Compact Power Inc.,a subsidiary of LG Chem and the company who won the contract to supply battery cell technology to General Motors for their upcoming Chevrolet Volt, is now searching for additional customers and will reveal the site of their upcoming U.S. plant soon. According to the company, an announcement will be made next month. This announcement will contain the names of companies that CPI has signed agreements with.
According to CPI CEO Prabhakar Patil, "We are working on a couple of items with other companies." Patil declined to name any of the companies that the company is currently working with. Patil stated, "Next month they should be settled."
Currently CPI has been contract to supply battery cells for the aforementioned Volt, as well as a second generation 2-Mode Hybrid from GM, and will supply batteries to Eaton Corp, for use in commercial hybrid vehicles.
Recently, CPI received a grant of $151 million from the U.S. Department of Energy. They accepted to grant and held a celebration event at the companies research and development facility. During the event, Patil told attendees, "Business is good, very good. Employment has grown from 5 workers in 2005 to 100 today. More importantly, we're securing these production contracts, which help make us a sustainable business."
According to Patil, the new Compact Power production site will have the capability of producing enough battery cells to supply between 50,000 and 250,000 vehicles each year. The Volt is expected to sell only 60,000 units per year, so the plant has additional capacity to add more automakers to CPI's list.
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