WARREN, Mi -  General Motors announced on Tuesday that a research facility being built in Michigan will design cheaper, longer-range batteries that will be manufactured at plants under construction in Lordstown, Ohio, and Spring Hill, Tennessee.

The new Wallace Battery Cell Innovation Center in Warren, Michigan will expand the company's battery technology operations and accelerate the development and commercialization of longer-range, more affordable electric vehicle batteries, according to a news release from GM.

GM says it will also use the facility to integrate the work of GM-affiliated battery innovators, helping the company to reach its goal of at least 60 percent lower battery costs with the next generation of Ultium.

The Wallace Center, currently under construction with a completion target date of mid-2022, is expected to build its first prototype cells in the fourth quarter of 2022.

“The Wallace Center will significantly ramp up development and production of our next-generation Ultium batteries and our ability to bring next-generation EV batteries to market,” said Doug Parks, GM executive vice president, Global Product Development, Purchasing and Supply Chain. “The addition of the Wallace Center is a massive expansion of our battery development operations and will be a key part of our plan to build cells that will be the basis of more affordable EVs with a longer range in the future.”

Gm says the center will allow the company to accelerate new technologies like lithium-metal, silicon, and solid-state batteries, along with production methods that can quickly be deployed at battery cell manufacturing plants, including GM's joint ventures with LG Energy Solution in Lordstown, Ohio, and Spring Hill, Tennessee, and other as-yet-undisclosed locations in the U.S.

The facility will connect GM's network of battery development sites located on its Global Technical Center campus. These sites include GM's Research and Development Chemical and Materials' Subsystems Lab that currently leads the company's battery development, including its work on lithium-metal anodes, and the Estes Battery Systems Lab, which GM says is the largest battery validation lab in North America. The Estes Lab enables GM to perform major battery durability tests in-house at the cell, module, and pack levels.

The Wallace Center will be capable of building large-format, prototype lithium-metal battery cells for vehicle usage beyond the small-scale lithium-metal cells typically used in handheld devices or research applications. These cells could be nearly twice the size of the initial Ultium pouch cells.