Dec 2 2008
As Congress and the new administration weigh sweeping measures to rescue the U.S. auto industry, advanced lithium-ion battery maker Ener1, Inc. (AMEX:HEV) is joining dozens of companies that develop and build technology for hybrid and electric vehicles this week to show their latest innovations and discuss how they fit into this changing landscape. Ener1 CEO Charles Gassenheimer says companies like Ener1 have a crucial role to play in the federal retooling effort.
"The technology is here," says Gassenheimer. "The question is who is going to win the race to get it to market. Decisions we make as a nation today will determine whether or not our country remains competitive in the global automotive industry."
By coincidence, the conference and technological showcase put on by the Electric Drive Transportation Association (EDTA) at the Washington, D.C. Convention Center from December 2-5 corresponds with this week's deadline for the Detroit Big Three automakers to present their individual recovery plans to Congress in hope of receiving a $25 billion rescue package.
"Whether it is a plug-in hybrid like the Chevy Volt or a fully electric car like the Th!nk City, the future depends on better batteries," Gassenheimer says. "We need dedicated federal support to ramp up production and drive down costs. That's already happening in China, Korea, and Japan, as well as in Europe. It needs to happen here, and it needs to happen quickly or we will miss the boat."
Ener1 is the first company to commit to producing advanced lithium-ion batteries in the U.S. on a commercial scale for the automotive market. In addition to its plant in Indianapolis, Ener1 recently gained an Asia foothold by acquiring South Korea's third largest lithium-ion battery producer.
More than 75 hybrid models will hit the market by 2011. President-elect Barack Obama has promised to put one million plug-in hybrids on the road by 2015, and he has made clear that Detroit will not get the federal help it wants without clear commitments to change the way they do business. That means swift transition to next-generation technology and a concrete commitment to better fuel economy.
"Advanced batteries are as important to this new market as the microprocessor was to the emergence of the personal computer revolution," Gassenheimer says. "You can't have one without the other. Unfortunately, the U.S. manufacturing capacity is just not there today to produce them in anything approaching the numbers we need over the next few years at costs the market demands."
Automakers are already putting lithium-ion batteries on the road in small numbers today, and growth is expected to be rapid. While it may be a few years before truly mass-market scale is achieved, Gassenheimer says the competitive foundations for the entire sector are being built today.
Auto industry leaders have publicly echoed the call for more aggressive battery development:
"One of the things we need to sort out as a country is batteries," Ford Motor Company executive chairman William Clay Ford, Jr. was quoted as saying in the New York Times last week. "We really don't want to trade one foreign dependency, oil, for another foreign dependency, batteries."
"It's a game that we are behind in," GM CEO Rick Wagoner said when the Washington Post recently asked him about the need for advanced batteries. "It doesn't mean it's a game that we lost. If we choose to go at it as a country we are really going to have to pick up the pace."
"From a technological standpoint, the future is now," Gassenheimer explains. "We know this is going to be a multibillion-dollar market; the question is who will control it. High oil prices will be back the minute the economy begins to recover. This is not a change we can afford to put off."