Barack Obama
Having recently visited Smith Electric Vehiclesin Kansas City, Missouri, president Barack Obama is now on his way to the Compact Power battery plant located in Holland, Michigan. The specialized plant will be supplying the upcoming Chevrolet Volt range-extended vehicle with its lithium-ion battery cells and was a recent recipient of government support under Obama's $2.4 billion "Recovery Act."
Obama will visit the site later today where he will make a speech reiterating his support for electric vehicles at a special groundbreaking ceremony. The visit is also the start of a new EV push by Obama and his cabinet, which will see the president and members of Congress visiting a number of sites working on bringing EVs closer to production reality.
The Compact Power plant is a unit of South Korea’s LG Chem and is supplying GM with the entire 300 pound 16 kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack destined for the Volt. Just yesterday we reported that it will come with an 8-year, 100,000-mile warranty, setting to rest potential worries that Volt owners might be stuck having to replace an expensive, high-voltage battery pack costing thousands of dollars just a few years down the road.
Obama has been backing greater electrification of the automobile since his appointment to the White House but lately he has shifted his focus to pure electric vehicles. Additionally, the U.S. Department of Energy is expected to release a report suggesting that an increase in the number of electric and hybrid vehicles could significantly lower costs for the government in the mid to longer term.
[Edmunds]
