Chevy Volt battery plant location to be announced this week
Chevy Volt battery pack - click above for high-res image gallery
Back in January at the Detroit Auto Show, then-CEO Rick Wagoner announced that General Motors would be building the battery packs for the Chevy Volt at a new plant to be located somewhere in Michigan. At the time, no one from the company would admit where the plant would be located although it was presumed it wouldn't be far from Detroit. The Volt will be assembled at the Detroit-Hamtramck factory and the bulk of the battery packs makes it logistically advantageous to limit the shipping distance. A few weeks back, a rumor surfaced that the plant would be in Brownstown Township south of the city.
We should be getting confirmation this week after GM's Bob Kruse announced on Friday that the company would be using its $105.9 million share of the battery grants announced this week to build the facility. LG Chem, which will supply the cells for the pack, will build a separate factory to produce those cells using a $151.4 million grant it received.
Gallery: Opening of the new GM Battery Lab
[Source: Automotive News - sub. req'd]
Photos Copyright ©2009 Sam Abuelsamid / Weblogs, Inc.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
KM 1:16PM (8/08/2009)
I wonder if, ten years from now, when battery tech is presumably improved and/or cheaper, there will be aftermarket battery packs with more juice and similar mods.
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alex 2:24PM (8/08/2009)
yeah, so true! they should put it somewhere like Tennessee, because everyone knows guys in Tennessee are WAY better at pushing the big green go button on the conveyor belt and tightening screws than people in Michigan.
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Mart 4:10PM (8/08/2009)
At least Nissan thinks that's true.
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Curt 5:23PM (8/08/2009)
How much are those Michigan UAW workers going to demand to assemble those batteries ?
$50 an hour ?
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Nick P. 12:20AM (8/09/2009)
Man,
This "T" shape design is a bad idea. If Tesla, Mitsubishi and Nissan have all figured out a way to integrate a battery pack that doesn't create an "bump" in the middle of the car, surely GM can too.
Maybe that's because the other ones are *pure* electric and as such do not require space for an ICE engine.
If GM plans to live with that design for many years to come, let's hope they are planning on reducing the profile over time as battery technology improves.
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tankd0g 12:10AM (8/11/2009)
If you don't want a trunk or you like disassembling 60% of your car to get to the battery, then you can have a nice cube.
bombastinator 12:13PM (8/09/2009)
The entertaining thing about he bump is that while it originated for rear wheel drive, most modern front wheel drive cars have it too. At first they removed it on front wheel drive cars, but then later put it back because it's so useful. It's space the passengers basically do not use, it dramatically increases the stiffness of the car, and it makes a rally handy place to run cabling and whatnot.
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Serge 10:57AM (8/10/2009)
Honda Fit does not.