Johnson Controls-Saft has been awarded a contract worth some $8.2 million for the development of lithium ion batteries and the associated system that goes into making them an automotive-ready pack. The goal is to find out how feasible the planned push for PHEVs really is. According to Mary Ann Wright, head of the Johnson Controls-Saft joint venture and vice president at GM for Johnson Controls' hybrid battery business, "Specifically, key goals for this PHEV contract are to optimize cell and battery system design for 10-mile and 40-mile electric range vehicles." See the press release after the break for more on that.

Well, good, right? Sort of. The agencies that awarded the money are the United States Advanced Battery Consortium and the U.S. Department of Energy. Of these two organizations, Wright says, "The fundamental issue that we have in the government ... is they're ignorant," adding that the organizations "need to be completely revamped." At issue seems to be the lack of standards and sufficient incentives for auto-spec batteries from the American manufacturers in cooperation with the government. For our part, we know that there is only so much money to go around, so we can only hope that it's being spent in the best possible way.

[Source: Johnson Controls-Saft, The Detroit News]

The hybrid battery test lab at the GM Technical Center

Earlier this week, General Motors invited members of the media to their Technical Center in Warren, MI, for a briefing to talk about batteries, and show off their battery development lab. The purpose of the meeting was to provide some background on the design of lithium ion batteries, the current status of battery developments, and the hurdles that remain before bringing lithium ion batteries to market.

The session began with an introduction from GM's VP of Environment and Energy Beth Lowery. She repeated the recent mantra about the need for energy diversity, which we've been hearing from the likes of Rick Wagoner, Bob Lutz and other GM executives for the past few months. She then reviewed the time-line for General Motors hybrid vehicles, from the initial two-mode hybrid buses that have on the road since 2003 through the current mild hybrids to the light duty two-mode hybrids including the two-mode Vue hybrid later in 2008. She wrapped up with fuel-cells and E-Flex before handing off to Denise Gray.

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