GM to Build Its Own Batteries
MIT Technology Review
January 12, 2009
Just as the company makes engines, it will now make battery packs for electric cars.
Excerpt: "General Motors (GM) is getting into the battery-making business. On Monday, the company confirmed early speculation that LG Chem, based in Korea, will supply lithium-ion batteries for its Volt electric vehicle, which is due out next year. But GM also announced that it intends to start manufacturing battery packs itself, noting that battery manufacturing will be central to its business going forward. .... " more
Interesting thoughts from former GM CEO, and former ECD chairman and CEO,
Robert Stempel on future of electric cars
WFFA.com Project Green [WFAA-TV Dallas/Fort Worth]
July 21, 2008 01:52 PM CDT
Excerpt: "Mr. Stempel believes in the idea of electric-drive cars — he uses the term "electric drive" to encompass both all-electric systems and plug-in hybrids. He gave the greenlight to development of GM's EV1, the first electric car to be offered by a mainstream car maker since the early years of the 20th Century. After he was pushed out of GM by a boardroom coup during the auto maker's last big financial crisis in 1992, Mr. Stempel continued to devote himself to the electric car idea. He spent more than a decade as chairman of U.S. battery maker Energy Conversion Devices, Inc. before leaving the company last year. ....
Mr. Stempel, now a consultant with an office in suburban Detroit [where?? -- Council of Great Lakes Industries?? ], says the obstacle to mass production of electric vehicles is the same issue as it was "when Mr. Edison told Mr. Ford that in a year he'd have a battery for his car. The weak link is the battery."
Nickel metal hydride (NiMH) batteries have proven reliable, he says. "It doesn't do anything naughty, like burn up," he says. But NiMH batteries don't have the range to be competitive with conventional cars. ....
"Look at what happened to the cost of nickel," says Mr. Stempel. "The price of nickel has gone off the charts." A lot of the commodities used in batteries have gotten expensive in the recent commodity price boom, he says. ....
"I'm glad I am not an automotive CEO right now," says Mr. Stempel. "I thought I had problems." " |
