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Ultium Cells retools its Tennessee plant for LMR cells pitched at LFP cost with 33% higher energy density
Ultium Cells, GM's venture with LG Energy Solution, will finish retooling its Tennessee plant for LMR cells by 2028, aiming at LFP cost with 33% more density. The plan puts a date on a U.S.-made cell meant to sit between low-cost LFP and energy-dense high-nickel chemistries.
The Investor · Invest desk
What happened
- If mass production goes as planned, the Tennessee plant would be the first anywhere to make prismatic lithium manganese-rich cells.
- With LMR added, Ultium Cells would cover high-nickel, LFP and LMR chemistries in both pouch and prismatic formats.
- LG Energy Solution and GM agreed in December 2024 to co-develop prismatic batteries and key materials, then set out a joint LMR commercialization plan in May 2025.
- Ultium Cells head Park In-jae said the project is the second large-scale investment in the Tennessee plant.
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Why it matters
- contradiction LG's target is cost similar to LFP, while GM battery executive Kurt Kelty said, per Sedaily, that LMR will beat entry-level technology at lower cost; the first production cells will show whose word fits.
- exposure Naming a plant and a 2028 completion date puts LG's LMR program on a public schedule, so a slip in the modification work will be visible long before the line is due.
- constraint Until the Tennessee system is finished, Ultium can supply only the high-nickel and LFP cells it already makes, so any LMR gain on cost and range reaches GM no earlier than 2028.
LMR cells use less cobalt and more manganese, a relatively abundant metal [4]. LG Energy Solution's pairing of LFP-level cost with about 33% higher energy density [5] can be read two ways. If the cost is similar per kilowatt-hour, the gain is size. 1 divided by 1.33 is about 0.75, so a pack holding the same energy as an LFP pack can be roughly a quarter smaller [2]. If the cost is similar per cell of the same size, each kilowatt-hour comes out about a quarter cheaper than LFP [3]. The second reading is the larger claim, because it lowers the price of each unit of range as well as its bulk [3].
The capital goes into modifying a plant that is already running [2]. Upgrade work starts late this year, less than a year after the building's LFP storage line began [4], and the partners put completion at 2028 [2]. Ultium Cells did not disclose the cost of the upgrade, the line's capacity or which vehicles the cells are meant for.
So far the published durability evidence comes from a single study. Working with a Seoul National University chemistry team led by Professor Lim Jong-woo, LG found a way to suppress gas generation in LMR cells [8]. In that study, a 40-ampere-hour large-format cell kept 92.2% of its initial energy after about 900 charge-discharge cycles [8]. The cell lost 7.8 percentage points over those cycles [1], and the result appeared in Nature Communications [8].
The 2028 line can go a few ways. On time and at LFP-level cost per kilowatt-hour, it gives GM the smaller pack worked out above at LFP prices. Running on time but above LFP on cost, it leaves LMR as one more mid-priced chemistry. The worst case is that the gas and cycle-life results from the study cell do not carry into prismatic production, and the date slips. I think the schedule is credible and the cost is the open question. LG took its first LMR patent in 2010 and had filed more than 300 by the first half of this year [7], so the 2028 line arrives 18 years into the program [5]. The counter-case is that a patent count measures research, while cost per kilowatt-hour on a new cell format is settled on the factory floor. The view fails on schedule if modification work has not started by the end of this year [2], and on cost if the first Tennessee LMR cells cost more per kilowatt-hour than LFP.
What to watch
- Whether plant modifications in Tennessee begin late this year, the first date the partners set for the retrofit.
- Any disclosure of the upgrade's dollar cost or cell capacity, the figures needed to size the LMR bet against the plant's LFP storage line.
- Which GM vehicles get the prismatic LMR cells, and whether they are priced near LFP models or high-nickel ones.