News

CPI Awarded New Li-Ion Battery Technology Development Contract by USABC

January 06, 2008 by Jeff Shepard

Compact Power, Inc. (CPI) announced that its proposal to develop lithium-ion battery technology for plug-in hybrid-electric vehicle (PHEV) applications has been approved by the United States Advanced Battery Consortium (USABC). The contract will be for a 27-month period, beginning in January of 2008, to develop batteries for 10-mile range PHEVs using high energy and high power manganese-spinel cathode chemistry. CPI’s contract is valued at $12.9 million, with $4.5 million funded through a cost share by the USABC.

"This is our fifth and largest development contract with USABC since 2002," said Prabhakar Patil, CEO, CPI. "Our combined efforts are leading the way toward establishing lithium-ion as a viable battery technology for powering hybrid-electric vehicles in North America while, at the same time, safeguarding the environment. This work with USABC is allowing us to push the state-of-the-art to deliver the energy and power in the same cell to meet the demands of PHEV applications. Importantly, the work we are undertaking with this new contract is very complimentary to the work we are doing with General Motors on the Volt/E-Flex development program, which tells us we are on the right track with our technology."

The USABC is a consortium of the United States Council for Automotive Research (USCAR) and comprises the three U.S. automakers.