LG Chem
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Batteries are the key component in building practical electric cars. And for its first all-electric Leaf in 2011, Nissan developed its own proprietary lithium-ion battery pack--even planning and setting up its own assembly facilities to build them. That trajectory started back in 2007, but today, the landscape of electric-car battery supply and procurement is vastly different. Perhaps most notably, batteries are integrated into the entire automotive supply chain. So, seven years later, just how committed is Nissan to keeping battery development, engineering, and assembly in-house? DON'T MISS...
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Nissan's Electric-Car Battery Future: Will It Be With LG Chem?Nissan is set to close electric-car battery plants in England and the U.S. and turn to Korean maker LG Chem for some batteries. Or perhaps not. A startling and exclusive Reuters report yesterday said that Nissan is in the middle of reassessing its plans for electric-car production and global...
John Voelcker -
Battery Maker LG Chem: Biggest Electric-Car Winner Of All?
Let's say your company builds a crucial, high-volume component for advanced-technology vehicles. Suppose it emerged this week that you've now got contracts to supply two of the world's three biggest automakers. That would put you in a good spot, wouldn't it? First GM, now VW Group Yesterday, LG...
John Voelcker -
2015 Chevrolet Spark EV Switches Battery Cells; 82-Mile Range Remains
The Chevrolet Spark EV has been on the market for only a year, but already it's being updated. And in this case, the update is major: The 2015 Chevy Spark EV will have an entirely new battery pack. General Motors announced yesterday that it will bring assembly of the electric Spark's battery...
John Voelcker -
U.S.-Built Electric Cars To Get U.S.-Made Battery Cells Too
While the number of plug-in electric cars built in the U.S. is steadily increasing, the lithium-ion cells in their batteries have mostly come from overseas. But this turns out to be the year that cell production largely moves onshore as well. The 2013 Nissan Leaf, now coming off the assembly line...
John Voelcker -
GM's LG Electric-Car Deal Goals: Cheaper, Faster, Less Risky
General Motors has been on a roll with electric-car news of late. It said it would build the well-received Converj concept car as the Cadillac ELR; it cut a deal with A123 Systems to buy lithium-ion cells for a future (unspecified) electric car; and, just this morning, GM announced it would jointly...
John Voelcker -
General Motors announced this morning that it would jointly design and engineer "future electric vehicles" with Korea's LG Group, in a statement that raised more questions than it answered. The announcement, the company said, will "help GM expand the number and types of electric vehicles it makes and sells" because it can use "LG’s proven expertise in batteries and other systems." LG Group is the sprawling conglomerate that owns LG Chem, which supplies lithium-ion cells to the Chevrolet Volt range-extended electric car that GM starting selling last December. GM vice-chairman Steve...
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Battery Wars: General Motors Licenses American Argonne Tech
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away... Actually, no--fairly recently and not so far from home, the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory patented a battery technology known as nickel manganese cobalt (NMC). Discovering and patenting new battery technology in an era so...
Antony Ingram -
GM To Use Argonne National Lab Advances In Next-Gen Volt Battery
General Motors announced today that it has licensed lithium-ion battery technology developed at Argonne National Laboratories, the research institution that's funded largely by the U.S. Department of Energy. The agreement allows GM to use the technology throughout its supply chain, and covers a...
Bengt Halvorson -
GM To Test 100-Mile Chevrolet Cruze Electric Car in S Korea
For U.S. car buyers, GM is convinced that a range-extended electric vehicle--its 2011 Chevrolet Volt, to be specific--is the best solution to meeting the needs of drivers who may need to go further than the 40 miles a Volt will do on battery power. But elsewhere in the world, GM is quietly pursuing...
John Voelcker
