USABC Issues RFP and Goals for Advanced Battery Development for Plug-In Electric Vehicles
The United States Advanced Battery Consortium (USABC), composed of DaimlerChrysler Corp., Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp. have issued a request for proposals (RFP) for advanced high-performance battery development for plug-in hybrid-electric vehicle (PHEV) applications.
In collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the USABC will award contracts to developers selected that have electrochemical energy storage technologies capable of meeting or approaching USABC’s performance, weight, life-cycle and price criteria, plus near- and long-term technical readiness goals for high power-to-energy-ratio and high energy-to-power-ratio batteries, respectively.
"Developing commercially viable advanced batteries for plug-in hybrid-electric vehicle applications is a logical extension of the work already underway through the U.S. Advanced Battery Consortium," said Don Walkowicz, Executive Director of the United States Council for Automotive Research (USCAR). "Recently, there’s been a lot of public attention given to plug-ins, for which advanced batteries are the key enabler. The U.S. automakers, through USABC, are the right group to lead this collaborative research with the federal government and automotive supply base."
The USABC solicitation is part of the DOE’s FreedomCAR and Vehicle Technologies Program and is part of a cost-shared solicitation for PHEV battery development announced earlier this year by the DOE. The RFP submission deadline is May 31, 2007.
