General Motors has announced plans to prepare its Ultium Cells plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee, for the mass production of next generation lithium manganese electric vehicle batteries.
The facility in Spring Hill is operated jointly by GM and South Korean battery producer LG New Energy. Reconstruction work at the site is scheduled to begin before the end of 2026 and reach completion in 2028. Once updated, the plant will become the first facility in the world to produce prismatic cells of this chemical design on a mass scale.
According to GM, the new lithium manganese chemistry will boost the driving range of electric vehicles by 33 percent compared with standard lithium iron phosphate batteries. The automaker plans to deploy the technology in its full-size pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles, targeting a driving range of more than 644 kilometres under United States Environmental Protection Agency testing standards. The first vehicle models featuring the new cells are scheduled to enter the market in 2028.
Bridging the gap between LFP and ternary batteries
Electric vehicle manufacturers currently rely on two main cell types: low-cost lithium iron phosphate, commonly known as LFP, and high-energy ternary lithium-ion cells. LFP batteries are durable and economical but offer lower energy storage density. Ternary batteries deliver significantly longer driving ranges, but rely on expensive and supply-constrained metals such as nickel and cobalt.
The new lithium manganese cells maintain structural similarities to traditional ternary lithium-ion batteries, but replace a major portion of the nickel and cobalt content with manganese. GM estimated that mining and refining manganese is cheaper and carries a lighter environmental impact than extracting nickel and cobalt.
The automaker expects the revised chemistry to deliver greater energy density and range while maintaining production costs close to those of LFP cells. GM intends for the lithium manganese batteries to serve as an intermediate option between high-capacity ternary units and lower-cost LFP packs across its vehicle lineup.
