Filed under: Emerging Technologies, EV/Plug-in
Continental says "good chance" to win Volt battery contract
Even though GM has said it will wait until late 2008 to name the battery supplier for the Chevy Volt, Continental CEO Manfred Wennemer told Reuters on Thursday that he believes his company has a "good chance" of winning the fight with LG Chem / CPI. Of course, it's no surprise that a CEO would talk up his company's chances, but winning the Volt contract will be a huge coup to whoever wins it. Wennemer said that not winning won't kill the company, but "it would be very, very important for us to be the one," he said. Winning the Volt deal would see Conti build a production plant in the U.S., Wennemer said. Since both Continental and CPI packs seem to be doing fine in the testing lab, there is probably a lot of number crunching and haggling going on behind closed doors to figure out which supplier can deliver the right packs to GM for the right cost. [Source: Reuters]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Kevin Nugent 7:09PM (5/10/2008)
I just hope picking one will not affect the closing of the other i still hope all three companies can continue to produce batteries and make money . the more competition's there is the better
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Joseph 10:33PM (5/10/2008)
Kevin, there are four companies involved.
LG Chem/CPI against Continental/A123. Unless maybe one of the companies owns the other.
Oh, sorry, my bad. LG Chem owns CPI, so you're right. There are three companies.
I'll post this in case anyone else was confused.
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Tim 9:10AM (5/11/2008)
GM chose the 2 test packs finalists from MANY battery suppliers. They BOTH have a "good chance" or they wouldn't even have packs being tested by GM.
Personally, I’m hoping that EEStor can deliver on their promises.
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greg woulf 8:03AM (5/12/2008)
Batteries are still where the kink in the hose is. I hope both teams get a contract of some type. If the batteries perform as well as they say they can, then I'm sure the loser will still get a hefty contract from another car builder.
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