US major automakers win big in fed's battery grants
- Source: xinhua
- [08:41 August 06 2009]
- Comments
The big three US automakers will receive at least half of $2.4 billion in battery and electric vehicle grants that the White House announced Wednesday, reports reaching here said.
Five auto research teams in the state of Michigan will receive 966 million dollars of the $1.5 billion in battery manufacturing grants.
General Motors Co. (GM) will receive about 241 million dollars in grants, including 106 million dollars for its planned battery pack assembly factory in Brownstown Township, about 20 kilometers south of the US auto city of Detroit. Ford Motor Co. will get nearly 100 million dollars, while Chrysler Group LLC will get 70 million dollars.
Meanwhile, A123 Systems Inc., with facilities in Romulus and Brownstown, will receive 249.1 million dollars for the manufacturing of nano-iron phosphate cathode powder and electrode coatings, fabrication of battery cells and modules, and assembly of complete battery pack systems for hybrid and electric vehicles.
GM also will receive 105 million dollars for electric drive component manufacturing facilities. Ford Motor Co. will receive 62.7 million dollars for producing a Ford electric-drive transaxle with integrated power electronics.
The government funds come from the 787-billion-dollar federal stimulus bill approved in February. About 70 percent of the battery research funds must be spent by next year.
The White House said the grants will help "establish a domestic manufacturing industry able to produce the batteries and drive systems for the next generation of advanced vehicles here in the US"
The push comes as the Obama administration continues to shift the focus toward electric vehicles from the Bush administration's emphasis on hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. Obama wants 1 million plug-in electric vehicles on the road by 2015, an ambitious call, since only a few hundred are on the roads today.
