Chevy Volt batteries won't be in production in 2009, 2010 still the target
A few days a potentially big story broke as a result of an interview that BusinessWeek did with Continental North America CEO Bill Kozyra. In that interview, Kozyra is quoted as saying that the battery packs for the Chevy Volt would be production by late 2009. He is also quoted as saying the batteries would be in the Chevy Volt in late 2009. This of course got Volt fan's hearts all aflutter with the thought that they might be able to buy a Volt at least a year sooner than previously thought. Well Volt fanatics, it's time to take a valium and sit yourself down. You'll have a whole extra year to save your pennies for that new E-REV. I talked to Rob Peterson at GM shortly after seeing the interview and he knew nothing about any change in the schedule for the Volt program. This morning I finally got in touch with Jim Gill, the director of communications at Continental Automotive. Jim explained that there was a miscommunication between Kozyra and the reporter. The lithium ion batteries that Continental will have in production in 2009 are the smaller units that they are building for Mercedes-Benz mild hybrid system. If Continental/A123 Systems does get the production contract for the Volt battery packs they will not be in production until at least the second half of 2010. That production contract has not been awarded at this point. On a side note, Conti has delivered a second prototype Volt battery pack to GM this week. That pack arrived at the Warren Tech Center on Monday.
[Source: Continental]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Joseph 10:02AM (3/07/2008)
Sam,
In a recent post about a new A123 patent, you said,
"Continental is doing the packs for the Chevy Volt"
I never heard about this before. As far as I know, there are two contracts: Continental/A123 and Compact Power/LG Chem. In this post you said,
"If Continental/A123 Systems does get the production contract for the Volt battery packs"
Note the word "if." Did you just make a mistake in your previous post or do you have insider information? ;)
Reply
Sam Abuelsamid 6:01AM (3/07/2008)
No mistake and no inconsistency. In the other post I said "A123 has development contracts from General Motors". A development contract is not the same as a production contract. If the development goes well, A123/Continental may get the production contract. To the best of my knowledge no company has been awarded production contracts to supply batteries for the Volt yet. Continental/A123 and Compact Power/LG Chem both have development deals.
Reply
Joseph 8:50PM (3/07/2008)
Thanks for clearing it up.
Reply