The most recent news on the battle for market share supplying lithium-ion batteries for electric cars comes from Johnson Controls Inc. of Milwaukee and from Silicon Valley's Tesla Motors.
Automakers and their suppliers hammered by a global financial meltdown are placing many bets on the hyrbid and electric car market. They believe the long term benefits outweigh the fact that oil prices have plummeted from highs around $150 per barrel in the summer to near $33/barrel Thursday. Besides awakening environmental consciousness, there's pressure to reduce foreign dependence on oil.
Johnson Controls -- keeping up with
key competitor LG Chem Ltd., which won a GM contract -- and its French joint venture partner got a
5-year contract to supply 20,000 lithium-ion batteries to Detroit's Azure Dynamics Inc. for hybrid commercial trucks. Of course, in these difficult times, plans won't run all that smoothly. As
noted here, Johnson Controls executive Beda Bolzenius told Bloomberg News that the company might have to explore approaches such as those announced by Visteon Corp., which is shortening workweeks in its automotive business.
Elsewhere, Tesla Motors has been having trouble getting its own electric sedan out the door, so its looking to make money by selling its tech. So, Tesla said it would
build lithium-ion battery packs and chargers for an all-electric version of Daimler AG's Smart car.
There's sure to be more battery and electric car news on the way, and it will be interesting to see how the big guns -- some of them
obviously struggling -- and startups work around or with each other in this market. See some of our posts below to know who's in the game. -
Baz Hiralal
Is GM going bust, or green? Or maybe both?Is battery consortium the shape of things to come at the DOE?Bosch-Samsung battery JV gets a boost
Sanyo, Volkswagen battery JV continues auto sector trendNissan full steam ahead on electric JV
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Juergen Lasowski
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