Yahoo Autos In EV Strategy Shift, General Motors Ditches 'Ultium' Branding
After years of marketing the name "Ultium" for its electric vehicle technology, even going as far as promoting the moniker in Super Bowl commercials, General Motors is transitioning to a post-Ultium world and leaving the battery brand name behind. The news came on Tuesday, October 8th, in a presentation that GM vice-president of battery cell and packs Kurt Kelty gave during the automaker’s annual investor day.
It’s hard to know whether the name ever truly caught on with the general car buying public, but it’s hard to go bigger than hiring stars like Will Ferrell and Dr. Evil to promote the technology in Super Bowl commercials. Those commercials are no longer posted to General Motors’s YouTube accounts — perhaps a result 0f the shift in strategy — but you can still find them both under unofficial listings online.
For several years, GM struggled with ramping up production of vehicles on the Ultium platform, only recently finding ways to increase production. The company’s target of selling 400,000 EVs by the end of 2023 was a pipe dream; GM moved a total of 13,838 Ultium EVs that year, with the non-Ultium-based Bolt making up the majority of the 76,000 electric vehicles the company sold altogether that year. The slow rollout, software problems with the Blazer EV and under-delivering on sales targets all combined to deal an image blow to what started out as a promising EV revolution for GM.
But problems with Ultium aren’t why GM is transitioning away from the name, Kelty said. Instead, it’s because GM is changing up its strategy on batteries, moving away from the “one-size-fits-all” idea that sat at the heart of the Ultium strategy to a plan that incorporates different battery chemistries and cell shapes. Cheaper lithium-iron phosphate (LFP) packs are coming, for example, as GM looks to customize battery packs to specific models. More differentiation, various suppliers and non-uniformity across model lines might sound like it could increase costs, but Kelty said the move is meant to drive cost and complexity down. We’ll see how that works soon enough.
GM also teased a few details of the next-generation Bolt EV during the investor day. It will reportedly charge faster than the previous Bolt and cost slightly more than the Bolt EUV's $28,795 starting MSRP. Plus, there will a family of Bolts that follow the initial vehicle, with the attractive low cost reportedly being a priority across the line.
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