Detroit. – General motors GM said it will open a battery cell development center in southeastern Michigan to help reduce cost and increase the driving range of lithium-ion and solid-state electric vehicles.

GM said the Wallace Battery Cell Innovation Center, which will be located on the tech campus of America’s number one automaker, in Warren, Michigan, is expected to open in mid-2022 and begin building prototype cells in the fourth quarter.

The key to making these vehicles affordable is the cost of the cell in battery packs, said Ken Morris, GM’s vice president for electric and self-driving vehicles.

GM will spend hundreds of millions of dollars on the new center.”

General Motors has said it will spend $35 billion through 2025 on electric and self-driving vehicles.Targets after that period are expected to be set on Investor Day Wednesday.

Part of that momentum is GM’s partnership with LG Energy Solutions, a unit of LG Chem 051910.KS in South Korea, to develop its own Ultium batteries. The two companies announced joint battery projects and GM said it plans to open two more plants.

GM aims to eliminate emissions from all light vehicles it sells by 2035.

A key element in making electric cars more attractive to consumers is reducing their cost, and a large part of that is the batteries.

GM has said it wants to cut battery costs by at least 60 percent in the next-generation Ultium, and officials have said future products will allow electric driving ranges of 965 km on a single charge.

The new facility of approximately 27,900 square meters will work with the company’s existing battery systems and Warren R&D laboratories. She will also work with SES, a Massachusetts company that General Motors partnered with in March.

The center, named after Bill Wallace, the former CEO who played a key role in developing GM’s advanced battery technology before he died of cancer in 2018, will also be able to build a prototype of large-format lithium-metal battery cells. Such as the development of silicon and solid-state technologies.

It will also develop new production methods for use in battery factories.

General Motors’ rival Ford Motor Co. said in April it would invest $185 million to open a battery development center by the end of 2022. electric car.