The lab where GM is cooking up new EV batteries to beat China
TL;DR
GM's secretive Detroit battery labs test lithium-ion cells under extreme conditions and analyze chemistries at the atomic level to develop advanced EV batteries, aiming to compete with China.
Inside General Motors' fast-growing battery labs in suburban Detroit, scientists and engineers are analyzing stresses on lithium-ion cells: desert heat, arctic cold, jungle humidity, enough charging and discharging for a half-dozen Frankenstein reboots.
For The Verge's exclusive tour of these secretive labs, I watch researchers peer at cell chemistries down to the atomistic level, using electron microscopes. Others work at a larger scale, all the way up to the Megashaker. Inside a cavernous hall, an enormous sliding test chamber envelops one of GM's double-stacked, 205-kilowatt-hour battery packs - the type that powers hulking models like …