General Motors is preparing to pull the plug on the Ultium branding for its EV batteries and related components, reports CNBC.
The components themselves will remain the same, but the Ultium name will disappear other than for production operations such as the Ultium Cells LLC battery joint venture with LG, according to the report, which cited statements from the automaker ahead of a Tuesday investor conference where the rebranding was expected to be made official.
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“As GM continues to expand its EV business, the company is no longer branding its electric vehicle architecture, battery cells, or EV components with the Ultium name, starting in North America,” the automaker said in a statement to CNBC.
GM announced Ultium in 2020, aiming to achieve economies of scale for a wide variety of EV models by using common motor and battery families. While this demands similar vehicle architectures to house the components, the battery cells and motors are the real point of commonality, differing somewhat from the typical platform-focused approach that uses basic elements of the chassis as a starting point for different models.
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GM has since implemented the Ultium strategy with EVs for three out of four of its U.S. brands, plus the BrightDrop electric vans (now part of Chevrolet). The odd man out, Buick, is expected to get its own Ultium-based models soon as well. Ultium components were also to be used for the cancelled Cruise Origin self-driving car.
GM is now rethinking its EV plans in the face of slower-than-hoped-for demand. In recent months the automaker has backed away from a previous goal of having production capacity for one million EVs by 2025, blaming an underdeveloped EV market, and discussed reintroducing hybrids. CEO Mary Barra said last month that she was surprised by how political EVs had become, but added that the automaker was still preparing to eliminate tailpipes from its light-duty vehicles by 2035 (as announced in 2021), as long as customers were ready.
