booster cable: Detroit Free PressElectric vehicles get a boost with Barack Obama's visit
14 de julio de 2010
Electric cars get a boost with Barack Obama'svisit, campaign: Administration to pump $2.4 billion into electricvehicles.
PresidentBarack Obama will use his trip to the site of a Michigan lithium ionbatteries plant Thursday as a centerpiece of a larger campaign promotingthe administration's $2.4-billion efforts to boost U.S.electric-vehicle production.
By Justin Hyde, Detroit Free Press
Besides the appearance at the groundbreaking for the Holland factory setto open in 2012, several cabinet members and administration officialswill visit other plants around the country this week, including aGeneral Motors factory in Baltimore, according to White House officials.
The U.S. Department of Energy is to release a report this week sayingthe push for U.S. production of electric and hybrid-vehicle lithium ionbatteries could sharply lower their costs, with four plants expected tobe running by the end of the year.
A political benefit
Talking about electric car batteries gives Obama a 2-for-1 politicalbenefit in an election year.
With growing worries that unemployment remains high in a lacklustereconomy, Obama can tout high-tech jobs created by government stimulus.
He also can highlight electric vehicles as clean-energy steps towardreducing U.S. oil demand after the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Last week, Obama made a similar stop at an electric-vehicle company inMissouri, saying the administration's spending on clean-energytechnologies would create 700,000 jobs.
A million electric vehicles charging?
He has called on the auto industry to sell 1 million electric or plug-inhybrid vehicles by 2015.
Part of the impetus for the splurge on battery plants has come fromworries that the U.S. would be left behind in a global technology race.
Nearly all batteries in hybrids today come from Asia.
Asian governments have also pledged large investments to their lithiumion batteries makers.
South Korean officials announced Sunday that they would set aside $12billion over the next 10 years for its local battery makers, includingLG Chem, which plans to build the cells for the Chevrolet Volt in SouthKorea this year.
For the Holland plant, which is expected to employ about 400 people by2013, $151 million of its $303-million cost was covered by governmentgrants.
The plant will be operated by LG Chem and its Troy-based subsidiary,Compact Power.
The Holland plant will make batteries for the Chevy Volt and the FordFocus Electric.
The report will say that thanks to the stimulus spending, the cost of abattery pack for a vehicle with a 100-mile range could fall by half to$16,000 by 2013, declining to $10,000 by 2015.
The act could also spur the installation of 20,000 electric-vehiclecharging stations by 2012.