General Motors is following a number of other automakers and battery companies in developing hybrid battery packs for electric vehicles.
GM revealed its version of the concept in a patent filing published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Nov. 28, 2024. In that post, which was first posted by GM Aug. 2, 2023, the automaker discusses combining nickel manganese cobalt (NCM) and lithium iron phosphate (LFP) or other similar chemicals.
General Motors Ultium Batteries
The two chemistries will be divided into smart modules, possibly with different skills that can be usedaccording to the installation. The controller will monitor things like temperature and state of charge, and possibly pass one chemistry or another in a certain situation.
A hybrid battery pack can balance performance and cost by combining low-cost LFP battery cells with NCM cells, offering high power and energy densityGM notes on filling. The two different chemistries can lead to charging imbalances that reduce the battery pack's usable capacity, GM adds, but the automaker hopes the ability to bypass one set of cells while charging another will address that.
BMW iX prototype to use the Our Next Energy hybrid battery
Certain chemicals can also be charged quickly, which it can power small battery packs and fight inflation in the current pack, which adds cost and weight, eats up raw materials, and in the real world still often leads to longer charging times once that extra charge is gone. Combining some of these special cells with low-charge material cells could help make EVs more efficient.
Some companies are working on mixed-chemistry battery packs. CATL recently announced one aimed at bringing fast charging to plug-in hybrids, and US startup Our Next Energy (ONE) showed in 2022 how it could use mix-chemistry tech to deliver a range of 600 kilometers in the BMW iX—almost doubles its EPA. width. Mercedes-Benz has also developed hardware that can lay the foundation for hybrid cell types.