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Kurt Kelty
VP, Automotive at Sila Nanotechnologies Inc.
Kurt Kelty is a battery industry veteran with over 30 years of experience in developing and commercializing battery technologies.15 He is currently the VP of Commercialization at Sila Nanotechnologies Inc., where he leads sales, business development, battery cell manufacturing partnerships, and battery engineering.56
Kelty's career highlights include:
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Tesla: Senior Director of Battery Technology for 11 years (2006-2017), where he played a key role in creating Tesla's first Gigafactory.13
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Panasonic: Director of Business Development for nearly 15 years (1991-2006), where he founded and directed the battery R&D lab.12
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General Motors: Recently appointed as Vice President of Batteries (starting February 19, 2024), responsible for GM's battery cell strategy and end-to-end approach in EVs.23
Kelty's expertise spans battery chemistry development, supply chain management, and partnerships in the EV industry.2 He began working with lithium-ion batteries in 1993 at Panasonic.45 In 2017, he received the "Battery Innovator of the Year" award from the International Battery Seminar.1
His educational background includes studies at Stanford University Graduate School of Business (1996-1997).1
Highlights
GM’s next step in battery manufacturing As we navigate this constantly changing world, a simple truth remains; relationships matter. Battery cell manufacturing is one of the most important facets of our business, and the power of our relationships is driving us forward. Here’s the latest example: Today I joined Yoon-ho Choi, President & CEO, Samsung SDI, along with Zin Park, Samsung SDI’s executive vice president automotive, to finalize the battery joint venture we announced in 2023. This agreement will bring highly skilled, high-tech jobs to Indiana, supporting our plan to build a resilient EV supply chain in North America. This new $3.5 billion plant will have an initial capacity of 27 GWh, with capability to expand up to 36 GWh, building prismatic cells, which will be added to our battery technology portfolio, helping us to continue to increase performance and lower costs in the future. The Samsung SDI joint venture paves the way for our next-generation EVs to provide customers with the latest battery technology, improving EV performance, and the ownership experience. Our new venture with SDI supplements our successful Ultium Cells JV with LG Energy Solution. Ultium Cells has already created thousands of jobs in America thanks to our battery cell plants in Ohio and Tennessee, which are powering our latest EVs, including the Cadillac LYRIQ and CELESTIQ, the Chevrolet Blazer, Equinox and Silverado EVs, as well as the GMC Hummer pickup and SUV. These plants will also power our upcoming EVs, including the Cadillac Escalade iQ, GMC Sierra EV and Cadillac OPTIQ. The quality and productivity of the two Ultium Cells plants operating today is superb, with millions of American made battery cells being shipped to our North American EV assembly plants. Together with LGES and Samsung SDI, we’re creating a more North American focused technology and manufacturing ecosystem for EVs. That’s crucial in so many ways, including making EVs better and more affordable for our customers. I’m so proud of what we’ve built to date with LGES in Ultium Cells and I’m excited to continue building up local manufacturing with Samsung.
Thanks Michael Dunne for having me on the Winning In Asia podcast - I had a great time talking about the breakthroughs in EV batteries, the work we’re doing at Sila Nanotechnologies Inc. and what’s to come for the industry. Listen to our full conversation here:
