PowerSource

Hitachi is breaking ground on a new plant to provide lithium ion batteries for as many as 700,000 cars per year. GM has already placed a multi-year order for batteries for 100k cars. (Each battery pack requires from 30-50 cells.) Hitachi recently introduced a new higher-power density lithium ion cell and GM is targeting these for its next-generation mild-hybrid vehicles, not for the new Chevy Volt extended-range (ie, plug-in) vehicle: GM selected LG Chemical as the Volt’s lithium ion battery provider.

Hitachi's new plant will be built at the company's Tokai works in Ibaraki Prefecture, so Hitachi is continuing to keep battery production in Japan even though labor rates are on par with the US. Likewise, Honda announced a partnership with GS Yuasa Corp. to manufacture lithium-ion batteries in Japan. GM has talked about doing battery pack assembly in the US, but the lithium ion cells would be manufactured overseas.

JPMorgan Securities Japan expects the global hybrid market to expand from 500,000 cars in 2007 to 9.62 million cars by 2018, and this rapid growth  has electronic parts suppliers for the automotive market paying close attention. If you want to keep up on designing for this market, here are two resources: One is an EDN design feature, Managing high-voltage lithium-ion batteries in HEVs, and another is a free webinar series from ANSYS, Integrated Simulation Environment for Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEV) and Electric Vehicles (EV).

What are some other conclusions might we draw from about future car technologies? The JP Morgan forecast also says that in spite of this rapid growth in the hybrid/EV market, by 2020 it will account for just 10% of all cars sold globally. Since hybrid sale forecasts assume significantly higher gas prices, we can also assume that the majority of cars sold will need to be gasoline, or, as increasingly likely, deisel misers, and use energy-efficient motors for lighting, air conditioning, power steering, etc, or simply get more performance out of tiny little gasoline or diesel engines.  

[via GM-Volt.]

btw, according to the above Reuters article, in 2000 Hitachi was the first manufacturer to start volume production of lithium ion batteries for commercial vehicles. For some perspective, 2000 was also the year that Toyota introduced the Prius to US drivers, which relies on a nickel-metal hydride battery, so Hitachi was ahead of the curve with its lithium ion commitment.