As automakers such as General Motors Corp. revamp business models to profit from "green" cars, suppliers of technology -- such as lithium-ion batteries -- to run them are rushing to churn out more product. And they're using some government funds to do it. As part of President Obama's larger energy plan, he's pushing for more domestic production.
One such supplier taking advantage is lithium-ion battery maker Quallion LLC, which was founded in 1998 and has more than 60 chemistry, cell and battery patents and 90 pending patents. The company
picked Palmdale, Calif., as its site to construct a $220 million plant that is expected to be completed in 2012.
Quallion president Paul Beach said in a statement:
Our latest efforts have led to securing about $20 million from the City of Palmdale and the California Energy Commission to make this new facility a reality. We have game changing technology at hand and this plant can create as many as 400 jobs in California immediately, with even more jobs possible in the near future.Beach also said more than 2,350 long-term skilled manufacturing and installation jobs will be created in California and across the country. He feels the new plant will significantly increase America's influence in the Asian-dominated lithium-ion battery industry.
Quallion is just using a small slice of the Department of Energy's $2 billion package for the construction of such plants. The market will balloon, and plants are slated for construction all over the U.S. We last did a roundup of who the major players are in the
lithium-ion sector in late May. It showed that manufacturing plants are coming in New York and Michigan, among other places. And some companies to keep an eye on include Electric Motors Corp. (NASDAQ:EMCO), General Electric Co. (NYSE:GE), Johnson Controls Inc. (NYSE:JCI), Exide Technologies (NASDAQ:XIDE) and A123Systems Inc.
Quallion notes its proposed lithium-ion battery facility will directly support Obama's goal to have 1 million plug-in hybrid cars on the road by 2015.
But while the president is pushing for more American dominance in the sector, folks abroad are hard at work to keep their footing. Take LG Chem Ltd., for instance. It's the South Korean chemicals giant that General Motors chose to supply it with lithium-ion batteries for its Chevrolet Volt plug-in. LG Chem says its investing W1 trillion ($799 million) to
build a battery plant near Seoul. Also, the Nikkei business daily said Japan's Hitachi Ltd. plans to boost production capacity for lithium-ion batteries for hybrid cars at an estimated cost of ¥20 billion to ¥30 billion ($216 million to $324 million),
targeting a 70-fold increase by 2015.
It's also worth noting that while the U.S. produces about 3% of
the world's lithium, South America is pretty much the Saudi Arabia of lithium, with Bolivia holding about 50% of the world's reserves. -
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