A group of 14 U.S. companies has reportedly formed a coalition that is seeking $1 billion in federal funds to help them make new kinds of batteries for electric cars.
Calling themselves the National Alliance for Advanced Transportation Battery Cell Manufacture, the group includes industry giants like 3M Corp. (NYSE:MMM) and Johnson Controls Inc. (NYSE:JCI), as well as Bay Area startups Envia Systems Inc. of Hayward and Mobius Power Inc. of Fremont.
Reuters and the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that the group is setting itself up like Sematech, the government and industry funded group that helped the U.S. chip industry regain its competitiveness two decades ago.
It seeks to build the first large-scale plant in the U.S. to build lithium-ion batteries which are seen as the next technological step for use in plug-in electric cars. The market for current electric car batteries is dominated by Asian companies and that part of the world is also considered to have the lead in developing lithium-ion batteries today.
Source: http://sanjose.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2008/12/15/daily57.html
