GM Expands Electric Vehicle Portfolio

New partnership with LG Corp. will cut costs and save time for creating electric vehicles.

August 29, 2011

NEW YORK - General Motors and South Korea??s LG Corp. announced that the two companies are jointly developing "a new lineup of battery-powered vehicles in an unusual pairing aimed at slashing the cost and time it takes to create electric cars," writes The Wall Street Journal.

The deal is "a first-of-its-kind pairing between an automaker and electronics giant," where LG is covering about half the cost of creating a future portfolio of EVs and hybrid vehicles.

GM hopes the partnership will propel its development of EVs and hybrids ahead of the competition. "They are flexible, they are used to things changing quickly," GM Vice Chairman Steven Girsky said of LG, noting that efforts will span the U.S. and Korea.

Under new fuel economy standards announced by the Obama administration, automakers must double their fleets?? average fuel economy to 54.5 miles a gallon by 2025, a goal car companies and industry experts agree will require broader use of battery power in vehicles, writes WSJ.

Meanwhile, companies are taking different approaches to meet those goals: Ford and Toyota announced they would jointly develop a gas-electric hybrid system for light trucks and sport-utility vehicles.

"This technology being created is so different than the current automotive technology out there now, we are going to see more collaborations like this," HIS Automotive analyst Jim Gillette told the newspaper, adding, "You have to break through barriers and that takes new companies coming in."

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