Battery Supplier Problems For Hybrids and EVs - Are There Enough Electric Batteries? - by Erik Sorfge
This past August, then-candidate Barack Obama proposed a 10-year, $150 billion energy plan that included an ambitious deadline: one million plug-in hybrids on the road in the United States by 2015. Of course, that was before gas prices plummeted to historic lows, before the mortgage implosion in September, and before the Detroit Three appeared before Congress, hat in hand. But even if President-elect Obama can overcome a raft of financial obstacles, the million plug-in plan or any other attempt to dramatically increase the nation’s fleet of hybrids, plug-ins and all-electric vehicles could face an unexpected roadblock—too much political will, and not enough batteries. Last week Brian Wynne, the president of the Electric Drive Transportation Association (EDTA), told the Wall Street Journal that there are no companies in the United States currently producing the kind of batteries used in hybrids or electric vehicles. That appears to be true—for a few weeks, at least.
New York City–based Ener1, one of four domestic players in the automotive-battery market, plans to begin volume production of lithium-ion battery packs next month, as part of a deal with Norwegian electric vehicle (EV) maker Think. Having recently acquired a Korean battery manufacturer, Ener1 now claims to have a total production capacity of 450,000 hybrid-electric packs per year, or 45,000 EV packs (which require more cells per pack). The company plans to reach that capacity by 2011. And while not every U.S. battery maker is so forthcoming with its production numbers, even if all four major companies reached similar capacities, a battery crunch seems inevitable.
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