The next stage of Daimler's efforts to electrify road vehicles will start moving ahead this fall when construction begins on a new battery plant. The plant will be part of the joint venture announced last fall between Daimler and Evonik to develop and produce advanced lithium ion batteries. The first factory for German Accumotive will be located in Kamenz, northeast of Dresden. Production at the new facility will start in early 2011 with the first production applications in Mercedes cars beginning a year later. Evonik isn't saying what the production capacity will be other than it will be ramped up in parallel with electric vehicle production.

The venture will produce battery systems using large format prismatic cells like most other automotive applications. Although Tesla Motors isn't mentioned in the press release, the company may be involved in the development of the battery management systems for these packs.


[Source: Evonik]

By fall 2010, Hitachi plans increase its production capacity for lithium ion batteries by 600 percent in the first phase of a major expansion. Hitachi will be supplying the batteries for General Motor's second-generation mild hybrid system that debuts late next year for 2011 model year vehicles. GM has placed an order for enough cells to support 100,000 hybrid vehicles a year. Beyond that, Hitachi is planning to ramp up to build cells for 700,000 hybrids a year by 2015, a 70-fold increase from current levels. The expansion and new production will occur at Hitachi Vehicle Energy Ltd's Tokai factory in Ibaraki Prefecture in Japan. So far most of Hitachi's lithium ion production has been for commercial vehicle applications and the GM batteries will be the first light duty hybrid.

[Source: Reuters]

The long-simmering confrontation between South Korea and Japan has affected all sorts of relationships between the two countries. While mostly peaceful over the last few decades, there remains some bad blood between the two countries. A new rule that the South Korean government will soon introduce could bring the disagreements to the electric vehicle market.

According to the Japanese newspaper the Yomiuri Shimbun, starting on July 1, South Korea will begin to regulate goods that have lithium-ion batteries. South Korea and Japan are two of the world's biggest li-ion battery makers, and the new rule "could in effect shut products using Japanese-made lithium batteries out of the South Korean market," the Yomiuri wrote. Exactly how the li-ion products are supposed to get the certification the South Koreans are requiring isn't exactly clear, one Japanese government official told the paper. How EVs might be affected is also unknown at this time. U.S. products will be exempt from the regulation starting in October.

[Source: Yomiuri via Green Car Congress]

South Korean battery maker LG Chem is getting prepared to supply lithium ion cells General Motors for production of the Chevrolet Volt by building a new cell manufacturing facility. The company broke ground for the new plant in Cheongwon earlier this week and the facility is expected to be running by the first half of 2010. LG Chem already has another plant in Ochang that is building similar cells for Hyundai and Kia for the new hybrid models being introduced by those companies. The Cheongwon plant is expected to cost nearly $800 million.

That's not the end of LG Chem's production investments. The company previously said it will eventually build a cell production facility in Michigan to support U.S. customers, including GM with the Volt. Yang Woong-chul of Hyundai and GM's hybrid engineering director Bob Kruse both attended the ground breaking ceremony.

[Source: Korea Herald]

When we spoke with Coda Automotive's marketing director Kara Saltness a few weeks before the unveiling of the new electric sedan, she mentioned that although Lishen would be providing the batteries for the car, Coda was looking at other options as well. Saltness mentioned a possible U.S. partnership for battery production. This week, Coda announced a new joint venture with Connecticut-based Yardney Technical Products, Inc. The new company will work on designing, building and selling lithium ion battery systems for automotive applications. Although a deal hasn't been finalized yet, Lishen is also expected to participate in the new venture which will eventually supply battery packs for the Coda sedan.

The joint venture company, called Coda Battery Systems LLC, has applied for a grant under the stimulus program to build the plant in Enfield, CT. The new venture plans to employ 600 people at the factory. Yardney supplies advanced battery systems to the military and other government customers. Among the applications for Yardney's batteries are the B2 bomber and the Mars rovers. The press release is after the jump. Thanks to Mike for the tip!


[Source: Coda]
Photos Copyright ©2009 Mike Levine

Battery manufacturer Valence Technology has big plans to expand its manufacturing capacity. To help pay for the investment, the Austin, Texas-based company has applied for a $225 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy through the Electric Drive Vehicle Battery and Component Manufacturing Initiative. Valence plans to put another $359.4 million from other state and local incentive programs into the project.

$2 billion was set aside by Congress for the grant program in the stimulus bill passed earlier this year. Valence has already been manufacturing lithium iron magnesium phosphate batteries overseas. It now wants to add U.S. production in Texas to supply the U.S. auto industry. The company has chosen Leander, Texas, north of Austin as the site for the plant and plans to employ 2,700 people by 2012 and 4,000 by 2016. Valence has also previously applied for low interest loans for the project through the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Incentive Program, but no announcements have yet been made about awards from that program.

[Source: Valence Technology]

Dow Corning Toray has developed a new process for infusing carbon electrodes with silicon to help increase the current capacity of lithium ion batteries. While researchers have been working with silicon for some time, the results have been limited. The problem has been evenly distributing the silicon within the graphite material. Dow's new process involves burning a silicon-based polymer material in the presence of the graphite which disperses smaller silicon particles through more of the carbon.

The result is that the current capacity of the electrodes has been doubled to 650-800mAh/g. This would result in more current from smaller cells and packs. The cycle performance is also good because of the low thermal expansion of the carbon even when impregnated with silicon. This results in fewer cracks in the electrode to reduce the capacity. Unfortunately it comes at the cost of poor coulombic efficiency. That is the discharge capacity is only 70-80 percent of the charge capacity. Researchers are working on this problem and hope the process will result in improved automotive batteries.

[Source: TechOn]

Sakti3, a lithium-ion battery start-up company based in old Detroit got its start in 2007 with the help of University of Michigan professor Ann Marie Sastry. Now, we hear that the company has not only secured $15 million capital for its project, but is also doing paperwork to get an additional $15 million from the Department of Energy. Sastry is being supported by Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm and Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI). The aim? Manufacturing lithium-ion batteries. The company is talking about a pilot factory in Michigan in 2010. The company is collaborating with GM and Sastry herself helped retrain 50 GM engineers on alternative propulsion technology at the University of Michingan's GM Advanced Battery Coalition for Drivetrains.

[Source: Mlive]

After months of delays, Corsa Motorsports is finally ready to hit the track with its new hybrid LMP1 race car. The hybrid race program was originally announced last summer at the Detroit Grand Prix and was set to debut at the Petit Le Mans in October. Unfortunately, development didn't proceed as quickly as hoped with the fall and winter passing by as the car was made ready for competition.

In a test session last week at the Silverstone track in England, the new Q10 successfully passed its final test and will be making its race debut this weekend in Utah at Miller Motorsports Park. The LMP1 race car has a 625 hp 4.5-liter V8 combined with an electric motor and lithium ion battery pack. The hybrid system has been developed by British engineering firm Zytek and the battery is supplied by Continental. During its final test, the car ran a full lap at Silverstone on electric power alone. We'll have more on the new car later this week.

[Source: American Le Mans Series, Corsa Motorsports]

It will come as no surprise to regular readers of AutoblogGreen that there are a ton of hybrid and electric vehicles scheduled to show up on the market over the next few years. All of these machines will share one major component: batteries. According to a study by The Freedonia Group, Inc., a Cleveland-based industry research firm, the worldwide demand for the materials needed to produce these batteries will rise to $22.8 billion – a 3.9-percent increase – by the year 2012.

Most of the demand will be for lithium- and nickel-based batteries, with older technologies like lead acid, zinc-carbon and nickel-cadmium actually decreasing as a result. Not surprisingly, China, which is the largest producer of batteries in the world, will account for the greatest growth. See the full press release after the break.

[Source: Freedonia Group via EV World]