US alliance to wrestle electric car batteries away from Asia

From our perspective, it appears that we've reached a tipping point with regards to interest in the electric / hybrid automobile. No wonder considering the environmental and national security risks presented by a continuation of an oil-only approach. Unfortunately for the troubled US automotive industry (and economy), the single biggest money generator from a global fleet of electronic vehicles -- the lithium-ion battery cell -- is likely to be manufactured in Asia along side the lithium ion batteries found in our consumer electronics. According to the Wall Street Journal, "More than four dozen advanced battery factories are being built in China but none, currently, in the U.S." That could change, however, with a little determination, private investment, and a government willing to clear the way for manufacturing of this highly toxic contributor to the US infrastructure. Already, we've seen that Intel is being coaxed into building electric car batteries. Now, a group of 14 firms (including 3M and Johnson Controls-Saft) have stepped up to form an alliance with a US government laboratory. The National Alliance for Advanced Transportation Battery Cell Manufacture is modeled after SEMATECH, a public-private venture from the 80s that helped restore US prominence in computer semiconductor technology. The goal is to create a shared-cost, "open foundry" for members to perfect and ultimately produce automotive batteries. Problem is, they need upwards of $2 billion to build a plant to manufacture batteries that no one has ordered. Of course, that's a pittance when compared to the bailout requests made by the Big 3. Hmm, jobs and an industry dominating money machine... hey Obama, you listening?

[Via Ars Technica]

[Professor STFU @ Dec 19th 2008 9:36AM]

EEStor should get in on this action

[EMoShunz @ Dec 19th 2008 9:48AM]

just came here to type that. there are a couple u.s.a. based companies testing ultra-capacitors. i'm just waiting for the cityzenn, 450 km range at 120 kph, awesome!

[Chris @ Dec 19th 2008 9:36AM]

Tag that picture as weird.

[athousandleaves @ Dec 19th 2008 9:39AM]

nutsack or roll of fat?

[Kris S. @ Dec 19th 2008 9:37AM]

Kill it with fire!!!

[Flashpoint @ Dec 19th 2008 9:57AM]

"WATCH OUT ZOEY....ITS THE TANNNNNNNNNK !!!!"

[mercnet @ Dec 19th 2008 9:43AM]

I don't even want to know why this picture was taken.

[Jason @ Dec 20th 2008 1:46AM]

You don't just grow up knowing how to stop trains or wrestle an ICBM. This was some of Clark's most important training as a kid.

[Boarderwoot @ Dec 19th 2008 9:45AM]

This is right up there with his new new deal and putting all the fat lazy people in our country back to manual labor and fix our roads so we can drive electric cars.

[Sushil Kumar @ Dec 19th 2008 9:47AM]

This picture is GREAT!!

[Dopefish @ Dec 19th 2008 12:30PM]

I dunno, I feel dirty just looking at it.....




*shudder*

[dazepro @ Dec 19th 2008 2:10PM]

Anyone know where or what this picture is from? Movie, article, tv show?

[Connor @ Dec 19th 2008 9:49AM]

It isn't even called a loan anymore, it's called a bailout. Yay.

[Andir3.0 @ Dec 19th 2008 2:09PM]

A loan is given to allow a company to expand. A bailout is given to allow a company to survive. (and quite morally against everything capitalism stands for...) If the company being bailed out wasn't selling enough to cover their costs, they needed to redesign the items, fire a few people or get the fuck out of business. Not be hand-held by government.

[Wiizer @ Dec 19th 2008 9:54AM]

What is that baby doing picking on that obese gentleman?

[bill cant fart @ Dec 19th 2008 10:03AM]

And why are they both wearing diapers?!

[Seneca @ Dec 19th 2008 10:09AM]

What is a Sony character doing wearing a Mario hat in your Avatar?

[Wiizer @ Dec 19th 2008 10:13AM]

@ Seneca

You should see Joystiq's default avatars: http://www.joystiq.com/

It's popular to copy the Mario-esque feeling of them. A lot of people do it with different characters and different Marios.

[Andir3.0 @ Dec 19th 2008 2:13PM]

Popularity is relative.

[AMiSH PiRATE @ Dec 19th 2008 9:54AM]

So... we're back to being David again? *sigh*

[richard @ Dec 19th 2008 10:16AM]

ok come on. This is by far the dumbest story. There is no global warming! No auto manufacturer is making money on hybrids yet and we all know how well batteries keep charge after a couple years...

Tapping all of our oil resources instead of letting these granola hippies have their way will make it affordable for all and get us through for enough time to research something more efficient.

I would go for the whole hybrid thing if we were actually building nuclear power generators so power was guaranteed to be cheap.

But here in Oregon when we put idiots like Culongosky in charge who built a solar highway that cost over 60 cents per KW/h I don't see nuclear power (technology) working out...

[Boarderwoot @ Dec 19th 2008 10:23AM]

Oregon eh? It must be cold there today and so therefore you don't believe. You probably think Santa doesn't exist because he brought you coal instead of Polly Pockets because you're such a meanie.

[Adrian Williams @ Dec 19th 2008 10:26AM]

Nice read on why Coal is still cheaper than Nuke plants(myth4)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/nov/27/renewableenergy-energy

[Mycroft @ Dec 19th 2008 10:41AM]

Little published fact: The average global surface temperatures have not increased in the last ten years.

[dg @ Dec 19th 2008 11:51AM]

Chernobyl.

Sometimes financial-cost isn't the greatest factor.

[RTG @ Dec 19th 2008 6:23PM]

One of the few voices of reason. As further evidence, French President Sarkozy had to bury an exhaustive analysis of the prospects for electric/hybrid vehicles that concluded THEY HAVE NO FUTURE. Not cost effective, the infrastructure will never be built, and the ultimate power still comes from electricity generating pollution centers (wind? solar? give me abreak). And some idiots believe GM killed the electric car.

[loosely_coupled @ Dec 19th 2008 5:39PM]

Are you a ****** moron? Global warming doesn't exist? You have to be kidding me.. Where does such ignorance and denial come from? Is the earth flat too? Or the universe is 10,000 years old? Humans lived with dinosaurs? The fanatical zealotry from climate change deniers like you is just astounding! Its just as bad as the crazy evangelical nutcases!

Every major national scientific academy and organization in the world supports the vast, overwhelming consensus that climate change is happening, and has a predominantly anthropogenic origin from releasing enormous quantities of C02 in the atmosphere. 99 out of 100 climate scientists agree with that consensus view. The goddamn glaciers and ice sheets all around the world are losing billions of tons of ice each year and you can stand there and claim climate change doesn't exist??

My god, please go back and get your highschool diploma, or at least stay out of politics and civil society, and let the adults make the decisions. And lastly, please do not reproduce. We do not need someone with your fringe attitude in the gene pool.

[Jason @ Dec 20th 2008 1:29AM]

Congratulations to loosely_coupled for winning the Engadget Party "Flame bait biter" award!!!!

[hustler @ Dec 19th 2008 10:17AM]

Yes, I do,you'll get the money pronto.

[Charles @ Dec 19th 2008 10:21AM]

If the US didn't have the second highest corporation tax in the world venture capitalists might be interested in investing in such a plant. Unfortunately, with corporation tax so high the odds are stacked against you since you lose 100% if you you make a loss but only take 65% if you make a profit. With such high risk it's little wonder people prefer to invest in lower tax economies and send jobs abroad that could have gone to US workers.

It's really not a hard decision for businesses - expand your business in the US at 35% corporation tax or expand your business in somewhere like Ireland at 12.5%. Hmm, which will make most profit while minimising risk? Ireland it is then! Things will only get worse when Obama comes in since he plans to raise corporation tax even higher sending more investment and more jobs abroad. I can't imagine how he things raising corporation tax will rejuvenate the economy. Seems more likely to me that he'll finish off what's left.

[000000 @ Dec 19th 2008 11:51AM]

Here here. There's too much talk about how capitalism has "ruined" us. Humans who abused capitalism ruined us. Not the system. The system is good just play by the rules. Putting us in a socialist economy isn't going to make humans good all of a sudden. It's just going to make them even more angry.

Everything in moderation. Yin and Yang. Ride the line. etc,... Get it?

[E. Leigh @ Dec 19th 2008 12:59PM]

I dream of a tax, called the Fair Tax.

[siva @ Dec 19th 2008 1:14PM]

I guess you drank the Republican coolaid. While the corporate tax may be 35%, there are so many loopholes that corporate tax burden has been falling for the past several decades. In fact, the lobbyists that represent the large corporations are the ones writing most tax laws and the congress just rubber stamps them.

[Sanskrit @ Dec 19th 2008 1:29PM]

@siva

Simple answer, cut the corporate tax AND the loopholes. Problem solved, checkpoint met.

[BigD145 @ Dec 19th 2008 1:48PM]

Corporate welfare offsets the corporate taxes, so only homegrown businesses can establish themselves.

[loosely_coupled @ Dec 19th 2008 6:11PM]

I don't know what is worse, your sheer ignorance or the fact that you seem to really believe you know what you are talking about.

- "With such high risk it's little wonder people prefer to invest in lower tax economies and send jobs abroad that could have gone to US workers."

What? Have you seen the GDP of the United States? We have led the WORLD in corporate investment and business growth for decades! The outsourcing of manufacturing has NOTHING TO DO WITH TAX RATES you idiot! It is basic economics! Manufacturing's large labor requirements provide an incentive to build plants in developing countries with cheap labor costs, where workers are paid little to work long hours and with no form of benefits or access to organized labor unions.

- "with corporation tax so high the odds are stacked against you since you lose 100% if you you make a loss but only take 65% if you make a profit."

That is complete nonsense, and doesn't reflect reality. First of all, the rules governing profit, loss, and taxation are much more complex than "you lose 100% if you you make a loss but only take 65% if you make a profit". That would make any economist laugh as the sheer ignorance of that comment.
Secondly, the corporate profit tax rate is a NOMINAL RATE. The reality is that there are so many avenues to offset corporate taxation that the net taxation of corporate profits is *SIGNIFICANTLY LOWER* than the nominal rate. Japan, in fact, has the same nominal corporate tax rate as the United States but with a much stricter tax code that doesn't allow them to get away with all the loopholes and tax shelters inherent in the USA --- and they seem to be doing just fine with investment and economic growth.

- "Things will only get worse when Obama comes in since he plans to raise corporation tax even higher sending more investment and more jobs abroad.."

Obama's economic plan is overwhelmingly supported by American economists. He is not trying to raise tax rates on corporations, he simply wants to get rid of the tax shelters and loopholes that allow certain companies and industries to get away with what amounts to tax fraud! And to suggest that he is only going to raise taxes and "hurt the economy" is ridiculous!
In fact, he plans on creating the largest economic recovery project since FDR. He is going to invest over a TRILLION dollars in grants, subsidies, and tax incentives for American companies creating American jobs, and remove the incentives to outsource production. The conservatives have systematically destroyed America's manufacturing base over the last 30 years, and it is time for a restoration of American jobs.

I'm sure you also believe that Obama's tax plan which raises the personal income tax rates of the two highest brackets by roughly 3.5% is "socialism", despite the fact that it has been shown that overwhelmingly most wealthy individuals pay much less in net personal income taxes than the nominal rate of their tax bracket. Again, just like corporations, they are able to take advantage of all kinds of tax breaks, loopholes, and tax shelters with their team of accountants.

It's easy to see this in action. Despite nominal tax rates that are higher than average, the net taxation of the United States in tax revenue as a percentage of GDP is one of the lowest in the developed world! We are ranked #30 in fact.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_tax_revenue_as_percentage_of_GDP

[Mr. Pips @ Dec 19th 2008 10:33AM]

Those little toy cars are nice to play with, but in a foot of snow, i'll take my Toyota 4x4 over an electric putt-putt tin can.

[dan @ Dec 19th 2008 10:40AM]

Invest in lithium!

[Kiteless @ Dec 19th 2008 10:54AM]

That picture is wrong on so many levels I am not even sure where to start...

[Rainier @ Dec 19th 2008 11:02AM]

E. Honda Vs. Dhalsim
***Fight!!!***

[Chin-Poh @ Dec 19th 2008 5:43PM]

But that's a wapanese, not Dhalsim. ; )

[maestro610 @ Dec 19th 2008 11:06AM]

After conquering the boxing world Little Mac moves to Japan to find a new challenge...

[Verythrax @ Dec 19th 2008 11:22AM]

Yes, please get rid of those chinese slave-made stuff!

[IndiaTech @ Dec 19th 2008 2:03PM]

Well, 80% of Japanese cars on US roads are manufactured and assembled in the US.

[Verythrax @ Dec 19th 2008 2:09PM]

But not the batteries.

[IndiaTech @ Dec 19th 2008 2:47PM]

I think the non exploding ones are manufactured here.

[Potts @ Dec 19th 2008 11:42AM]

Surely that picture should be of a big fat American, falling over, to represent the failing US car industry, up against a lean and efficient Asian representing the Japanese...? Just a thought.

[Danny @ Dec 21st 2008 9:51AM]

Actually, it is a picture of big fat American. That wrestler's name is Konishiki and he's Hawaiian.

[dg @ Dec 19th 2008 11:45AM]

This is a great article. Thank you.

[Walt @ Dec 19th 2008 12:24PM]

This is a picture of the fat, bloated, archaic, out-dated, U.S. auto industry being propped up by U.S. citizens. It's a shame that they can't be allowed to fail. All those execs should be forced out and never be allowed to hold a any similar position. That should also include AIG and everyone in the banking industry at fault.