GM gives the Volt some juice: Partnership with battery maker could help put test vehicle on road by spring

The Plain Dealer
August 10, 2007
By Robert Schoenberger

 Traverse City, Mich. -- General Motors is getting ever closer to producing its Volt plug-in hybrid, a vehicle that may be built at its Lordstown plant.

The automaker announced a partnership deal here Thursday at the annual Management Briefing Seminars with A123 Systems, the company that makes lithium-ion batteries for DeWalt and Black & Decker tools.

The Volt, a concept car shown in Detroit in January, runs on electric power and uses a small gasoline engine to recharge its batteries. GM is designing the car to go 40 miles on a charge before needing the gasoline engine. For most drivers, 40 miles would be enough to handle daily commutes.

 Developing batteries small yet powerful enough to run vehicles is the biggest challenge facing several automakers. According to the Wall Street Journal, Toyota has decided to delay new batteries for its hybrids by as long as two years because of problems with the lithium technology that company is using.

"Breakthrough battery technology will drive vehicle propulsion in the future," GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz said after announcing the partnership with A123. "I am convinced that electrically driven vehicles will provide the next paradigm shift in the automobile industry."

Lutz said he was not surprised by Toyota`s delay because GM considered similar batteries but did not have confidence that the ones being proposed were safe. While lithium batteries can store more power than older chemistries, they have had problems.

Laptop producers have had trouble with fires and even explosions, and automakers have expressed concerns that such "thermal runaway" issues may continue to plague the technology.

David Vieau, president and chief executive of Watertown, Mass.-based A123, said his company`s batteries are not prone to overheating and have worked well in power tools. The technology was developed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology professors about five years ago. The company was founded to commercialize it.

Before shipping units to GM, A123 has to adapt its current cylindrical models into ones that lie flat. Vieau said he hopes to have those available by October. Lutz said test vehicles could be on the road by spring.

The car will then go through years of testing in various climates, as well as crash tests. In the laboratory, the batteries last at least 10 years and can be recharged 7,000 times (enough for daily charging for more than 19 years). Lutz said GM will test the batteries to make sure they live up to those laboratory standards.

 "We have a companywide commitment to producing the Chevrolet Volt," Lutz said. He added that GM is on track to deliver the Volt by the end of 2010.

He declined to say where it would be produced, but he said GM wants to make the Volt a global car, meaning it would use the same basic frame and drive components in the United States, Europe and Asia.

GM plans to launch a new small-car global platform close to the launch of the Volt that will also provide the underpinnings for the next generation of vehicles produced at its Lordstown complex. The concept version of the vehicle uses the Lordstown-produced Cobalt`s frame, and union leaders in Ohio have said they would love to produce the vehicle.

 Vieau said he expects A123`s technology to work well for the auto industry. The company uses a nano-phosphate system with the lithium to store electricity instead of the cobalt-oxide system used for most cell phone and laptop lithium batteries.

Cobalt-oxide has more energy storage capacity, but it has had the overheating problems, and Vieau said his system charges faster.

"There is a trade-off for power, but we think it`s worth it," Vieau said.

A secondary benefit is the elimination of rare materials such as cobalt. Lithium and phosphate are readily available, and the other major commodity needed for the batteries is iron, another commonly available substance, he said.

Commodity prices have caused problems for batteries in the past. Toyota announced plans to slash hybrid production costs in late 2005. The company was able to cut the costs of its electric motors, control systems and software, but by mid-2006, rising nickel prices wiped out those gains because the batteries used in the current line of hybrids all use that metal.

While Lutz said GM is excited by the deal with A123, the company is pursuing several suppliers to get batteries for the Volt. A123 will provide battery cells to German automotive company Continental AG for use in larger battery packs. GM also has a concurrent development deal with Compact Power, a subsidiary of Korean conglomerate LG Chem, to develop batteries and battery packs as well.

Prabhakar Patil, Compact Power`s chief executive officer, told Bloomberg News that his company is "willing to support" getting the technology ready by 2010. Patil, former chief engineer of Ford Motor Co.`s Escape hybrid program, said Compact Power plans to provide battery packs that will perform in "no excuses" test drives in 2008.

Vieau said he does not know which system GM will eventually choose, but he has faith in his product. He declined to say whether the technology deal with GM is exclusive or whether he will be able to sell batteries to Toyota, Ford or other hybrid producers.

Lutz said that if the battery issue can be solved, he has high hopes for the Volt and future electrically driven vehicles.

"The modern automobile has hundreds of rotating and reciprocating parts in the engine," Lutz said. Electric motors, on the other hand, have only one or two moving parts, and batteries have none.

"The electric vehicle is simplicity itself," he said. 

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