General Motors Just Took A Big Step Towards Its Next-Gen EV Battery

The automaker has confirmed the factory where it will mass-produce the lithium-manganese-rich cells.

GM Forward Event 2025 -- LMR Batteries

Photo by: Patrick George

Suvrat Kothari

By: Suvrat Kothari

Sep 29, at 12:46pm ET

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General Motors' new lithium-manganese-rich batteries will be made in Spring Hill, Tennessee.
The Ultium Cells joint venture with LG Energy Solution also makes lithium-iron phosphate batteries for energy storage systems.
EVs with the LMR batteries are expected to roll out in 2028.

General Motors may be heavily investing in gas trucks, but the company's EV plans are still progressing. It said Tuesday that its next-generation lithium-manganese-rich (LMR) battery will be mass-produced at its Ultium Cells joint venture plant with LG Energy Solution in Spring Hill, Tennessee. This is the first time the automaker has acknowledged a production location for its new EV battery tech.

GM said factory upgrades will begin towards the end of this year and be completed by 2028. It added that this will be the first plant in the world to mass-produce prismatic LMR cells. Last year, GM invited InsideEVs for a detailed tour of the Warren, Michigan R&D facility where the cells are being developed.

GM Prismatic LMR Battery Cell 2

GM's LMR prismatic EV battery cell.

Photo by: General Motors

The automaker expects the LMR chemistry to deliver 33% more range than current lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) batteries, which are dominant in China and the preferred low-cost cell industry-wide. The LMR batteries will be installed in GM’s full-size trucks and SUVs, and the automaker said they will deliver north of 400 miles of EPA range.

At their very core, LMR batteries are similar to traditional nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) cells. They just use a far lower percentage of cobalt and nickel, which are dirty and expensive to mine. Instead, the LMR battery will use a much higher percentage of manganese, which GM said is easier to source and costs less to mine and process.

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That’s part of the reason GM said the LMR battery will cost nearly the same as the LFP batteries, while delivering superior driving range. GM EVs with the highest driving range will still use NMC batteries—LMR will slot between that and the low-cost LFP cells.

The first EVs equipped with the LMR cells are expected to roll out in 2028, and we’ll see if they meaningfully change the economics of driving large SUVs and trucks compared to what’s on sale today.