America doesn’t have many battery manufacturers.  Most batteries used in American hybrids or electric cars are actually manufactured in Asia.  So when the only advanced Li-ion battery manufacturer in America asks for $480 million to be able to build new plants and increase production, the government should listen.

Relying on the overseas kindness of strangers has not worked well with the fossil fuel industry.  Why should we fall into the same dependency with batteries for our cars, trucks and other forms of transportation?

According to Bill Moore at EV World, most of the batteries or battery components used by American car manufacturers come from China, Japan or Korea.

This brings us back to Ener1’s announcement that it will seek out $480 million in low interest federal loans contained in the $25 billion Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Incentive Program (ATVMIP), which is administered by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).  The program is supposed to provide loans to the auto industry and its suppliers to enable the building and retooling of manufacturing facilities.

Ener1 plans to use the loans to double the output of its current plant to 600,000 hybrid vehicle packs by 2011 and build a new facility that would double total capacity by 2015.

As one of the few American auto battery plants, DOE would be foolish not to provide the loans needed to truly keep America independent.

Related:

Entry was posted on Monday, January 5th, 2009 at 7:34 am under Auto, Green Technology.

Read more entries by Susan Wilson.
Stumble It!