Inside the mini factory where GM builds its EV future

If you’re driving through GM’s sprawling campus in Warren, Michigan, you’d likely ignore the pair of adjacent, anonymous white buildings tucked away in the upper reaches of the 710-acre space. Inside those buildings, which total half a million square feet together, is a massive construction project that’s still in progress. Once completed, it will house GM’s new Battery Cell Development Center, where the automaker is working furiously to build new prototype cells with the goal of slashing the cost of its EVs. GM has to build faster and cheaper to meet its goal of selling affordable EVs in much higher volumes. Those EVs will have to compete not only with longtime sales leader Tesla, but also with the flood of Chinese EVs that, sooner or later, will land in the US. And while EV sales in the US appear to be leveling out, America has a long way to go before it can credibly compete with China, the world’s leading EV market. The number of shoppers interested in new and used EVs spiked when gas prices rose 40 percent this year as a result of the war in Iran — but mostly in models priced lower than the average $50,000…