Browse
Engage
Research
The U.S. Department of Energy announced the list of 48 grant recipients Wednesday in what is being called the largest ever investment in hybrid and electric car advanced battery technology. The grants, funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, target U.S.-based manufacturers, automakers, universities, and battery developers in a bid to put a million plug-in hybrid electric vehicles on the road by 2015.
The grants are divided into three areas: $1.5 billion to help U.S. manufacturers produce batteries and grow recycling capacity; $500 million toward U.S. production of electric drive components; and $400 million for education and workforce training, and the purchase and testing of electric vehicles in multiple locations.
Recipients, which agree to match the grant funds, span more than 20 states but are not surprisingly concentrated in existing auto manufacturing hubs such as Michigan and Indiana. Projects include truck stop electrification, hydrothermal lithium ion battery recycling, electric minivan and pickup truck development and deployment, and community college education for aspiring service technicians.
In the largest single grant awarded, Johnson Controls will receive $299.2 million to help fund the production of nickel-cobalt-metal battery cells and packs, which represents about half of the company's $600 million planned investment in domestic advanced battery development. The State of Michigan also awarded the company $148.5 million in incentives in April for a lithium-ion cell and battery system manufacturing plant in Holland, southwest of Grand Rapids.
General Motors received a combined $241.4 million in grants for the production of the battery packs that will power the Chevy Volt, demonstration of the highly anticipated plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, and the construction of manufacturing capacity for its rear-wheel electric drive system.
Lithium ion battery maker A123Systems scored a $249 million grant to help the Watertown, Mass.-based company build battery manufacturing facilities, the first of which is planned for Livonia, Mich.
Other recipients include:
• Honeywell International Corp.: $27.3 million for production of electrolyte salt (lithium hexafluorophosphate (LiPF6)) for lithium-ion batteriesBelow are maps of recipients of today's funding; you can also download PDFs of the grant recipients and project map from the Department of Energy.
• Compact Power Inc. (on behalf of LG Chem Ltd.): $151.4 million for production of lithium-ion polymer battery cells for the GM Volt using a manganese-based cathode material and a proprietary separator.
• Delphi Automotive Systems: $89.3 million for the expansion of manufacturing for existing electric drive power electronics components for both passenger and commercial vehicles.
• Navistar Inc.: $39.2 million to develop and deploy 400 advanced battery electric delivery trucks with a 100-mile range.
 |
 |
Computing
good but not enough
I have my doubts about this... How much money did we give to AIG? And now why are we only investing 2.4 billion in alternative transportation then? Anyways, in his speech, Obama says smaller businesses are more innovative, then why is the majority of the grant money going to the Big 3 automakers? GM built an electric car 10 years ago, and destroyed it (read about the EV1). They don't deserve a dime of our tax dollars. Not to say that I dont think we should be investing in electric cars- it just doesn't make sense to award $200 million dollars to a company (GM) who built an electric car and sold the relevant patents to an oil company (Chevron), who refuses to let anyone put NiMH batteries in 100% electric cars now. And on the topic, if Obama wants to get serious about electric cars, he should enact eminent domain to release the NiMH battery patents from Chevron! To learn more check out the book Two Cents Per Mile by Nevres Cefo, or read portions of it onAmazon.com
Exactly
I completely agree.
Giving money to GM, given how they walked away from the EV1 and then developed the Hummer, is a questionable strategy, at the very least. The quenching of NiMH technology held back EVs for a decade.
That's not to say that new chemistries, such as nickel-zinc or advanced lithium-ion, wouldn't have eventually replaced NiMH. However, the EV1, with NiMH technologies would have put significantly more electric vehicles on the road 10 years ago.
I hope that Obama got the GM bailout plan in writing, or we're going to see a lot of crushed Chevy Volts in a few years.