The new battery lab at the General Motors Tech Center in Warren, Michigan is now fully operational after undergoing a huge expansion over the course of the last 10 months.
GM CEO Fritz Henderson officially announced the opening of the new lab called the Global Battery Systems Lab on Monday in front of several key Michigan leaders including Gov. Jennifer Granholm, Senator Carl Levin, and Senator Debbie Stabenow.
The battery lab was designed about 18 months ago with the goal of providing a place for the company to continually test batteries under various conditions. The new lab includes 42 testing chambers that put batteries through the rigors of real-life applications.
The lab size of 33,000 square feet makes it the largest battery testing site in North America. General Motors will employ more than 1,000 engineers at the site and they have the responsibility of testing every aspect of the battery system from the individual cells to the software that controls them.
The facility draws a total of 6 Megawatts of power, enough to power a small suburban city and more than enough to test the batteries for the upcoming Volt and other hybrids scheduled for release by GM.
Last year GM showed the lab, prior to its updates, to the public and stated that the facility was used for testing the Volt battery pack, this year the facility has virtually no resemblance to the old place. It's now a state of the art facility ready for the future of battery powered vehicles.
Source: WXYZ
