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AUTOS: GM Opens Advanced Battery Lab
Written by: SPEED Staff
SPEEDtv.com   
06/08/2009
Warren, Mich
 
Despite its financial woes, General Motors expanded its battery research and development capabilities today by opening the largest and most technologically advanced battery lab in the United States on its Technical Center campus in Warren.

General Motors's 33,000-square-foot Global Battery Systems Lab will be used by more than 1,000 engineers working on advanced batteries and electrically driven vehicles. (Photo: General Motors) ยป More Photos
The new Global Battery Systems Lab will lead GM’s global advanced-battery engineering resources and expedite the introduction of electrically driven vehicles, including the Chevrolet Volt, as well as plug-in hybrid and hybrid-electric vehicles, and fuel cell vehicles.

“The new global GM battery lab will benefit consumers across America by helping us advance the development of battery technology in the United States and put cleaner, more efficient vehicles on the road more quickly and affordably,” said Fritz Henderson, GM president and CEO. “Our new lab improves GM’s competitiveness by speeding the development of our hybrid, plug-in and extended-range electric vehicles, including the Chevrolet Volt.”

The Global Battery Systems Lab spans 33,000 square feet, four times larger than GM’s previous Tech Center battery lab, and will be used by GM’s team of more than 1,000 engineers working on advanced batteries and electrically driven vehicles.

Planning began in December 2007 and construction started in August
2008. Operations began in January – nine months ahead of schedule. The lab became fully functional in May, equipped with 160 test channels and 42 thermal chambers duplicating extreme real-world driving patterns, hot and cold temperatures and calendar life. The lab’s maximum power capacity is 6 megawatts, or enough electricity to provide power to approximately 1,400 homes.

The Global Battery Systems Lab complements GM’s other battery labs in Mainz-Kastel, Germany, Honeoye Falls, N.Y., and the Warren Technical Center’s Research Chemical Engineering facility.

In January, GM announced that it would produce its own advanced lithium-ion battery technology in a U.S. plant, building the battery packs to power electric vehicles such as the upcoming Chevy Volt. The plant would be the first manufacturing facility to produce lithium-ion batteries in the United States operated by a major automaker.

Preparation for the factory will begin this year with production planned for 2010.

The Department of Defense’s Argonne National Laboratory and BASF, the world's largest chemical company, last week signed a worldwide licensing agreement to mass produce and market Argonne's patented composite cathode materials to manufacturers of advanced lithium-ion batteries.
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