DETROIT — General Motors is partnering with two companies — Vacuumschmelze (VAC) and MP Materials — to source magnets for electric vehicle motors in North America.
Both agreements are pieces of GM’s $35 billion investment in electric and autonomous vehicle development through 2025. The automaker plans to launch 30 EVs globally by then, with more than two-thirds available in the U.S., and aims for a fully electric light-vehicle portfolio by 2035.
As EV production begins to scale, GM and other U.S. automakers are developing a supply chain to source and process key battery materials locally.
Magnets are used to transform electricity into motion. Within the motor, an electric coil generates a magnetic field to push against strong magnets and create torque.
A GMC Hummer EV outfitted with three electric motors and up to 11,500 pound-feet of torque can accelerate the truck from 0 to 60 mph in three seconds.
GM and Vacuumschmelze, based in Germany, plan to build a U.S. plant to manufacture permanent magnets for the electric motors used in GM’s Ultium-powered EVs, including the Hummer EV, Cadillac Lyriq and electric Chevrolet Silverado. The plant will use locally sourced raw materials to produce the magnets, GM said in a statement Thursday.
“We are building a resilient and sustainable EV manufacturing value chain in North America from raw materials to components to drive GM’s growth and support a mass market for EVs,” Shilpan Amin, GM’s vice president for global purchasing and supply chain, said in statement. “Our work with VAC is another bold step forward that will help ensure that we meet our goal to lead the EV industry in North America in more than just sales.”
GM expects the plant to start production in 2024 and create hundreds of new jobs. The terms of the agreement are expected to be finalized early next year. GM has not disclosed the location of the factory. The magnets will supply plants that build EV motors for GM EVs.
VAC is the leading producer of advanced magnetic materials globally, according to the statement.
“As VAC’s Permanent Magnet Division is the only industrial scale producer of rare earth permanent magnets in the Western Hemisphere, VAC brings reliable scale and experience to GM’s supply chain,” Dr. Erik Eschen, CEO of VAC, said in the statement. “VAC’s deep magnetic materials knowledge and extensive e-mobility technology expertise, in partnership with GM, will enable a cleaner global future for our communities.”
GM also announced a strategic collaboration with MP Materials to develop a U.S. supply chain for rare earth magnets. MP Materials will supply rare earth materials, alloy and finished magnets for electric motors. All of the materials MP provides will be sourced and manufactured in the U.S., GM and MP said in a statement Thursday. Output is slated to begin in 2023.
MP Materials owns and operates the Mountain Pass rare earth mine and processing plant in California, the only active and scaled rare earth production site in America, the companies said. The rare earth production facility is a closed-loop, zero-discharge operation with a dry tailings process that recycles more than 1 billion liters of water per year, the companies said.
MP will convert the rare earth materials into metal, neodymium-iron-boron alloy and magnets at a new facility in Fort Worth, Texas.
“We are building a resilient and sustainable EV manufacturing value chain in North America, from raw materials to cell manufacturing to electric drive motors and beyond, further accelerating GM’s vision to support a mass market for EVs,” Amin said in the statement. “Our work with MP Materials is another bold step forward that will help ensure that we meet our goal to lead the EV industry in North America in more than just sales.”
GM and MP Materials signed a binding agreement on terms and expect to enter into a definitive supply agreement soon.
The agreements with VAC and MP Materials follow a series of GM partnerships to build an EV supply chain located mostly in North America.
GM expects the majority of its proprietary Ultium battery platform to be sourced, processed or manufactured in North America by 2025.
Last week, GM said it planned to establish a joint venture with Posco Chemical, a Korean advanced materials company, to process cathode active material for GM’s proprietary Ultium batteries in North America by 2024. Other partnerships formed this year are designed to source key materials for battery cells, improve supplies of rare earth materials and magnets for electric motors, develop silicon carbide solutions for power electronics within GM’s Ultium Drive units, and recycle material scrap from battery cell manufacturing.