GM says Chevy Bolt electric range could be over 200 miles

“Being selected as GM’s EV technology partner positions LG as a key player in next-generation vehicular technologies”, said Woo-jong Lee, who is the president and CEO of the LG Electronics Vehicle Components Co.

“What we have seen in terms of quality from LG Chem is comparative to pharmaceutical levels of performance”, said Bill Wallace, Director of Global Battery Systems for GM. It will make other Bolt hardware such as an onboard charger, battery cells and pack, instrument cluster and infotainment system.

The lithium-ion battery cells for the 2017 Chevrolet Bolt could soon be produced in West Michigan. The Bolt will fit that description when it arrives in late 2016, Reuss said, the “direct result of an entirely different kind of OEM-supplier relationship” struck between GM and LG.

It appears so, if we based it on General Motors’ announcement of its strategic alliance with Korean company LG on Tuesday.

With the Bolt, GM was able to shift a few costs to LG, a consumer electronics company that has been building its connections in the auto industry.

It’s absolutely no surprise that General Motors has a thing for LG Chem. The Detroit automaker and the Korean parts supplier have been working in public on electric vehicles ever since it was announced that LG would supply the battery cells for the Chevy Volt in 2009.

The GM-LG partnership is one of the most extensive yet between a USA automaker and an overseas supplier, and will shift more of the development and production cost for the new Chevrolet to a partner with considerable technical expertise.

“It’s not just about EVs”, GM global product chief Mark Reuss told reporters during a conference call October 20. LG, for its part, added that helping GM with the Chevy Bolt is “indicative of exactly the type of contributions that traditional tech companies can make in the automotive space”.

The Bolt, which would take on the Nissan Leaf, BMW AG’s i3 and Tesla Motor’s future Model 3, would carry a hefty price of $35,000.

LG Electronics has invested more than $250 million in an engineering and manufacturing facility in Incheon, Korea, to support the component development and manufacturing for Bolt EV components. In 2007, LG delivered the vehicle communication module for GM’s OnStar telematics system.