A123 recieves $69M from GE for investment

[Finnster]

Car-battery maker A123 Systems Inc. is expected to announce Monday that it has raised $69 million as part of its most recent capital campaign, and that primary backer General Electric Co. will gain a seat on the company's board in exchange for its investment.

The infusion will advance the Watertown, Mass., company's plans to build new factories in Michigan to manufacture the lithium-ion batteries, packs and modules it has been developing for the auto industry in recent years.

Mark Little, senior vice president and director of global research at GE, said he believes battery-powered vehicles are only a year away from being available to the average American consumer. "Even a 5% penetration in the auto industry is a huge market, and I see that happening quite rapidly," said Mr. Little, who will represent GE on the A123 board.

GE was an early investor in the battery maker, which said it has now raised more than $300 million since it was founded in 2001. A123 also makes batteries for power tools and for utility companies.

Story

Good news that investment in elecs and batts are still occuring in the current financial and auto markets. IIRC A123 is also now owner of Enerland. On top of hopes for better batt powered cars, hopefully this will trickle down into the small scale/RC market and we continue to see a rapid evolution in batt tech.

I have also heard a few of the car companies that will be making a EV are thinking about going with A123, one of them is Dodge and I forgot who the other one is...this is big news that we can mass produce the batteries in the states it will lower the prices and bring much needed jobs...this is the future!!

[crazyjr]

This is definitely a step in the right direction to get away from foreign import of oil, More investments like this and electric will dominate the 1:1 world

[Arct1k]

Swap one depenency for another....

Deposits of lithium are found in South America throughout the Andes mountain chain. Chile is currently the leading lithium metal producer in the world, with Argentina next. Both countries recover the lithium from brine pools. In the United States lithium is similarly recovered from brine pools in Nevada.[21]

Nearly half the world's known reserves are located in the Andes-containing country Bolivia, which in 2009 is negotiating with Japanese and French firms to begin production.[22] According to the US Geological Survey, Bolivia's Uyuni Desert has 5.4 million tons of lithium, which can be used to make batteries for hybrid and electric vehicles.[22] This is the largest amount of lithium in any country when compared Chile's 3 million tons of lithium and the United States's 410,000 tons.[22] Icy relations between Bolivia's President Evo Morales and the United States could delay negotiations, and the indigenous people who live on this land could also slow down the process by demanding that they reap their share of the profits. [22]

China may emerge as a significant producer of brine-based lithium carbonate around 2010. Potential capacity of up to 55,000 tonnes per year could come on-stream if projects in Qinghai province and Tibet proceed.[19]

The total amount of lithium recoverable from global reserves has been estimated at 35 million tonnes, which includes 15 million tonnes of the known global lithium reserve base.[23]

In 1976 a National Research Council Panel estimated lithium resources at 10.6 million tonnes for the Western World.[24] With the inclusion of Russian and Chinese resources as well as new discoveries in Australia, Serbia, Argentina and the United States, the total has nearly tripled by 2008.[25][26]

[_paralyzed_]

^^exactly, and not only that, lots of us are charging our batts from the wall which is electricity produced by burning coal, with tons of carbon emissions. The battery tech is cool, but it's still not by any means a clean source of power, or "green" as the buzzword seems to be...........

[whitrzac]

anyone wana bet a $1,000,000 that we find some reson to go to war with Bolivia within the next 15 years?? if we start using lithium in cars...


you can make electricity to charge batts many different ways, wind, solar, thermal, water, etc.

[_paralyzed_]

yes, you can.....

at least by getting more electric cars on the road that will lower a lot of emissions, I have thought a cool thing would be is to have solar powered charging stations where you would use a debit/credit card.....problem is right now it would take a minimuim of 45 mins to charge a battery.....I would also like to see Nuke plants and to remove the coal, I saw a documentry about the coal process and how they strip the land ....it was pretty bad

looks like its time to invest in Lithium

http://www.todaysfinancialnews.com/r...FdhL5QodU0k1Rw

[Finnster]

Well there is no free power anywhere as everything has a side effect or cost, but I don't think that means we should be moving back into caves, nor saying F' it and just do whatever dirty thing we want as if nothing will matter.

The advantage of using elec cars is that even if you are using fossil fuels as the source energy, by moving the combustion of these fuels to plants where the reaction can be optimized and add pollution controls far beyond what can be done in an auto engine. Car engines must operate under so many competing factors, they just end up not that efficient. The operate in all sorts of weather, but be small and light, operate in a large range of rpms, limited space/weight for pollution control equip, and must be cheap. And we let every broke bastard be responsible for the upkeep and tuning, which not everyone does.

Not only that, but we can use many many diff source energies, ie oil, gas, solar, wind, biomass, etc etc. Anyway, I don't think we will consume anywhere near the amt of lithium that is available. Besides, the Bolivians could use the cash far more than the Saudi princes. lol Maybe there are some good invest opps there. ;)

I'd love a 1:1 elec car once they got the batts worked out. Think of all that crap you can strip off the car due to the gas engine. These are hardly pollution free either: Exhaust, catalytic converters (these are very toxic) sensors mufflers, trannies, clutches, brake pads, etc etc etc. A elec motor could run longer than the chassis would stay together. Sign me up.

[johnrobholmes]

a123 also bought up the rights to the new MIT tech, allowing 20 second charges. They have also designed a 20ah prismatic cell for use in EVs. I think it will trickle down, and in our lifetime we will start seeing old landfills used as mines for scrap metals.

[Finnster]

Originally Posted by johnrobholmes

a123 also bought up the rights to the new MIT tech, allowing 20 second charges. They have also designed a 20ah prismatic cell for use in EVs. I think it will trickle down, and in our lifetime we will start seeing old landfills used as mines for scrap metals.

PA is going to be rich :)

I'm surprised they haven't released more cells to RC. I know they did the mini cells, but the std cells haven't changed since they were released. Obviously we are not where they are looking to make $$, but I did like my A123s quite a bit and it would be nice to see some 2gen stuff down the line.

[rawfuls]

Wave power ftw.

[johnrobholmes]

It will get there for sure. It will be interesting to see what comes out of the Detroit factory, if they build it.