US Battery Makers and Research Centre Form Alliance

Leading US battery companies have teamed up with one of the country’s largest national laboratories to form the National Alliance for Advanced Transportation Battery Cell Manufacture. The object of the alliance is to manufacture advanced lithium ion battery cells for transportation applications in the United States.

The founding members of the Alliance include 3M, ActaCell, All Cell Technologies, Altair Nanotechnologies, Dontech Global, EaglePicher Corporation, EnerSys, Envia Systems, FMC, MicroSun Technologies, Mobius Power, SiLyte, Superior Graphite, and Townsend Advanced Energy. Additional battery developers and materials suppliers are anticipated to join the Alliance. The US Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory, a national research laboratory and leading developer of new battery technologies, has been active in encouraging the Alliance and will continue to serve in an advisory role as the Alliance begins operations.

Developing the capability to mass manufacture advanced battery cells is anticipated to require an investment of $1 to 2 billion over five years. Most of that investment is expected to come from the federal government, because lacking current orders for advanced transportation batteries, no US-based battery companies can assume the risk of making such an investment. The Alliance will permit the most efficient use of available government support by having Alliance members share in the use of a large ultra-modern manufacturing facility rather than having to compete for smaller, less ambitious forms of government support.

“A small, fragmented battery industry will not long survive in the face of determined Asian competition,” says Ralph Brodd, a long time consultant to battery manufacturers. “Other countries are investing heavily in the manufacture of lithium ion cells. Those countries understand that whoever makes the batteries will one day make the cars.”

The Alliance seeks to replicate the success of Sematech, a government supported collaboration of U.S. semiconductor manufacturers formed in the 1980’s to address the increasing migration of semiconductor manufacturing from the United States to Asia. Between 1988 and 1993, Sematech raised $990 million in government grants and private investment to help U.S. manufacturers recapture their lead in semiconductor technology.