By Christopher Mims

General Motors is in a fight for its life.

One day, nearly all cars will be electric vehicles. And GM, like any automaker that wants to stick around, must be on the forefront of making them -- even amid regulatory shifts like the end of the EV tax credit, tariffs boosting materials costs, and a growing list of EV-only competitors. Survival depends in part on whether its bets on battery technology pay off.

In 2024, GM hired one of the most experienced battery geeks on the planet to head its battery and sustainability efforts. Kurt Kelty is a 30-year veteran of the industry who spent 11 years at Tesla leading the company's pathbreaking efforts to perfect this most critical EV component.

"I'm a firm believer," in the global shift to EVs, says Kelty. Switching to an electric powertrain means better performance, less maintenance, more space inside the vehicle, a lower center of gravity and a higher crash rating, he adds. Evolution away from fossil fuels is "unstoppable."

Worldwide, EV sales rocketed 30% in March of 2025 compared with the year before.

A self-effacing avoider of the spotlight, Kelty is hardly a household name. And he wasn't at the company when GM developed its own in-house battery tech with longtime collaborator LG Energy Solution. Not only does GM sell one of the most affordable EVs in the U.S., the Chevy Equinox, but it also recently announced a novel type of battery that promises to be significantly cheaper, while still providing long range, due to be rolled out in 2028.

In 2024, Tesla sold more than five times as many EVs in the U.S. as GM. And yet by April of this year, GM was manufacturing more batteries in the U.S. than Tesla. That's because Tesla imports a substantial portion of its batteries, GM's sales are rising as Tesla's decline, and many of GM's vehicles are big and require many more batteries.

If GM can continue to grow demand for its EVs, in a few years the rollout of its latest tech could give it a price and performance advantage that even Tesla would have a hard time matching.

While the EV transition is happening more slowly than projected in the U.S., GM hiring Kelty is a bet that the country's current EV struggles are temporary, and that technologists like Kelty will help GM get past them.

The key: continuing to lower the cost of EVs. "When we reach cost parity with [internal combustion engine] vehicles, I think that's one big milestone," says Kelty. "When you get there, then you're really going to see the transition happen very quickly -- and we're not that far away from it."

Battling Industry Headwinds

Like many of its competitors, GM has made huge investments in EV battery factories, and in production lines for the vehicles themselves, and it faces challenges in generating a return on investment in the short term. Both of GM's existing battery plants are operating at less than full capacity, and the company recently sold its stake in an under-construction plant in Michigan to LG Energy. Last year, GM said it would delay building a fourth battery facility, with Samsung, in Indiana.

The problem, according to Telemetry automotive analyst Sam Abuelsamid, is that GM projected EV demand would grow much faster than it has. Three or four years ago, companies like GM, Ford and Stellantis thought 50% of the vehicles they sold in the U.S. by 2030 would be electric, he adds. "We're nowhere near that."

In the long run, however, GM's focus on creating a North American supply chain for batteries could prove savvy, says David Whiston, U.S. auto equities analyst at Morningstar. The company is investing $625 million to mine lithium in Nevada. It is working on sourcing every material and every part in its batteries domestically, down to the copper and aluminum foils that go into its cells, says Kelty.

GM already makes one of America's least-expensive EVs. The 2025 Chevy Equinox has an MSRP of $33,600. Even without the federal tax credit, it is only $5,000 more than the MSRP for a gas-powered Equinox. When you factor in savings on fuel and maintenance over the first three years or so, it's basically a draw.

Later this year, GM will take the covers off a relaunched Bolt, which will use a cheaper battery known as lithium iron phosphate, or LFP batteries. This tech was invented in the U.S. but has come to dominate the battery industry in China. LFP shows up in a few vehicles in the U.S., but its lower energy density -- they are bigger and heavier, and they yield less range -- makes it less desirable for the premium market where EVs hold sway in the U.S.

New Battery Tech

GM recently unveiled a new type of battery the company has been working on for a decade called lithium manganese-rich batteries, or LMR. These batteries combine the low cost of LFP batteries with the longer range of conventional, expensive lithium-ion batteries.

What makes LMR batteries more affordable is that they use far less nickel, cobalt and other minerals that have become increasingly expensive. Instead, they use more manganese, a common element.

LMR batteries have been a laboratory curiosity for decades, with a number of shortcomings that GM's engineers had to overcome. A change in the shape of the battery -- big rectangles instead of flat pouches -- has proven particularly amenable for trucks and other larger vehicles. This could give such vehicles nearly the range of today's most expensive, energy-dense battery packs at around 70% of the cost. Ford is also working on this same kind of battery.

The company's new battery innovation center in Warren, Mich., completed in 2022, was essential to take these batteries from research project to something GM can produce millions of, says Kelty. Engineers here can go from lab bench to a pilot line inside the same building.

The other big challenge in battery innovation is talent. To compete with Chinese battery giants like CATL -- the world leader by volume -- GM had to attract its own experienced innovators. Cue Kelty.

"Kurt has an extensive network of people in the battery industry, and he's been really helpful in hiring and recruiting some new folks," says GM battery engineer Andy Oury.

The company's next initiative, says Kelty, is to further drive down the cost of its batteries by putting more of another common element, silicon, into them.

Trump Trouble

As much materials-science magic as GM's battery boffins are able to conjure, the one thing they can't control is geopolitics -- and in particular the actions of the Trump administration.

Today, the biggest threat to the EV future is the tremendous uncertainty caused by the current administration. What hangs in the balance are incentives for manufacturing and purchasing EVs, and how tariffs will affect the import of raw materials critical for their manufacture, says Whiston.

Since Trump took office, around three dozen separate tariff policy announcements affecting autos have been made, says Mika Takahashi, an automotive technology analyst at IDTechX.

When I ask Kelty when the average American will be able to walk into a dealership and see no difference at all between the price of electric and gas vehicles, Kelty emphasizes that fluctuating material prices are the big unknown.

"If you can tell me where nickel and lithium prices are going to be in three or four years, I can give you a better answer," he says. "But we just don't know. There's lots of volatility in these costs, and that's probably the biggest question mark."

Write to Christopher Mims at christopher.mims@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 23, 2025 21:00 ET (01:00 GMT)

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