From the Ann Arbor Business Review
NATHAN BOMEY
by Nathan Bomey | Ann Arbor Business Review
Tuesday January 27, 2009, 11:56 AM
Nathan Bomey
Michigan needs to get batteries right.
The crisis in the automotive industry is no less than frightening. But the opportunity to salvage the state's automotive expertise and leverage its university heritage to capitalize on advanced batteries represents a beacon of hope for the state's economy.
Perhaps the greatest problem, however, is the need for substantial up-front investment in lithium-ion battery manufacturing capacity for vehicles.
The problem that threatens to trip up the entire industry push toward electric vehicles is: How do we tackle the scale issue? How do we produce lithium-ion-battery-powered cars in mass quantities? The answer is enormous capital investment. But without significant government incentives, it seems unlikely that the auto industry would spend major dollars on anything right now.
It appears that President Barack Obama's economic stimulus package may include incentives for auto lithium-ion battery production. It certainly seems appropriate, particularly in light of the administration's decision to allow individual states to set their own vehicle emissions standards, effectively forcing the automakers to invest heavily in alternative propulsion vehicles. Michigan, meanwhile, has already approved its own battery incentives package.
Denise Gray, director of hybrid energy storage systems at General Motors, who is expected to speak Jan. 27 at the University of Michigan's Martin Luther King Jr. Symposium, told me in an interview that the government needs to lend a helping hand to help automakers generate battery production capacity.
"The manufacturing base to produce battery systems is not here," Gray said. "I think support from our government is important when it comes to enticing and encouraging - I think I like the word encouraging - companies to have a footprint in the states when it comes to manufacturing."
This is a critical moment. Automakers, albeit in the midst of dramatic downsizing at internal combustion vehicle plants, are simultaneously prepping for major investments in battery plants.
GM is expected to work with Korean supplier LG Chem to establish a battery pack manufacturing facility in Michigan to supply the battery for the Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric vehicle. Watertown, Mass.-based A123Systems, which has an Ann Arbor operation, is poised to build an auto battery plant in Michigan, as well.
Meanwhile, Ann Arbor startup Sakti3, led by visionary U-M professor Ann Marie Sastry, is formulating its own plans. Sastry won't tell me what she's planning, but it's only a matter of time before her company announces a big investment plan of some sort as she works to commercialize a new battery production process for vehicles.
Sastry is already working with GM to educate 50 engineers in her energy systems engineering master's program at U-M.
GM's publicized enrollment in U-M programs is a humble step for the automaker. It shows that its existing engineers need to learn more about advanced batteries.
"It's vital to where we are today and where we are tomorrow," Gray said. "We need people. That's the only way we're going to be able to meet the needs of today as well as tomorrow is with great minds."
GM's enrollment at U-M is a savvy move. U-M researchers have been tackling battery issues for years, long before the word hybrid was associated with the auto industry. Sastry herself has been working on batteries for more than 15 years.
Stephen Forrest, U-M's vice president for research, has acknowledged that battery research was not always the most popular of fields.
But the university's long-term commitment to battery research underscores the need for additional industry-university partnerships to achieve solutions for the nation's critical problems.
No comments:
Post a Comment