The State of Wisconsin will give Johnson Controls-Saft a half-million dollar grant to aid in the development of hybrid battery technology, it was announced yesterday. The grant is part of Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle's Clean Energy Wisconsin Plan, and requires Johnson Controls-Saft to invest $500,000 of its own money - I wouldn't be surprised it it goes into the company's Battery Technology Center in Milwaukee - to get the matching funds from the state. The company says it was given the grant "specifically for the advanced technology R&D and commercialization efforts for lithium-ion hybrid vehicle batteries." Johnson Controls-Saft is also building li-ion batteries in France and got $8.2 million from the "ignorant" federal government.

[Source: Johnson Controls]

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The Detroit Free Press' Justin Hyde has a new article out about just how reliant the Big Three are on other countries for all of their new-fangled high-tech parts, especially batteries for hybrid vehicles. We know that the U.S. government is funding hydrogen fuel cell and biofuel research to the hilt, but the dollars for PHEVs and their batteries simply don't match up. Hyde writes about the advantage that Asian countries have in making rechargeable batteries thanks to strong government support there for decades.

The thing is, I'm not sure how this reliance on other countreis for batteries will really be any different from many other aspects of the auto industry. I mean, haven't the past two or three (or more?) decades really been about moving production and sourcing to each and every corner of the world? Or take computer chips - of which how many are in each new car? How many of these are produced in the U.S.? It's the reality of the business/corporate world today, and hybrid vehicles certainly are no exception. Not sure what the surprise is here.

[Source: Seattle Times]

Click the Saturn Vue Hybrid for a high res gallery.

The other day, we found out that GM was having problems with the Cobasys batteries in the automaker's mild hybrid vehicles. The hybrid versions of the Chevrolet Malibu, Saturn Vue and Saturn Aura are affected and around 9,000 batteries were recalled and replaced. At least, that's how GM explained it. According to a post over on HybridCars, Cobasys revealed that "a lot" of the information in the way GM told the battery problem story "it is not correct." According to HybridCars, the Cobasys executive "declined to elaborate further." Even so, we have our own questions in to GM and Cobasys to get their responses. Stay tuned.

[Source: HybridCars]

Nissan isn't the only Japanese auto manufacturer with big plans for batteries. Toyota will open two new battery plants in Japan and expand a third for the production of nickel metal hydride and lithium ion batteries. All of Toyota's current hybrid vehicles use the older nickel-based battery chemistry. The lithium ion batteries produced at the new plant will likely be scheduled for next-gen hybrids like the upcoming Lexus version of the third-generation Prius sedan. The total investment from Toyota will be ¥20 billion, or $192.3 million. These new plants are expected to support Toyota's ambitious goal to sell a million hybrid vehicles per year within the next decade. Currently, the Japanese giant is the global leader in hybrid sales, selling 429,000 of the gasoline/electric vehicles in 2007. The three plants will have the capacity to produce a million packs by the year 2011, which lines up quite nicely with Toyota's plans. Thanks to Joseph for the tip.

[Source: Automotive News - sub. req'd]

Sanyo knows a thing or two about making batteries for vehicles. The company's batteries are in the 2008 Ford Escape hybrid and the Honda Accord hybrid, for example. The Asia Pulse reports this week that the company announced that it will spend over three billion dollars over the next three years on new rechargeable battery technology (as well as solar cells and other electronic parts). The money the company will spend in the next three years is 40 percent more than similar investments in the preceding three years.

The billions will be spent on 1,000 engineers and to reach Sanyo's goal of mass producing "lithium ion batteries for hybrid vehicles by fiscal 2009 or fiscal 2010," the Asia Pulse writes (sorry, the article is behind a Lexis-Nexis wall and can't be linked to).

[Source: Asia Pulse]