Basic Motors has employed battery knowledgeable and ex-Tesla govt Kurt Kelty to be the automaker’s new vice chairman of batteries — a model new position for the corporate. His first day might be February 19.

Kelty will be a part of GM at a time when the corporate has struggled to extend the output of the battery packs for its new Ultium platform, which is meant to energy its next-generation electrical autos.

“The muse that GM has established coupled with Kurt’s distinctive battery experience in main battery chemistry improvement, establishing partnerships, constructing out provide chains and partnering intently with groups which have developed main battery techniques will assist us obtain our electrification objectives and place GM as a frontrunner in EV expertise,” GM president Mark Reuss mentioned in an announcement.

Kelty spent greater than a decade as the top of Tesla’s battery crew. He was there by means of the launch of Tesla’s first 4 automobiles: The Roadster, Mannequin S, Mannequin X, and Mannequin 3. He additionally used to work at Panasonic, Tesla’s accomplice in cell improvement on the Gigafactory in Nevada.

Extra lately, he was the vice chairman of commercialization at Sila Nanotechnologies, an organization based by early Tesla worker Gene Berdichevsky that has been growing a silicon-based anode that may dramatically enhance the vitality density of lithium-ion batteries.