The battery pack for the Volt is possibly the most important part of the car.  It’s the most expensive component, and if it malfunctions the car loses almost all of it’s appeal (assuming it doesn’t cause a fire in which case the car loses all of its appeal).

LG Chem is going to be the supplier for the lithium ion batteries used in the Volt, but GM is going to be the assembler of the actual battery pack.  I don’t blame them either, from a quality control standpoint and a liability standpoint GM wants to be in charge there.  It would be a PR nightmare to tell the owner of a Volt that they have to talk to a third party about their car.  So the batteries will be shipped to a plant in Michigan where the ‘T’ shaped battery pack will be assembled under GM supervision and control.

When Chrysler reveiled their three ENVI vehicles a few weeks ago we found that one of them was an all electric sports car for Dodge.  Likely a replacement for the Viper (Chrysler is looking to sell the Viper name for some cash, the new CAFE standards preclude Chrysler from making the Viper in a few years).  The Dodge EV with it’s batteries would have a range of over 150 miles, but that’s not very practical for every day buyers.  Then again, a Viper isn’t that practical either.

The other two EVs are extended range electric vehicles (that’s GMs term for it).  They use batteries for the first 40 miles to power an electric motor that drives the wheels and then a gas engine switches on to extend the range.  The Chevy Volt does the exact same with it’s engine and motor.  The question has been, does the gas engine bypass the batteries like the Volt does, or does it run a generator that recharges the batteries so that the batteries will always power the electric motor.

“The gas engine recharges the battery a little bit,” said Cole Quinnell, a Chrysler spokesman. “But that’s just excess and overflow, not the central intent. It’s more efficient for the gas motor to drive the wheels, not recharge the batteries. The cost to recharge the battery by running the generator is eight times the cost of taking it home and plugging it in.”

Along with the actual dollar cost of using gas to recharge the batteries the longevity of the battery pack is a consideration for this decision.  Rechargeable batteries have a lifespan of only so many charges.  Having the gas engine constantly recharge the battery pack would shorten the life of the batteries significantly.

A123, Watertown, Mass., is a seven-year-old company vying to break into the nascent market for lithium-ion battery packs for automobiles. A123 is in the running to supply batteries for the Chevrolet Volt, the electric car General Motors Corp. is developing.

A deal to supply Chrysler would give a boost to A123’s business ahead of a planned initial public stock offering. It registered for the offering in August.

A spokeswoman for Chrysler said the company “has nothing to announce at this time” about suppliers for its electric car. An A123 spokesman declined to comment, noting the company is in a quiet period because of its registration for an IPO.

Chrysler has been keeping its work on electric cars under tight wraps. But in recent weeks, as GM’s Volt drew heavy media attention, Chrysler management became concerned that the company was being left out of the increasing buzz about electric vehicles, people familiar with the matter said.

Source: WSJ