General Motors says it has nearly tripled the size of its Global Battery Systems Laboratory in Michigan, adding 50,000 square feet to the facility, allowing pack-level test channels to rise from 64 to 112 and cell-level test channels to increase from 96 to 120.
“In the past four years, the competitive landscape in the electrification space has grown exponentially,” said GM vice president, global product programmes, Doug Parks.
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“This additional real estate is filled with new capability that will help us improve speed to market for our next generation of battery systems and help us improve the value equation to our customers around the world.”
GM’s Global Battery Systems Lab has been responsible for testing and validating both battery cells and packs for all GM’s vehicle electrification systems, including the battery systems for the Chevrolet Volt, Cadillac ELR, Chevrolet Spark EV and GM’s eAssist light electrification.
Additional capabilities of the lab expansion include: equipment for future vehicle battery system development such as charger development and testing, cord set testing and competitive benchmarking, as well as building prototype battery packs for vehicle development programmes.
Equally, it will have the ability to act as the hub for validation and testing of all battery systems designed for use in future GM vehicles around the world.
Teams will validate and test updates to existing chemistries and system designs. For example, updates were made to the battery system in the 2013 Chevrolet Volt that added three miles of EV range.
“GM is committed to vehicle electrification and our products in this area must continue to excite customers,” said GM executive director of global electrification engineering, Larry Nitz.
“A critical part of this plan is to deliver safe, reliable and affordable energy storage systems. The new capabilities of this lab will enhance our engineers’ ability to design, develop, process and validate products to meet the needs of our growing customer base.”
In addition to the laboratory in Michigan, GM also operates battery labs in Shanghai and Mainz-Kastel, Germany, which are tasked with testing and validation of battery cells, packs and advanced battery system development.
Teams at the China, Germany and Michigan laboratories work collectively to test battery systems to reduce validation time.
