$1 billion to kick start the US battery industry?
Is it already too late for a US battery industry?3M and Johnson Controls have joined a consortium of 14 US technology companies, called the National Alliance for Advanced Transportation Battery Cell Manufacture, which is seeking $1 billion in aid from the US government to help develop advanced batteries for hybrid and electric cars.
Argonne National Lab is advising the alliance on how to bring lithium technology, much of it invented into the US, back into US manufacturing according to the Wall Street Journal.
With many calling batteries the new oil, such an effort should be no surprise. Still, while much of this battery technology was first developed in the US, few US companies have found battery manufacturing to be profitable, largely because most electronic devices are made in Asia. It is hoped, however, that since the US still has a large auto manufacturing sector - at least for now - manufacturing auto batteries could be different, and profitable.
Labels: electric cars, Hybrid Vehicles, lithium battery
posted by Dahcredyns at
1:02 PM
5 Comments:
And we spent a TRILLION dollars in 5 years in an illegal war.
We could have fixed EVERY SINGLE problem the US has ever faced....EVER...in the last 5 years by using that money.
Instead, we pissed it away bigtime...what a complete utter f-up.
Our healthcare problems, our transportation problems, our alternative energy problems, our schools, our social system, everything.
A billion for the battery industry is a drop in the bucket.
c'mon. we wouldn't have used that money to fix anything, except new military weapons. still, did we even the money to spend in the first place? we borrowed that money from China.
Wow, we are finally going to invest in a domestic battery industry. What took so damn long?
I'll grant that until a Detroit company was willing to make a big bet on a battery powered car, there was no hope for a domestic battery industry. For that we should all be eternally grateful to GM, Bob Lutz, and indirectly Tesla.
One more thing, if GM gets restructured into becoming a vastly, vastly smaller car company focused on EV cars, I would be overjoyed. We would still lose a lot of domestic jobs in the short run, but at least we would know that GM would have a clear field of growth for the future, and a new future oriented domestic supply chains that would grow as well. And that new EV car industry would not be Detroit centric and would not destroy our environment.
So, where are the world's lithium deposits again? After we redeploy out of the mideast, we can setup shop to protect our access to Li deposits. ;)
"The development of the Volt remains on-schedule despite the ongoing talks in Washington, D.C. It is one of the highest, if not the highest, priority programs in the company and that hasn’t changed, nor has the commitment of resources to fund it.
Great9 - So does that mean yes?
Also, thus far, GM isn't using a US-made battery for the Volt.
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