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84 U.S. BATTERY INDUSTRY FOR ELECTRIC DRIVE VEHICLES
Panel II
The State of Battery R&D and Manufacturing
in the United States
Moderator:
Ralph C. Brodd
Kentucky-Argonne National Battery Manufacturing R&D Center
THE BATTERY INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE
Jason M. Forcier
A123 Systems
The effort to establish a U.S. advanced battery industry "is a global
fight," said Mr. Forcier, vice-president of automotive solutions for A123
Systems. "This is not centric to the United States. This is an issue that has to be
looked at globally."
By way of introduction, A123 Systems was founded in 2001 in Boston,
Mass., and has nearly 2,000 employees globally, said Mr. Forcier, A123's senior
vice-president for automotive. The company has been building lithium-ion
batteries since 2003. Its initial customer was Black & Decker's DeWalt brand of
power tools, "which put us on the map," he explained.
A123 listed in 2009 on Nasdaq with the biggest initial public offering that
year. "We have had a lot of press in the past 18 months," he noted. The
company now has around 1 million square feet of manufacturing space in China,
South Korea, and the U.S. Between 2009 and 2012, it will have invested some
$1 billion in capacity, he said.
The core battery technology used by A123 originated in the research labs
of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Mr. Forcier explained. The
company used iron phosphate, which Mr. Forcier said was known to be one of
the safest chemistries for lithium-ion batteries. The material enabled A123 to
increase energy density to produce large batteries, such as those used in
transportation and electrical grid storage.
The company focuses on three broad markets--transportation, power grid
storage, and consumer industries. A123 supplies the biggest lithium-powered
vehicle fleet, the BAE Systems hybrid bus that is marketed by Daimler. These
buses have accumulated over 50 million miles, and there are 2000 of the
vehicles now on the road, Mr. Forcier said. A123 also has the world's biggest
installed base of electrical grid storage systems in the world, he said. In terms of
consumer products, A123 supplies batteries for products "that are applicable to
our chemistry," such as those needing long-life power and safety, he said.
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PROCEEDINGS 85
A123 has one of the broadest customer pipelines in the industry, Mr.
Forcier said. It sells battery cells, modules, and packs to more than 40 programs
under development and 20 major customers. In addition to BAE, Daimler, and
Black & Decker, customers include Procter & Gamble, Magna, General Motors,
General Electric, and Delphi, he said.
The company was "very fortunate" to raise the funds needed to invest in
the industry, Mr. Forcier said. "As you hear about all these great new
technologies, you really can't go anywhere without about $1 billion in cash
available," he said. "That really is the state of the battery industry. If you've
ever been in a lithium-ion battery plant, you know that it is a very capital-
intensive business."
A123's cash raised most of its cash, $400 million, through its 2009 IPO,
Mr. Forcier explained. A123 also received a $250 million DOE grant and a $110
million grant from Michigan. The company is in final due-diligence negotiations
with the DOE for an additional $233 million loan. "So we are well-capitalized,
and that is important," Mr. Forcier said. It takes up to $200 million to $300
million to build one lithium-ion plant to supply batteries for 20,000 to 30,000
plug-in or electric vehicles.
$1 B +
· A123 has the financial
strength to execute our DOE loan (expected) 233
manufacturing ramp MEDC Center of Excellence grant 10
$411 M cash on hand MI Mfg tax credit 100
$249 M DOE grant
DOE grant 249
$100 M MI tax credit
$10 M MEDC grant
$233 M DOE loan
Cash on hand (March 31, 2010) 411
expected
· $190 M MI tax abatements Funding, Millions of Dollars
also granted over 15 years
FIGURE 2 Funding for operations.
SOURCE: Jason Forcier, Presentation at July 26-27, 2010 National Academies
Symposium on "Building the U.S. Battery Industry for Electric Drive Vehicles:
Progress, Challenges, and Opportunities."
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86 U.S. BATTERY INDUSTRY FOR ELECTRIC DRIVE VEHICLES
The state of Michigan also offered generous tax abatements, Mr. Forcier
noted, "although as I told several gubernatorial candidates, we don't intend to
pay taxes for another 10 years. If you looked at our quarterly results, you would
see that."
In Michigan, A123 has the largest lithium-ion plant in North America, Mr.
Forcier said. It invested $230 million in the 300,000-square-foot facility in
Livonia. The plant, which produced its first prismatic cells in June 2010, is
capable of producing batteries for 30,000 plug-in vehicles or 1 million prismatic
cells per month, he said.
A123 also is building a coating plant in Romulus, Mich. Eventually, that
will be the site of a "mega campus," where A123 intends to do "everything from
powder to coatings to cell manufacturing to packs," Mr. Forcier said.
The big strategic question now facing the battery industry is whether
consumers will buy them. "A lot has been done on the creation side. The
capacity is in place, and over the next two years a lot of capacity is coming on
line," Mr. Forcier said. "So really the key question is about demand."
The price of batteries is expected to come down by 50 percent over the
next five years, Mr. Forcier said. Half of that price drop will come as a result of
higher production volume. Dozens of new electrification programs are underway
across the world just in transportation, he explained. In 2012, "you will see a
huge increase in the number of vehicles you buy having electric power trains."
Livonia Cell & Pack Production, R&D
291,000 sqft
Cell production started June 2010
OEM Production 4Q 2010
$230 M total investment committed
through 2011
30,000 PHEVs/year capacity 4Q 2011
Romulus Coating Facility
287,000 sqft (Expandable to 1.5 mil
sqft)
Aggressive staffing in process
Renaissance Zone Award May 2010
Electrode coating to begin Q3 2010
Investigating creation of a `Mega Campus'
· "Powder to Packs"
FIGURE 3 Michigan expansion.
SOURCE: Jason Forcier, Presentation at July 26-27, 2010 National Academies
Symposium on "Building the U.S. Battery Industry for Electric Drive Vehicles:
Progress, Challenges, and Opportunities."
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PROCEEDINGS 87
The remaining cost cuts will come through technical advances, Mr. Forcier
estimated. "All of us in the industry are working quite heavily on the next
generation of chemistry, proving the technology we have, and getting more
efficient with our packaging," he said.
The battery industry is in the "most critical stage in its development," Mr.
Forcier said. Manufacturing plans are getting locked in, plants are being built,
and original-equipment manufacturers are deciding to go down certain paths
with their technology. "Those are long-term commitments," he said. "So it is
very, very important we achieve most of these improvements now, up front.
Doing it five years from now is great, but the industry will really be locked in
from a manufacturing perspective. And OEMs will be down the path in
committing to certain technologies and architectures."
In terms of where the battery industry will be based, the competition no
longer is only between states such as Michigan, Mississippi, and Alabama, Mr.
Forcier said. "This is a case of the United States competing against countries,"
he said. "China has a very aggressive subsidy policy. They continue to amaze
me with new announcements." China pays a direct subsidy of $8,800 per vehicle
to electric vehicle manufacturers in five cities. Municipal governments have
announced credits of up to an additional $5,000 per car, he explained. Shanghai
waives license plate fees for electrified cars. The central government also
subsidizes makers of electrified vehicles, many of which are partly owned by
government entities. To get subsidies, automakers must have a firm grasp on
core technologies such as batteries, the electric power train, or electronics.
China requires foreign companies to manufacture in the country if they
wish to sell to the domestic market, Mr. Forcier noted. "China takes this very,
very seriously," he said. "Exporting batteries is highly unlikely. You have to
build them in-country. China is making sure that happens by the way it is
structuring incentives."
Germany is using a different tack to promote the electric vehicle industry.
The government announced a goal of having 1 million electric vehicles on the
road by 2020, an ambitious target for a nation with around 4 million total
vehicles. "German OEMs are working together quite strongly on
standardizations around battery cells," he said. Germany is "forcing and driving
the industry" to localize production in Europe, he said. "Here again, if you want
to do business in Europe or Germany, you will have to build in Germany," Mr.
Forcier said. "You will not be able to afford the export value-added taxes and
duties that will be assigned to your product. So European business will be won
and made in Europe. Asian business will be won and made in Asia."
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88 U.S. BATTERY INDUSTRY FOR ELECTRIC DRIVE VEHICLES
· China
60,000 Yuan (~$8,800) EV subsidy will be paid directly to
vehicle manufacturers in 5 strategic cities
Some of the municipalities have already announced
additional incentives ranging from 20,000-40,000 Yuan
($2,950-$5,500)
Support is provided to Chinese-owned companies
· Germany
Target of 1 Million EVs on the road by 2020
In a market of 3-4 Million vehicles annually, the goal is very
ambitious
Strategic intent is to drive battery development and mfg in
Germany
FIGURE 4 Global competition for electrification.
SOURCE: Jason Forcier, Presentation at July 26-27, 2010 National Academies
Symposium on "Building the U.S. Battery Industry for Electric Drive Vehicles:
Progress, Challenges, and Opportunities."
The key to growing battery sales in the United States is to create
domestic demand. "We may not be the biggest auto industry in the world
anymore, but the demand has to come from here in the U.S. in order to achieve
energy independence and create jobs in the United States," Mr. Forcier said.
One way to do that is to electrify the big military and government vehicle fleets.
"We think that is a huge opportunity to help stimulate demand in the U.S.," he
said.
The U.S. industry does not need stimulus money, rebates and incentives
forever, Mr. Forcier said. "What we need are four or five years to get the costs
down, to get the models in place, to get battery leasing worked out so that the
cost of buying an electric vehicle gets down to the cost of buying an internal
combustion engine," he said.
Electric vehicle clearly are cheaper to operate, Mr. Forcier pointed out.
"The penalty right now is the up-front cost to acquire the technology," he said.
"That is where we need support in the short term." In four of five years, the cost
equation will change as battery costs drop by half and "as companies like A123
figure out how to lease batteries and reuse them in secondary applications," Mr.
Forcier predicted.
Investments also should be made in infrastructure, he said. "But we have to
be focused on infrastructure and demand at the same time." The federal
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PROCEEDINGS 89
government missed a good opportunity to address such needs through the energy
bill, which is struggling to get out of Congress, Mr. Forcier said.
A recent version of the energy bill included a provision for electric cities
that would have provided more incentives to buy electric vehicles, he noted.
"That is the kind of legislation we need to pass," he said. Mr. Forcier thanked
the Michigan coalition in Congress and the state government for supporting such
measures. "But on a federal level, it comes down to not having 60 votes," he
said.
Mr. Forcier said A123 is happy to be in Michigan and that he believes the
industry has a bright future. "But we can't ignore demand," he said. "We've got
the creation side covered. Demand is what we really need in order to go
forward."
Mohamed Alamgir
Compact Power
The advanced-battery push and symposiums such as this one should
have happened 25 years ago, quipped Mr. Alamgir, Compact Power's research
director. "Then I wouldn't have had to go through five companies during my
career in lithium battery technologies," he said. "If you do a study on what went
wrong and right in lithium-ion, you can use me as a case example. This kind of
funding was not there before. It was very spotty, which is why we were in
trouble."
Compact Power was established in Colorado Springs, Colo., in 2000 to
develop large vehicle batteries for LG Chem, Mr. Alamgir explained. When the
company shifted to Troy, Mich., in 2005, only three employees came. "If you
live in Colorado Springs, the thought of moving to Detroit is not very
appealing," he said, noting that his wife has not yet excused him for moving to
Detroit. Compact Power's parent company, South Korea's LG Chem Ltd.,
explained the move by saying (a Korean proverb) , "If you want to catch the
tiger, you need to go to the den of the tiger," he said. "That meant the Big
Three."
The company now employs 150 in Michigan. Most of the people Compact
Power hired knew nothing of batteries at the time, Mr. Alamgir said. "They were
very well-educated, so it was not very difficult for them to transition over," he
said. "To Michigan's good fortune, many of these guys now are very well
informed about battery technologies. And it is very difficult to keep them
because there are very lucrative offers to move to other companies."
Funding from the U.S. Advanced Battery Consortium and the
Department of Energy "kept this company alive," Mr. Alamgir said. The
company went through "very lean times" from 2003 to 2006, he said. "When
you went around to companies saying that you have an electric-vehicle and
plug-in hybrid battery, they said: `Come back later. We have no time to address
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90 U.S. BATTERY INDUSTRY FOR ELECTRIC DRIVE VEHICLES
your market now.'" He said he is grateful to the DOE and USABC "for keeping
us afloat through those lean years."
Government support has long been important to developers of lithium-
ion technology, Mr. Alamgir noted. From 1985 through 1995, he had worked at
EIC Laboratories in Boston. That company "survived completely" on funding
from the Small Business Innovation Research program,15 he said. The bulk of
Compact Power's initial funds came from the DoE. "I have survived on
government funding of the battery industry," he said.
The company addresses "all aspects of the battery pack," Mr. Alamgir
explained. It develops battery pack concepts and designs and manufactures
packs. It also develops battery-pack management systems, power and signal
architectures, thermal management, charge-control algorithms, and test and
validation services. It does most of its R&D in-house, but also collaborates with
universities. "This is very vibrant research, and Michigan is a beneficiary," he
said.
Being part of a large corporation helps companies like Compact Power,
Mr. Alamgir said.16 He noted that LG Chem's parent, South Korea's LG Group,
is a huge global conglomerate, with $113 billion in revenue, hundreds of
companies, and 160,000 employees. "This shows how deep-pocketed a company
has to be to survive in this industry," he said. "You can start a company. But I
have seen with my own eyes where you can end up if you don't have enough
funding."
He pointed out that 70 percent of LG Chem's revenues come from
petrochemicals. Lithium-ion batteries account for just 10 percent of revenues, he
said, even though LG Chem is the world's third-largest manufacturer and is
widely known for that product. Mr. Alamgir noted that LG Chem's CEO has
said that when he goes to parties, people come up to him and congratulate him
for his success in batteries.
Rechargeable batteries consume 40 percent of LG Chem's R&D spending,
however, compared to just 28 percent for petrochemicals. LG Chem is investing
$1 billion in the battery industry over five years.
LG Chem makes lithium-ion batteries in all shapes and sizes, Mr. Alamgir
explained. Its biggest business is small cylindrical and prismatic batteries for
consumer devices such as mobile phones and notebook computers, supplying
companies such as Dell, Nokia, Hewlett Packard, Motorola, and LG Electronics.
In the automotive industry, "we are proud that we are the only company that has
both Ford and GM as our customers," he said.
15
The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program is administered by the Small Business
Administration in the U.S. Commerce Department. It provides early-stage financing for small
technology companies.
16
Compact Power has now been split into two subsidiaries of LG Chem. LG Chem Power (Troy,
MI) focuses on R&D of module and pack designs, prototype builds, sales and customer support,
whereas LG Chem Michigan (Holland, MI) focuses Li ion cell manufacturing.
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PROCEEDINGS 91
Vertical integration is another advantage in the battery industry, Mr.
Alamgir said. LG develops most of its manufacturing processes in-house.
Because Compact Power is part of a large chemical company, it has access to
patented processes and chemistries that are battery-related, he said. Due to the
research-intensive aspect of the business, "you have to have a lot of in-house
material development and research to be viable," he said.
The DOE and LG Chem each are contributing $151 million for Compact
Power's new manufacturing facility in Holland, Mich. President Barack Obama
attended the July 15, 2010, ground-breaking ceremony, and the plant is
scheduled to begin manufacturing cells in 2012. Initially, electrodes will come
from South Korea and be assembled in Holland. Plans call for making electrodes
in Holland as well the following year. The plant will have capacity to produce
15 million to 20 million cells, enough for 50,000 to 60,000 vehicles. It will
employ around 300 people.
There is some concern in the industry that a "battery bubble" is building,
Mr. Alamgir said. Some analysts project significant overcapacity in the industry.
Also, some car makers are bringing battery-pack manufacturing in-house. "How
does this impact the industry?" he asked.
Numerous companies already have failed in the lithium-ion industry, he
noted. The casualty list includes battery maker Duracell, "which in the 1980s
was the house to go to for research related to lithium batteries," he said. "It
disappeared." After a series of takeovers in the 1980s, Duracell's lithium-ion
research operation was dismantled, he explained. Energizer also vacated the
business. Other failures in lithium-ion include Polystor, Motorola ESG, Moltech,
MoliCell, Electro Energy, Imara, and Firefly, he said, adding that he was part of
three companies that disappeared.
Many of these battery companies got into the business at the wrong time.
"This is where the government could have helped," Mr. Alamgir said. "I'm sure
that some of these guys are saying, `I wish I were here now.'" At the time, early
battery companies could not get enough funding to survive against tough
competition from Japanese and Korean companies.
One big lesson from this history is that "the government does need to
support research in the future, just as the Japanese government did in the 1990s
with their New Sunshine program," Mr. Alamgir said. Even though the U.S.
started the Advanced Battery Consortium, "somehow the OEMs and
manufacturing companies did not pick up the slack," he said. "Sometimes, jolts
like those the stimulus funds provided will play a big role. I think companies
like PolyStor or Electro Energy would have benefitted big time from such an
investment."
For the long term, however, "visionary and gutsy CEOs and CTOs of big
corporations" must support the battery industry, he said. "They have to have the
vision to be in this business and think of the common good of mankind, society,
and countries," Mr. Alamgir said.
At first, most of the materials for advanced batteries will have to be
imported from Japan, South Korea, and China, he said. "We do not have them
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92 U.S. BATTERY INDUSTRY FOR ELECTRIC DRIVE VEHICLES
here," Mr. Alamgir said. "Even though we are working closely with new
materials here, it will take two years to bring them in house."
Mr. Alamgir recalled the he worked as an engineer at one battery company
that had high-flying customers such as Research in Motion. The company was
acquired by Tyco Electronics. One day a division head visited the labs and asked
the staff what it did. "We explained we did R&D," Mr. Alamgir said. "He said,
`I don't have any interest in dumping money into research. We have to shut this
down.'" Mr. Alamgir said he later found out that the manager came from a
profitable Tyco division that made electrical poles. "All you had to do is cut
down a tree and make a pole," he recalled. "He did not need research to make
money"
The message is that "we need leaders who believe in the future of this
industry and are committed to providing funds," Mr. Alamgir said. "Battery
research to me is a marathon race. We have a lot of sprinters in this country. We
need industry leaders in marathon running like the Kenyans, Somalis, and
Ethiopians who can run the race to the end."
THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE
Nancy Gioia
Ford Motor Company
All major automakers are "dealing with the same set of issues" when it
comes to electrified vehicles, said Ms. Gioia, Ford's director for global
electrification. "I agree 150 percent that we are in a marathon," she said. "It is a
marathon not only of R&D. It is a marathon of new knowledge and
manufacturing. It is a marathon that will make a difference to the environment,
energy security, and employment in every region around the world."
From Ford's perspective, "electrified transportation" means hybrids,
plug-in hybrids, and full-battery electric vehicles, Ms. Gioia said. It means, "any
place that we use stored electricity to directly replace oil."
Whether the manufacturer is Ford, Nissan, General Motors, or Toyota,
"each company is looking at what is needed for sustainability in the future," Ms.
Gioia said. By this, they not only mean their products and fuels, she said, but
also the sustainability of their businesses.
In the near term, therefore, automakers will make continuous improvements
to internal combustion engines and launch hybrids, Ms. Gioia explained. In the
mid-term, from 2011 through 2020, "we will see growth in electrification," she
said. "But we also are going to see a number of other technologies continue to
improve for petrol and diesel solutions." There will be massive reductions in
weight.
The importance of improving traditional technologies should not be
overlooked, she suggested. "If you think about it for a sustained business, this
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PROCEEDINGS 93
has the greatest impact for reduced oil consumption for the largest number of
customers with the best use of capital, equipment, and depreciation," Ms. Gioia
said. These gains can be accomplished faster with existing technologies because
they do not require different infrastructure. "It's just a pragmatic reality. It's not
that we are vested in what we already have," Ms. Gioia said. "But if you want to
shift and reduce fuel consumption, making your current technologies more
efficient and your vehicles lighter also enables improvements in electrification,
smaller batteries, and additional efficiencies."
The choice will not be either electric or petroleum-based technologies. "It
will be a combined effort going forward," Ms. Gioia said. "There will be fuel
diversity and growth in bio-fuels. There is no silver bullet. It is not one answer.
It will be a set of answers."
Another aspect of a sustainability strategy is that a company must embed
something in its fabric, Ms. Gioia said. "Electrification as a change of
technology does not happen until a company embeds it in its resources, its R&D,
its capital allocation, and its product development processes," she said. "This is
what we have now done at Ford with this plan. I think the companies that will
continue to drive this on a global basis have it embedded in their decision-
making process as one of the core foundations going forward. That also means it
must be a money-producer and provide returns for our shareholders."
Ford is launching products across several technologies. It has the Fusion
and Escape hybrids. The Ford plug-in project, which is supported by the DoE,
several utility companies, and the Electric Power Research Institute,17 has been
on the road since 2007, she said. In 2010, Ford launched the Transit Connect
line of fuel-efficient small commercial vehicles, and it will launch Focus
Electric in 2011.
Affordability is the "Achilles heel" of hybrids, which are the foundation
of Ford's electrification program, Ms. Gioia said. Ford is attacking affordability
on two fronts: by working on battery technologies and by electrifying its
"highest-value platforms," she said. Some competitors have created unique
platforms for hybrids, she explained.
These major platforms include the global C platform for the Ford Focus
sedan. The Ford C Max and Ford S Max multi-purpose vehicles sold in Europe
use the same platform, Ms. Gioia explained, as will the Transit Connect line of
trucks in the future. Another major platform is the Ford CD, which is used for
such midsized vehicles as the Fusion, Milan, and Mondeo. Ford can put up to 10
"top hats," or different upper-body designs, on a single platform, she said. "We
can put the technology on a variety of top hats very quickly in global, flexible
manufacturing facilities," she said.
17
The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) is an independent, non-profit company performing
research, development and demonstration in the electricity sector.
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94 U.S. BATTERY INDUSTRY FOR ELECTRIC DRIVE VEHICLES
2004 CY 2010 CY 2012 CY 2018+ CY
Transit Connect
BEV (Global C-Platform)
Battery Electric
Vehicles Focus (N.A.)
(Global C-Platform)
PHEV Global C-Platform
Plug -in Hybrid
Electric Vehicles
Next Generation HEV
Escape
HEV
Hybrid Electric
Vehicles Next Generation HEV
Fusion/Milan
FIGURE 5 North America--announced electrification projects.
SOURCE: Nancy Gioia, Presentation at July 26-27, 2010 National Academies
Symposium on "Building the U.S. Battery Industry for Electric Drive Vehicles:
Progress, Challenges, and Opportunities."
Electrified transportation, therefore, is not only about the battery. "It is
the design, the development, the validation, the prove-out, and the
manufacturing processes down the same assembly line," Ms. Gioia said.
Ford is deploying the same electrification strategy globally. It is
electrifying its products sold in Europe, Ms. Gioia said, and is looking at doing
the same in Asia. "What we want is for our global volume to be electrified
quickly," she said. "But we also recognize the reality that transportation must be
affordable in each region around the world. So we believe that balanced growth
must provide the flexibility to react to volatile market conditions."
Electrified cars accounted for only 1 percent of Ford's sales in 2010, Ms.
Gioia said. The goal is for that to reach 2 percent to 5 percent in 2015 and
between 15 percent and 25 percent in 2025. Even then, 70 percent of Ford's
global fleet will likely be hybrids; up to 25 percent will be plug-ins, and the rest
full electrics. The projections acknowledge what it will take to roll out the
infrastructure and make it accessible, as well as improve battery technologies to
meet customer requirements, Ms. Gioia said.
Ford is hardly alone in believing in a balanced approach. She noted analyses
by JP Morgan, Credit Suisse, Boston Consulting Group, A. T. Kearney, and
Roland Berger. According to projections based on a compilation of these five
studies, hybrids will account for 3.1 million of the 4.3 million electrified
vehicles expected to be sold in the U.S. in 2020. Five hundred thousand of those
vehicles will be entirely battery-powered.
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PROCEEDINGS 95
In Europe, by contrast, less than half of the projected 5.3 million electric
vehicles will be hybrids. Plugs-ins will account for 1.6 million and all-battery-
powered for 1.4 million of those vehicles. The results will vary tremendously by
region based on factors such as fuel prices and government policy, Ms. Gioia
said.
Access to intellectual property and the capabilities of the competition also
can influence the results. "And there is an enormous amount of competition,"
Ms. Gioia said. She noted that the projections she cited are only for major
automakers that have announced goals of selling 50,000 or more electric
vehicles by 2015.
The electric product mix also varies dramatically by automaker, Ms. Gioia
pointed said. Toyota, Hyundai, and Honda, for example, expect all of their
electric vehicles sales to come from hybrids in 2020. GM projects that more than
60 percent will come from hybrids. Renault/Nissan project that nearly 80
percent will come from all-battery electrics.
Some differences are due to the fact that some companies lacked hybrid
technologies, Ms. Gioia explained. Ford and Toyota have locked up much of the
intellectual property related to the parallel power-split system that allows cars to
run on both the battery and internal combustion engine, she noted. To purchase
or get access to that technology, manufacturers must go to Ford or Toyota.
Battery electrics, therefore, are emphasized by companies whose electric
vehicle-programs are not as established because less intellectual property is tied
up, she said. "Another inhibitor is just time, experience, and the complexity of
these systems," she added.
To sustain a real mass market, better batteries are of course needed, Ms.
Gioia said. Automakers also must still deliver great features. The technology
must be "functional and trustworthy," meaning the cars are durable, reliable, and
"something I can count on to carry my family or run my business with," she said.
An electric car "has to deliver the basic transportation needs. If I have to haul,
pull, load eight people into a vehicle, it still has to do that," she said.
The vehicle also must be affordable over time. The cost of electric battery
packs should decline from an average of around $750 per kilowatt hour in 2012
to $250 in 2020, Ms. Gioia said. If the range of the battery system is held
constant at about 100 miles, the cost gap between battery packs for hybrids and
plug-ins are expected to nearly disappear, she said. "That is because the cost of
the batteries start to equal the cost of the battery pack that you eliminate by
going full-battery electric," she said.
These factors mean consumers will have a lot of choice there will be no
clear solution or timeline for rolling out of technologies, Ms. Gioia said. Ford
will introduce a full line of electric vehicles. In Europe, it already has introduced
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96 U.S. BATTERY INDUSTRY FOR ELECTRIC DRIVE VEHICLES
2015CY Global Electrification by Major Manufacturer BEV
PHEV
Percent by Electrification Type HEV
100
90
80
70
60
Percent
50
40
30
20
10
0 n
r
da
i
rd
M
VW
W
ta
da
le
sa
G
Fo
BM
yo
m
on
n
is
ai
yu
To
N
H
D
lt/
H
au
en
R
Note:
- All data is from CSM Worldwide global comprehensive - Major manufacturers are those with >50,000 electrified
vehicle production and sales forecasts, 3/05/10. vehicle sales projected in 2015
FIGURE 6 2020MY global electrification volume projections by region.
SOURCE: Nancy Gioia, Presentation at July 26-27, 2010 National Academies
Symposium on "Building the U.S. Battery Industry for Electric Drive Vehicles:
Progress, Challenges, and Opportunities."
simple start-stop systems, in which a battery starts the engine but does not power
the car, that provide 3 percent to 6 percent in fuel savings. Ford also will
introduce "mild hybrids" that modestly help drive the car, medium hybrids, and
full hybrids, which reduce fuel by 55 percent and have all-electric drives. Ford
also will launch plug-in hybrids that save 80 percent of fuel and full battery-
powered cars.
Developing the supply industry is critical to the success of electric vehicles.
Batteries are not the only challenge. Electrified vehicles need systems to convert
alternative current to direct current, regenerative brakes, inverts, and new motors
and transmissions, for example. Chargers for electric vehicles are "ridiculously
expensive today" and are being developed by "what was a cottage industry," Ms.
Gioia said. "As it becomes main stream, we need main stream companies
jumping into that with capital and assets to get the cost of those chargers down.
So a lot has to happen to make the electrified industry progress."
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PROCEEDINGS 97
· Customer-Focused
Great Features
Functional Trustworthy Technology
Delivers Transportation Needs
Affordable
Est. Battery
Pack Cost per
kWh $750 $500 $250
Electrification System On-Cost
BEV
HEV
100 mile range
PHEV
PHEV
BEV
PHEV / BEV
HEV costs converge
due to base P/T
deletion
2012CY 2016CY 2020CY
High Vol
250k+
FIGURE 7 What does it take to support a sustainable mass market electric
vehicle?
SOURCE: Nancy Gioia, Presentation at July 26-27, 2010 National Academies
Symposium on "Building the U.S. Battery Industry for Electric Drive Vehicles:
Progress, Challenges, and Opportunities."
An example of new components is the SmartGuage18 instrument panel on
new Fusion hybrids. "This is a whole new world. It's a display, not a video
game. You still want people watching the road," Ms Gioia said. "The bottom
line is that we need a new set of engineers thinking about how to communicate
coaching information with customers real-time to get the most energy efficiency
out of their vehicle as possible."
Moving to the "electric state" will involve much more than the
transportation and utility sectors, Ms. Gioia said. "We are going from
independent systems to integrated systems," she said. "It is a new energy
ecosystem. It is a series of industries now coming together, collected in a very
complex system. It is important to understand that one element of that system
cannot succeed without the other."
Each industry will require deep understanding of other industries it never
had to understand before, she said. As an electrical engineer herself in the auto
industry, Ms. Gioia said she "never thought about power generation and
distribution down to the local transformer to say whether my car will work."
18
SmartGuide is a liquid-crystal display panel used in the 2010 Ford Fusion hybrid and Mercury
Milan hybrid that features an "EcoGuide" with animated messages about good driving habits and
fuel-saving tips.
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98 U.S. BATTERY INDUSTRY FOR ELECTRIC DRIVE VEHICLES
Car dealers will have to explain to customers what they must to do to their
homes, for example. A plug-in vehicle doubles the energy load of a household
while it is charging, she said. "Where do our customers get that information?"
Ms. Goia asked. "It is a new knowledge system, and to make it work for the
customer it has to work simultaneously as this transportation rolls out."
The charging infrastructure also must be worked out. The top priorities
are setting up charging systems at homes, at depots for fleets of vehicles, and at
work, Ms. Gioia said. Charging at public spaces is a lower priority. She noted
that at a recent session hosted by the DOE to discuss infrastructure needs, "there
was fair alignment around the OEMs" about the priorities essential for meeting
customer needs.
Charging infrastructure must make it easy for car owners to charge
overnight. Different levels of charging systems are needed for different kinds of
vehicles. Level 1, in which cars can be charged with a home electrical socket,
may work fine for small, low-capacity plug-in hybrids and require investments
ranging from nothing to $200, Ms. Gioia said. Level 2 systems, however, will be
required for all-battery electric vehicles. These charging systems around $2,000.
Level 3 systems for workplaces or public stations can cost $50,000, she said.
Even assuming costs drop to $25,000 "that's a heck of a capital investment
communities have to make and then maintain," Ms. Gioia said.
For the batteries, different cells are required for different applications.
"We don't simply install capacity for one battery and that works for all," Ms.
Gioia explained. Hybrids require more power. Plug-in hybrids need both more
power and energy density. Full battery electrics require a much higher energy
density.
These batteries will evolve. The current battery for the Focus full-battery
electric car produces 23 kilowatt hours, adds 500 pounds to the vehicle, and is
125 liters in size. "That is whopping big to fit into a car," Ms. Gioia said.
Second-generation batteries for electric cars, which will be available two to
three years after the first generation, will weigh around 400 pounds and be 100
liters. But they still will provide a range of 100 miles, she said.
Third-generation batteries, which will come in another two to three years,
will weigh 250 pounds and be 75 liters big. "The goal is to make it on par with
the fuel tank," she said. "So we need two to three generations of technology
before the batteries become truly replaceable in terms of weight, size, and
displacement to provide the equivalent 100-mile range. If it turns out customers
demand ranges of 200 miles, "that just exacerbates this challenge," she said.
Temperature control, energy density, the number of real-world charge and
discharge cycles, and cost also remain significant challenges for full electric cars,
she said. "We need to go through two to three cycles of innovation and then
scale up appropriately to have a customer-driven product that would be
affordable," she said.
The U.S. Advanced Battery Consortium and the battery industry as a whole
generally agree much more must be done before electric vehicles are ready for
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PROCEEDINGS 99
the mass market, Ms. Gioia said. This does not mean Ford won't launch the
Focus Electric in 2011, Ms. Gioia said. "Of course we are," she said. "We also
are launching Transit Connect later this year."
"Mass market" means moving from 2 percent of car sales to 5 percent, she
said. It also means, "we have affordable solutions for other than early adopters
or the policy-incentivized world." For hybrid electric cars, batteries are expected
to cost $20 to $30 per kilowatt hour per cell in 2012, Ms. Gioia said. Cells for
plug-ins will cost $500 to $1,000. The price range varies, due to assumptions in
R&D, capital depreciation, labor, and other mark-ups, she said. Lithium-ion
cells for laptop batteries are much cheaper because they are produced in mass
volumes and because the transportation sector is more demanding, she said.
Moreover, all components of lithium-ion batteries for cars--the cathodes,
anodes, electrolytes, hardware, and separators--require improvements.
For the U.S. to be fully competitive and not remain simply an importer, "the
U.S. battery industry must have world-class and leading technologies," Ms.
Gioia said. That means not just in chemistry and materials, but also in
manufacturing processes and equipment, she said.
Thanks to government incentives, capacity is now being installed in the U.S.
"The knowledge to build the equipment, set the details, and design the processes
and equipment for the future is not being brought here yet," Ms. Gioia said. "We
need to work on that." Manufacturing processes and equipment will deliver the
needed cost reductions. "Without that, the capacity will be underutilized," she
said. Japan and South Korea are still the leaders in manufacturing technology,
she said.
The U.S. also needs a fully competitive cost structure, Ms. Gioia said.
Labor cost is not the big driver. "It is all of those elements and the
manufacturing process capability along will scale," she said.
"At the end of the day, there is a lot to be done," Ms. Gioia said. "It requires
a tremendous amount of system thinking, with the public and private sectors
working together."
THE UNIVERSITY/ STARTUP PERSPECTIVE
Ann Marie Sastry
University of Michigan and Sakti3
After Mr. Alamgir's "chilling tour of the graveyard of battery companies,
I will try to be a little more positive and uplifting," said Dr. Sastry, who heads
the Advanced Materials Systems Laboratory at the University of Michigan and
is CEO of the Ann Arbor-based advanced battery developer Sakti3.
Besides climate change, another driver of electric vehicles is the growing
concentration of the world's population into megacities with 10 million
inhabitants or more, Dr. Sastry said. Some cost estimates of batteries are pegged
to the present state of technology, power, and energy density. "Unless we go
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100 U.S. BATTERY INDUSTRY FOR ELECTRIC DRIVE VEHICLES
very strongly toward something like 500 watt hours per kilogram and 500 watts
per kilogram in energy density, it is very unlikely that we will upend some of
these limits and see large degrees of electrification," she said.
Economies of scale probably won't be achieved in electric-car batteries
until production reaches 300,000 a year, Dr. Sastry predicted. At that point, the
cost of a lithium-ion cell for car batteries is projected to drop from more than
$500 now to around $100. She said it is important to remember that battery
properties themselves will enable the car market to arrive.
One problem is that the U.S. lacks the workforce to support such an
industry. Dr. Sastry cited a comment by Wanda Reder, president of the Institute
of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' Power & Energy Society. "The current
graduation rate from U.S. university electric power engineering programs is not
sufficient to meet our nation's current and future needs," Ms. Reder said.19
Studies by other organizations reach similar conclusions, Dr. Sastry said.
"We're lacking the people to do this," she said. "The workforce education issues
are profound. It's clear that we need more scientists and engineers, and I hope
everybody here in your industrial and research efforts also will put efforts back
into workforce training. It's not just a good thing to do. It's an absolute
requirement for a sustainable business." Dr. Sastry noted that all organizations
in the battery industry are facing a challenge now in finding the right workers.
"So it is important to join in collaborative activities, because the technology pain
is intense right now," she said.
Research in advanced batteries had been underway for more than a decade
at her lab at Michigan, Dr. Sastry noted. That research provided "the numerical
underpinnings for the work we are doing now in optimizing batteries," she said.
That research also trained the scientists and engineers who now are needed in
the industry, she said.
A change occurred in 2004. At the time, Dr. Sastry was doing research on
nickel-metal hydride and lithium-ion batteries. For the first time, lithium-ion
cells became cheaper than nickel-metal hydride. "It had nothing to with magic
or any inevitable economy of scale," she said. "It had to do with capability.
Lithium ion technology was disruptive." The technology allowed camcorders to
work three hours without recharging, rather than a few minutes. "That enabled
large markets, which enabled people to do manufacturing research. That
improved the cost structure."
Current projections suggest the U.S. market for electric cars will be able
to reach the 300,000-unit thresh hold needed to push lithium-ion battery costs
below $300 per kilowatt, Dr. Sastry said. That is the point at which many
assume the market will take off. "Manufacturing technologies that do not offer
19
Amy Fischbach, "Engineering Shortage Puts Green Economy and Smart Grid at Risk,"
Transmission and Distribution World, April 21, 2009
(http://blog.tdworld.com/briefingroom/2009/04/21/engineer-shortage-puts-green-economy-and-
smart-grid-at-risk).
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PROCEEDINGS 101
the promise of getting cost out of the product really shouldn't be investigated,"
she said. "The counterpoint to that is that we have to invest very heavily in new
manufacturing technologies."
The Advanced Materials Systems Laboratory works with many partners
around the world, Dr. Sastry explained. Partners include the DoE, the National
Science Foundation, LG Chem, GM Mainz Kastel, AND Technology, Oak
Ridge National Laboratories, and Ford. "We are friends with everybody," she
said. "It is really important to do that, because all of the partners have a set of
particular skills that are necessary to the problem."
Because her lab is connected to a university, it has the power to convene
people and make proposals that bring people together, Dr. Sastry pointed out. If
companies in the industry are not one of her lab's partners, they should join or
find another group to join, she said. "The adjacent areas are very important in
regularizing electric vehicles."
The University of Michigan was one of the first to invest in research and
education aimed at improving lithium-ion cells and battery packs, she said. Until
recently, however, there hadn't been a strong motive for universities and car
companies to work together. "We weren't on the cusp of commercializing the
technology," Dr. Sastry explained. As the technology improves and the industry
grows, "we see greater impetus for these groups to work together."
Dr. Sastry founded the first Energy Systems Engineering program in the
U.S. It began with nine students in 2007 and had more than 200 enrolled as of
Sept. 1, 2010. "We were very proud of what we accomplished in three or four
years," she said. Dr. Sastry recently handed over leadership of that program to
focus on other things, she said.
The University of Michigan has joined with GM and the U.S. Advanced
Battery Coalition to address all aspects of the electric power train. It conducts
basic research to understand why materials fail, for example, and to develop
controls algorithms. The ultimate goal is to get those controls algorithms into
vehicles, Dr. Sastry said. "So if you do it right, at the vehicle scale you are using
computational training that goes all the way to the atomistic and micro scale in
the battery cell," she explained. "That takes a lot of different people."
The "technology story is important," Dr. Sastry says, "because it tells you
why all of these groups have to work together." The physics of battery
chemistries and electrochemical cycling "are not trivial," she explained. "Even
though you can write down the kinetics in a straightforward way, the reality is
that it is a combination of mechanics, thermal effects, heat transfer, kinetics, and
a whole host of other disciplines that are required to build simulations that allow
us to say how long a battery cell will live and how well it will cycle." These
simulations also predict a cell's capacity and the effect of temperature.
Part of what makes the undertaking difficult is "the science of how to put all
those people together and execute," Dr. Sastry said. Michigan, which has more
than 70 people involved in the various institutions and national laboratories,
spends a lot of time bringing the right people together, she added.
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102 U.S. BATTERY INDUSTRY FOR ELECTRIC DRIVE VEHICLES
Time scales for the technology also are important, Dr. Sastry said.
"People who do computational experimental work have to worry a lot about
time constants and how long it takes to derive the parameters that tell us how a
system is going to behave." Such battery factors as cycle life "can really only be
understood if you understand the scale at which things are breaking down or
occurring inside the battery cell," she explained.
Different expertise is needed to work on all of these problems
simultaneously, Dr. Sastry said. "You want people who understand diffusion,
who understand kinetics, who understand heat transfer and thermal effects, and
people who understand mechanics," she explained. "To put these equations and
experiments together is not trivial."
Her program has spent more than a decade and millions of dollars to get
this far, Dr. Sastry said. The team now can "predict pretty satisfactorily" factors
such as capacity, the effects of thermal cycling, and off-gassing, "but we have a
long way to go," she said. These numerical simulations influence the cost and
choices of technology.
Research in manufacturing systems "that are fungible across platforms"
also need support, Dr. Sastry said. "Unless the government funds approaches
that can make many types of chemistries, we will fail to develop the variety of
battery cells that meet the variety of needs the Army team so ably talked about."
Many interesting partnerships will follow, Dr. Sastry predicted. "Big companies
will act like small innovators and vice-versa," she said. "Universities and
industry will adopt new roles."
Regarding Sakti3, the company she helped found at the University of
Michigan, Dr. Sastry noted that Henry Ford started Ford Motor from the
winnings of a race. "The immutable dominance of existing big companies is not
inevitable," she said. "All of these big companies started out small. And it is
something that America is particularly good at doing. And it's something that
America relies upon."
It is very important that the U.S. government support innovations coming
out of America's national labs and universities, Dr. Sastry said. It also is
important that "we grow new manufacturing approaches" to make new
chemistries in a "manufacturable and cost-effective way," she said.