All Charged Up: Quick Battery Update

Lots happening with some of the leading makers of advanced batteries targeted for the transportation industry.

• A123: GM announced the winners of their Volt battery beauty pageant, and Germany-based Continental Automotive Systems, a division of Continental AG, was one of the two winners. A123 supplies Continental with their battery technology. GM will evaluate battery product through June 2008, and then make a determination of how to best to move forward.

• Compact Power, Inc. (CPI): CPI is the other GM pageant winner. Based in Troy, MI, CPI is owned by Korean battery maker LG Chem. CPI's large format batteries use a proprietary formula that apparently can withstand 300K recharge cycles. The company further claims a 15 year product life span. Key point: LG Chem will develop and supply all the batteries; CPI is only responsible for design and assembly of the cell packs that will be supplied to GM. Essentially the opposite of the relationship between A123 and Continental AG.
  

• Altairnano: The good news for Altairnano is that performance claims surrounding their batteries were recently verified for the California Air Resources Board by AeroVironoment. AV ran "50 ten-minute fast charging cycles at the module level with a 120-minute discharge to simulate travel at 60 mph" with no battery degradation at all. The findings seem to confirm Altairnano's claim that the battery should be "good for tens of thousands of cycles equivalent to 500,000 miles of vehicle travel." Also, looks like the folks at Altairnano found their Tesla. London-based Lightening Car Company will produce an EV sports car using Altairnano's NanoSafe batteries. At a cost of close to $300K US, it's not going to be a big seller. But, then, no one expects the Tesla Roadster to gain wide market share either. The purpose of an exotic is to draw attention to a technology that will eventually find broader application.