheaper to produce than today’s batteries. This is incredible news.
The new battery cell is said to potentially have up to four hundred miles of range from one single charge. For reference, that is more than any Tesla car offers right now. Tesla claims their Model S Long Range sedan offers slightly less at three hundred ninety miles per charge.
Fully electric cars:
General Motors’ newest battery cell will be used in multiple types of vehicles. You can find these batteries in their newly fully electric cars. This includes the self-driving car, the Cruise origin. It will also be in the future Cadillac luxury SUV.
GM shares they would also like to license their new battery cell to other companies. General Motors has more modern plans for electric vehicles. Mary Barra shared the company’s views on climate change. From 2020 to 2025, they will be investing over three billion dollar towards research efforts per year.
Barra says they General Motors wants to put everyone in an electric vehicle, and they have the potential to make it happen. The new battery cells are soft, flat pouches. GM has named the new battery Ultium.
CNN Business shares that electric car batteries can look very different and come in different forms. For example, Tesla’s car batteries are hard cylinders. The pouches are sometimes lined up like books on a shelf.
Other times, the Ultium battery pouches are stacked vertically laying on their sides. The pouch design gives designers more flexibility as each car requires plenty of these battery pouches. General Motors was able to bring down the price of making the Ultium battery cell by using minimal about of cobalt, an expensive element in vehicle batteries.
Industry analysts state that one hundred dollars per kilowatt hour is the threshold which will make electric vehicles more cost competitive with traditional gasoline-powered vehicles. So GM promised the new battery cells will soon come down in price to below one hundred dollars per kilowatt hour.
A future of electricity:
GM has also shared that their existing facilities will have the ability to adapt to making electric vehicles. The Detroit Hamtramck assembly plant will now begin to only manufacture fully electric models. Compared to gasoline powered vehicles, fully electric vehicles have far fewer parts.
Gasoline powered vehicles have many complex parts and gears such as pistons, valves, and rods. Executives share that the vehicles should be profitable due to the lesser amount of parts needed to build fully electric models.
However, the Chevrolet Bolt EV is the only fully electric GM vehicle sold in the United States but it remains not profitable. They share that the battery cost is a large factor in this.
Next week, we are sharing more news in the electric world. Come back again for more! Make an appointment today for any of your residential and business electric needs.
Staff Writer
