Lithium - big Hitach + GM dealAs if TNR and lithiuminvestors needed more confirmation...the Asiansknow how to do lithium right...and China will hold most of theresources of rare metals esp with all their recent acquisitions...
Hitachiadds 75x more production capacity in order to get this GM bid... thatshows you how much lithium production will be needed...
https://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gpwH3a5yy_29_635AhWY7E2p2M7gD9963E3O0
Hitachi to supply lithium-ion batteries to GM
11 hours ago
TOKYO(AP) — Japanese electronics maker Hitachi Ltd. said Thursdayit willsupply lithium-ion batteries for hybrid vehicles to GeneralMotors Corp.in 2010 and sharply raise production capacity to meetsurging demand forgas-electric cars.
Hitachi currently makes 40,000 lithium-ion batteries per month and will lift the capacity to three million units.
"Weplanto boost our production capacity for lithium-ion batteries as weexpectdemand for hybrid vehicles will continue to grow worldwide,"saidHitachi spokesman Shinya Yamada. He declined to say when Hitachiwouldlift the capacity.
The Nikkei business daily said ThursdaythatHitachi would invest around 30 billion yen ($311 million) toraiseproduction capacity. But Yamada declined to confirm the report.
Hitachiwillalso start supplying lithium-ion batteries for hybrid cars to GMnextyear, the company spokesman said without elaborating further.
ToyotaMotorCorp.'s hybrids now use nickel-metal hydride batteries. Theworld'slargest automaker said last month it will use for the firsttimelithium-ion batteries for its plug-in hybrid cars.
Usingalithium-ion battery will produce more energy, allowing hybrid carstorun more as an electric vehicle, but there have been sometechnologicalhurdles.
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