The Homa Files

Answer: Mostly Japan.  By Panasonic and Sanyo — soon to be just Panasonic since it announced that it’s buying Sanyo. Some from China.

So, our national strategy to become energy independent requires sourcing the major auto component — a $5,000 battery — from a foreign supplier.

Anybody see a problem with that?

This ironic twist is widely known, seems to stay off most radar screens.  Fortunately, there’s a consortium of U.S. companies — called the National Alliance for Advanced Transportation Battery Cell Manufacture — trying to develop a U.S. based battery manufacturing capability.   The consortium is knocking on the government’s door for some development money.

This is one use of tax dollars that I’m in favor of …

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Excerpted from WSJ, “U.S. Firms Join Forces to Build Car Batteries”,  December 12, 2008

Many experts believe battery technology and manufacturing capacity could become as strategically important as oil is today.

Fourteen U.S. technology companies are joining forces and seeking $1 billion in federal aid to build a plant to make advanced batteries for electric cars, in a bid to catch up to Asian rivals that are far ahead of the U.S.

Two decades ago, a similar helped the U.S. computer-chip industry restore its competitiveness.

Auto makers, including General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co., say they plan to roll out plug-in electric cars by 2010. But the U.S. has limited capacity to make the lithium-ion batteries those cars will need. Most of the batteries used in today’s hybrid vehicles, including Toyota Motor Corp.’s Prius and some of GM’s hybrid models, come from Asian makers.

Though much of the advanced battery technology was developed in the U.S., American companies “opted out” of battery production because of the low returns the business offered and the U.S. has lost the lead in battery manufacturing. Asian manufacturers picked up the business because of their proximity to makers of electronic devices, which need a steady supply of batteries.

The consortium intends to solicit as much as $1 billion in federal funds from the Obama administration by tapping loan guarantees contained in an energy-security act passed last year. The act pledges as much as $7 billion in loan guarantees for advanced-battery plants in the U.S. The first large-scale lithium-ion battery plant in the U.S. could cost $1 billion to $2 billion.

Full article:
 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122957206516817419.html?mod=testMod

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Ken’s Take:

U.S. battery manufacturing must be a strategic national priority if we’re serious about becoming energy independent and carbon fuel light.

But, battery manufacturing is only part of the equation. 

The primary input to the next generation auto grade rechargeable battery is lithium.  Any idea where that element comes from? 

Hint: not the U.S.  I’ll give the answer in a subsequent post.

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This entry was posted on December 22, 2008 at 8:00 am and is filed under Autos - Travel, Environment - Green, Government & Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.