A123 Batteries Slated for Chinese Electric Car
By JIM MOTAVALLI
A123 Systems of Massachusetts said Tuesday that its lithium-ion batteries were going into a new subcompact electric sedan to be introduced in 2012 by SAIC Motor, among the largest automakers in China.
In addition to producing cars in joint ventures with General Motors and Volkswagen, SAIC owns the Britain-derived Rover brand, and markets cars in China under the Roewe name. The new all-electric five-passenger sedan is part of a Roewe-branded introduction that includes the 750 hybrid (planned for late 2011) and the 550 plug-in hybrid (late 2012, after the battery electric car).
According to Jason Forcier, vice president of the A123 automotive solutions group, the new electric car will have an approximately 20-kilowatt-hour battery pack and a 100-mile range. He declined to offer a production target, but said it would be “thousands of vehicles.” The electric car, he said, will be built on an existing chassis, but with a new body design.
Mr. Forcier said A123’s joint venture in China, Advanced Traction Battery Systems, was gearing up to produce 10,000 battery packs annually by 2013 or 2014. He cautioned, however, that not all that production was necessarily destined for the Roewe battery car.
Jun Zhu, general manager of SAIC’s new energy vehicle division, said that in announcing the new car, the company was “committed to producing a complete line of automobiles” to support the Chinese government’s electric vehicle initiatives.
Phil Gott, an auto analyst with IHS Global Insight, said the electric car partnership between SAIC and A123 was probably a good deal for both companies. “A123 has some very interesting battery technology, and this alliance could give SAIC a chance to one-up BYD on electric cars with some compelling intellectual property,” Mr. Gott said. BYD Auto was an early entrant onto the Chinese market with the e6 electric car, so far sold only in small quantities.
The Roewe battery electric (and the plug-in hybrid) will initially use battery cells produced by A123 in its new plant in Livonia, Mich. Mr. Forcier said manufacturing would switch to China in 2013 when a new energy cell factory came on line.
Credit: The New York Times
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