New GM Battery Only Cost 5 Times Too Much

It's a start, but still requires massive subsidies and massive restrictions on existing technologies by our government.

GM battery may get Mich. moving on new path

Technology touted, but experts skeptical over electric cars’ cost

BY ROBERT SNELL AND ALISA PRIDDLE

The Detroit News [online edition]

Brownstown Township — The first lithium-ion battery pack rolled off the line Thursday at General Motors Co.’s new assemb­ly plant here, a symbolic display that could be a step toward trans­forming Michigan’s battered manufacturing industry.

The battery pack is bound for a Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric vehicle, which debuts lat­er this year. But the battery pack’s arrival coincided with a study re­leased Thursday showing the cost targets behind the automakers’ electric vehicle plans are unlikely to be achieved, making it hard for consumers to recoup the extra cost of buying advanced vehicles. The cost is unlikely to drop to the $250 per kilowatt/hour threshold cited by many carmak­ers for the vehicles to be compet­itive in price, according to a study by Boston Consulting Group. That price target is not possible without a major breakthrough in battery technology, the study con­cluded, and no such break­through is on the horizon, said Xavier Mosquet, the Detroit­based leader of BCG’s automotive group.

As a result, the payback time for an all-electric vehicle in the United States is about 15 years, or 19 years for an extended-range electric vehicle such as the Volt, the study found.

“Consumers want a three years or less payback period for the ex­tra cost of the batteries,” said Mas­simo Russo, a partner in the Bos­ton office.

But, a broader acceptance of electric vehicles will drive down costs, and GM wants to expand the number of vehicles that will rely on the same battery technology.

“There’s more to come,” GM Chairman and CEO Ed Whitacre said.

The event Thursday drew U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, Gov. Jennifer Granholm and a host of politicians.

“We will recapture the lead we have lost and become the world leader in clean vehicles,” Chu said. “This is where the real work be­gins.

I know we will succeed.”

The plant employs about 25 people now, but about 100 people will work here once production ramps up. Whitacre said that fig­ure could grow.

GM is receiving about $241 million in federal grants, includ­ing $106 million for the battery pack assembly factory, which will be the first such facility in the United States operated by a major automaker.Initially, batteries will be sent to GM’s battery lab in War­ren for testing. This spring, GM will ship the batteries to the De­troit- Hamtramck assembly plant, where the Volt will be built.

“We’ve had tough times, but this battery represents we’re bouncing back better than ever,” said U.S. Rep. Sander Levin, D ­Royal Oak.