GM, government backers show off first Volt battery

Automotive News
DETROIT (Reuters)

GM interim CEO Ed Whitacre congratulates plant manager Nancy Laubenthal as the first Chevrolet Volt battery comes off the line

General Motors Co.

today showed off the first battery pack for its electric Chevy Volt with a ceremony that highlighted the automaker’s dependence on U.S. government financing for its revival plans.

GM, which emerged from bankruptcy in July with some $50 billion in U.S. taxpayer funding, is counting on the Volt and other fuel-efficient vehicles to revive its lineup as it rushes to win back U.S. consumer trust and return to profitability after five consecutive years of losses.

“We will just see if the American public is ready for this,” GM interim CEO Ed Whitacre said at a new Detroit-area facility that has started to build the massive lithium-ion battery packs for the Volt.

“We’re taking a risk but we think it’s the right thing to do,” said Whitacre, who took the stage in front of a gleaming, T-shaped battery, the first produced for the Volt.

The battery for the Volt is the most expensive component of the highly anticipated electric car and will be assembled from lithium-ion cells manufactured by South Korea’s LG Chem near Seoul.

GM’s Brownstown Battery Pack Assembly Plant will build the cells into packs weighing more than 400 pounds and designed to power the Volt for 40 miles on electric power alone.

Government assistance

In August, the Department of Energy awarded $106 million in grants to help refurbish the factory in Brownstown, Mich., as part of its $2.4 billion package to spur development of next-generation batteries and electric vehicles in the United States.

Including the $106 million in grants, the Department of Energy has invested $266 million to support development of the Volt, said Energy Secretary Steven Chu, who attended today’s event.

“We urgently need to change how we power cars and trucks,” Chu said, adding that 99 percent of batteries for current hybrids are made in Japan.

GM has touted the rechargeable Volt as a challenge to Toyota Motor Corp. and the reputation for environmental leadership it established with its market-leading Prius hybrid.

Members of Michigan’s congressional delegation said the Volt battery pack plant demonstrated that the Obama administration’s bailout of GM had succeeded in putting the American auto industry back on a competitive footing.

“We’re going to show these foreigners how you make cars and how you have success,” said U.S. Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich.

Cost issues

The Volt is set to launch in November although GM has said it could sell some vehicles earlier than that.

The car, which can be recharged at a standard outlet, is expected to lose money for the automaker, now 60 percent owned by the U.S. Treasury.

The biggest hurdle to the Volt’s development has been the cost of the battery, estimated at near $15,000. GM has not announced pricing for the Volt but has indicated that it could cost up to $40,000.

President Barack Obama has set a goal of putting 1 million rechargeable or “plug-in” hybrids on U.S. roads by 2015, a target that many industry executives and analysts see as a stretch because of the high cost of the technology.

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