October 21, 2026 - GM Working on 4th-Gen EV Platform

This is the Telemetry Transportation Daily for October 21, 2026, and I'm Sam Abuelsamid, Vice President of Market Research for Telemetry. 

In spring 2025, within a couple of weeks of each other, General Motors and Ford both announced they were working on lithium manganese rich (LMR) batteries for future EVs. Since then, Ford hasn't said much else about its LMR work, but GM has provided several updates, including a recent announcement that it would be producing these new cells at the Spring Hill, Tennessee, battery plant it operates with LG Energy Solution in 2028. 

At the GM Forward technology event in New York today, it was reinforced that the LMR batteries, which provide nearly the same energy density as nickel-rich cells at a similar cost to lithium iron phosphate, will be the core of its next generation of EVs. GM's fourth-generation EVs are currently under active development and seek to address many of the shortcomings of the current generation, including cost, weight, and efficiency. 

GM doesn't appear to be following the same path as Ford's universal EV program, which relies on a pair of large-scale die castings for the structure and a structural battery pack. GM's approach seems more traditional, although it is putting a lot of focus on optimizing everything. In addition to the battery, the drive units and power electronics have 40% fewer parts, and along with aerodynamics, should contribute to a 20% improvement in overall energy efficiency. GM is utilizing new AI tools to evaluate the factory layout and the assembly processes for components and vehicles to simplify and speed up production. GM is using a factory intelligence platform it calls PlantBrAIn that combines real-time data from the factory with AI models to help find ways to improve processes. 

All of the new fourth-generation EVs will also utilize GM's new central compute architecture that was announced at last year's event. This system consolidates dozens of electronic control units scattered around the vehicle into a single compute platform powered by the Nvidia Thor processor, along with three aggregator modules that handle signal routing and power distribution to and from sensors and actuators. 

GM isn't giving any details on when these vehicles will start arriving, but since the central compute and LMR production both start in 2028, that would be the earliest. All of this new architecture will be utilized across the company's full line of EVs, from smaller crossovers like the Chevrolet Equinox to the full-size trucks and SUVs. 

Thanks for listening.