General Motors Corp. may be trying to
stave off bankruptcy, but it's also
building an important new plant.
The plant is in Michigan and is devoted to making batteries for electric cars. GM wants to bring its electric Chevy Volt to market next year and have the new plant supply Lithium-ion batteries for it.
As noted in a LA Times story, the batteries are seen as key to a future electric vehicle market. Larry Burns, head of research and development and strategic planning at GM, said "the battery is the most expensive and high-tech component in an electric car, so the companies that make batteries well could emerge as the most
powerful players in the industry." GM, of course, isn't the only player in the market, and it will have competition from other battery and electric car makers,
including Chrysler LLC.
For example, Samsung SDI Co. Ltd. set up a $520 million JV with Robert Bosch GmbH to market the Li-ion batteries worldwide in 2011, around the same time a Nissan Motor Co.-Renault SA JV expects to move into worldwide production of electric vehicles, after first launching them in the U.S. and Japan. The world's biggest auto battery maker, Johnson Controls Inc., and Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd., which controls the greatest market share for the technology, are also in the hunt. All these big players don't bode well for
startups in the industry.
A123Systems Inc. was
in the running to supply battery cells to the GM Michigan plant but lost out to Compact Power, a unit of Seoul-based LG Chem Ltd. However, Watertown., Mass.-based A123 does have a broader customer base and plans on applying for
$1.84 billion in direct government loans to support the construction of "new world-class lithium ion battery manufacturing facilities" in the U.S. It says the plant will be located in southeast Michigan. -
Baz HiralalGo to the Bloomberg story
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