GM taps former Tesla battery expert to help it deliver low-cost EVs at scale
As GM looks to deliver on its promise of EVs for everyone, the automaker is recruiting talent from the best. GM announced Thursday that it has hired Kurt Kelty, former Tesla executive and recognized battery expert, as it aims to launch low-cost EVs.
GM hires ex-Tesla battery expert to launch low-cost EVs
Kelty will serve as vice president of Batteries under President Mark Reuss in the newly created role.
In the role, he will be in charge of GM’s battery cell strategy and a new end-to-end approach. Kelty’s responsibilities will include researching, developing, and investing in new technology and the use of raw materials.
GM said Kelty’s team will be responsible for a key piece of its electrification strategy. He will utilize GM’s battery development resources to deliver “profitable, lower-cost, higher-performing electric vehicles” at scale.
With the new hire, GM will accelerate and expand efforts to develop and manufacture next-gen battery cells to position them as an EV leader in the future.
Kelty said, with over 30 years of battery tech experience, “Joining GM creates an even bigger opportunity to help the industry make the switch and have a lasting impact on our planet.”
Kelty most recently served as vice president at Sila, a battery materials startup developing lighter, higher energy density lithium-ion batteries to promote widespread EV adoption.
Before that, he helped lead Tesla’s battery development team for 11 years. Kelty was responsible for commercial negotiations with cell suppliers and early-stage battery cell developers.
GM said he was a “key driver” in Tesla’s first Gigafactory. Kelty has worked with lithium-ion batteries since 1993, working for Panasonic to advance rechargeable battery tech for portable devices (the same year the Apple Newton MessagePad went on sale).
The automaker announced it would spend $35 billion on EVs and autonomous tech by 2025. GM said the hire will help it accelerate toward its vision of an all-electric future.
Electrek’s Take
GM’s new hiring comes after the automaker backtracked on its “all-in on EVs” strategy to focus on plug-in hybrids.
Over the past few months, GM has pushed back the production of key EVs like the all-electric Equinox, Silverado RST, and GMC Sierra Denali.
GM is phasing out its most popular Chevy Bolt EV as it focuses on scaling the output of its Ultium-based models. GM CEO, Mary Barra said the next-gen Bolt EV will offer an even better driving, charging, and ownership experience.”
The new Bolt will be the first Ultium model in North America to use LFP batteries to help drive costs down. GM hopes its new hire can help it deliver low-cost, profitable EVs at scale.
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Elon wants the US military to start buying Tesla Cybertrucks – and now they are! The Air Force has ordered two Cybertruck testers for target practice to determine how easy they are to blow up, while Jo makes up a whole new conspiracy theory on today’s explosive episode of Quick Charge!
Today’s episode is brought to you by retrospec—makers of sleek, powerful e-bikes and outdoor gear built for everyday adventure. Electrek listeners can get 10% off their next ride until August 14 with the exclusive code ELECTREK10 only at retrospec.com.
An it doesn’t stop there. We’ve also got exciting new home battery backup and V2X options for Tesla owners, and one Texas EV driver that decided to conquer the Texas floodwaters by harnessing the awesome combined powers of electrons and stupidity (it’s pretty awesome).
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Tesla’s Dojo supercomputer project is reportedly over. Bloomberg reports that CEO Elon Musk is killing the project after a mass exodus of talent from the Dojo team to a competing startup.
Dojo was the name of Tesla’s in-house AI chip development to create supercomputers to train its AI models for self-driving.
Tesla hired a bunch of top chip architects and tried to develop better AI accelerator chips to rely less on companies like NVIDIA, AMD, and others.
It has been running into delays for years.
We previously reported on significant setbacks. In 2018, Jim Keller, the famed chip architect who was first hired to lead Tesla’s chip-making effort, left the company.
Ganesh Venkataramanan succeeded him, but he left Tesla in 2023.
For the last few years, Peter Bannon, who worked with Keller for years, has been leading Tesla’s chip-making programs, but he is now reportedly also leaving the automaker.
Bloomberg reports that Musk has “ordered the effort to be shut down.”:
Peter Bannon, who was heading up Dojo, is leaving and Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk has ordered the effort to be shut down, according to the people, who asked not to be identified discussing internal matters. The team has lost about 20 workers recently to newly formed DensityAI, and remaining Dojo workers are being reassigned to other data center and compute projects within Tesla, the people said.
DensityAI is a new startup currently in stealth mode, founded by several former Tesla employees, including Venkataramanan.
It reportedly plans to build chips for AI data centers and robots, much like the Dojo program.
The company recently hired 20 former Tesla employees who worked on Dojo.
While the program appeared to be lagging behind for years as Tesla increasingly bought more compute power from NVIDIA, Musk has been claiming progress.
The CEO said in June:
Tesla Dojo AI training computer making progress. We start bringing Dojo 2 online later this year. It takes three major iterations for a new technology to be great. Dojo 2 is good, but Dojo 3 will be great.
During Tesla’s quarterly conference call in late July, the CEO claimed that Dojo 2 will be “operating at scale sometime next year.”
Electrek’s Take
It’s unclear whether the report is accurate or if it’s an extrapolation from the talent exodus to Elon killing Dojo, or if Elon was lying just a few weeks ago.
Alternatively, this development may be so recent that Elon went from being confident in Dojo a few weeks ago to disbanding the team working on it now.
Either way, I think it’s clear that the project has been lagging, and Tesla has been extremely dependent on chip suppliers rather than making its own.
I think Dojo being likely dead is not a big loss for Tesla.
When it comes to chip making, developing its own inference compute for onboard “AI computers” was always the more important project.
TSMC is set to produce Tesla’s new AI5 chip, which is coming soon, and we have recently learned that Samsung will be manufacturing its AI6 chip.
I think the bigger concern from this report is that it’s the latest example of an ongoing exodus of talent at Tesla.
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Jack Dorsey, co-founder and chief executive officer of Twitter Inc. and Square Inc., listens during the Bitcoin 2021 conference in Miami, Florida, on Friday, June 4, 2021.
Eva Marie Uzcategui | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Block shares jumped in extended trading on Thursday after the fintech company increased its forecast for the year.
Here is how the company did, compared to analysts’ consensus estimates from LSEG.
- Earnings per share: 62 cents adjusted vs. 69 cents expected
Block doesn’t report a revenue figure, but said gross profit rose 14% from a year earlier to $2.54 billion, beating analysts’ estimates of $2.46 billion for the quarter. Gross payment volume increased 10% to $64.25 billion.
Block raised its guidance for full-year gross profit to $10.17 billion, representing 14% growth from a year earlier. In its prior earnings report, Block said gross profit for the year would come in at $9.96 billion.
The company expects full-year adjusted operating income of $2.03 billion, or a 20% margin. For the third quarter, the company expects gross profit to grow 16% from a year ago to $2.6 billion, with an operating margin of 18%.
Square payment volume in the quarter grew 10% from a year earlier.
Block faces growing competition from rivals such as Toast and Fiserv‘s Clover, though its Square business still gained share during the quarter in areas such as retail and food and beverage.
Block shares were down 10% this year as of Thursday’s close, while the Nasdaq is up 10%. Last month, Block was added to the S&P 500.
— CNBC’s Robert Hum contributed to this report.
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