WORKING ON A BETTER BATTERY

Sounding the charge for electric-car batteries
Steven Mufson, February 7, 2009 (Washington Post via Houston Chronicle)

"Two big batteries stand side by side at the General Motors testing lab in Warren, Mich. One is an artifact, built a dozen years ago. Weighing 1,200 pounds, it could fill the back of a large pickup truck…The other battery is new and produces the same amount of energy but is a relatively trim 400 pounds…it will squeeze into the body of the compact Chevy Volt that GM plans to start producing next year…

"But while battery technology has traveled far from the big clunkers in the late 1990s, the costs and limits of current batteries remain the biggest obstacles to mass marketing plug-in vehicles. Although nearly every major auto company is moving ahead with electric car plans, the batteries still cost about $8,000 or more…and that could make electric cars money-losers. Moreover…manufacturing capacity is limited, and few factories are in the U.S."

For the Volt, GM bought the black Korean battery, not the silver Massachusetts battery. (click to enlarge)

"Solving these problems could become more critical as President Barack Obama pushes to toughen fuel-efficiency standards. Automakers are lobbying Congress for help establishing a battery industry in the United States.

"…According to Lux Research, a consulting firm specializing in emerging technologies, the electric-car battery market is projected to grow sixfold by 2013. About 70 percent of it will be lithium-ion batteries. Similar technology could become widespread in storing wind and solar energy for utilities, too."

click to enlarge

"So far, Asian battery makers have a leg up. General Motors this month announced that it had passed over U.S. battery firms and chosen LG Chem, a Korean firm, to make the lithium-ion battery cells for the Chevy Volt.

"…U.S. firms are turning to the federal government to help them rev up production…Both sides of the aisle in Congress have backed government support…Fourteen companies have banded together in a National Alliance for Advanced Transportation Battery Cell Manufacture seeking $1 billion to $2 billion in investment over the next five years. They say it is the only way to compete with Asian manufacturers…"