During an investor event today, Kurt Kelty, GM’s VP of batteries and a former Tesla executive, announced plans to adopt lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery technology in order to decrease the cost of its EVs by “up to $6,000.” GM’s Ultium batteries use the more common nickel cobalt manganese (NCM) batteries.

GM will drop the name "Ultium" for its electric vehicle batteries and supporting technologies after spending years promoting the brand. The company said the batteries and technologies will remain but the name "Ultium" will not.

It looks as though GM will give the Ultium brand the boot as it relates to the company's proprietary EV battery and EV drive motor technologies.

GM is set to ditch the Ultium brand name amid a broad shift in battery strategy, an executive told Bloomberg. GM will continue using underlying batteries and technology platforms, but also incorporate LFP and nickel-rich prismatic cells.

General Motors said at an Oct. 8 investor day that it expects to build roughly 200,000 EVs this year as it targets profitability.

GM has since implemented the Ultium strategy with EVs for three out of four of its U.S. brands, plus the BrightDrop electric vans (now part of Chevrolet). The odd man out, Buick, is expected to get its own Ultium-based models soon as well. Ultium components were also to be used for the cancelled Cruise Origin self-driving car.