USABC awards $5.48M Li-ion PHEV battery technology development contract to Johnson Controls

The United States Advanced Battery Consortium LLC (USABC), an organization whose members are Chrysler Group LLC, Ford Motor Company and General Motors, has awarded a $5.48-million lithium-ion battery technology development contract to Johnson Controls Inc.

USABC awarded the contract to continue Johnson Controls’ development of lithium-ion battery technology for plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) applications to meet USABC goals for low-cost, long-life, high-power and high energy vehicle systems. The award, which completes work begun under previous contracts (NMC chemistry prismatic cell), is co-funded by the US Department of Energy (DOE) and includes a 50% cost-share by Johnson Controls.

The focus of this 24-month program is to further increase the volumetric energy density of a hard-cased prismatic cell technology developed in a preceding USABC-Johnson Controls program through a combination of innovative material and processing advances.

The improved energy density is aimed at reducing cost, volume and mass. All cells will be built either in Johnson Controls Battery Technology Center in Milwaukee or its Li-ion manufacturing facility in Holland, Mich.

The new contract is USABC’s third with Johnson Controls, previous research of which with USABC included competitively bid contracts for the development of battery cell, module and pack technology for PHEV applications and lithium-ion battery systems development for hybrid electric vehicles.

USABC is a subsidiary of the United States Council for Automotive Research LLC (USCAR). Enabled by a cooperative agreement with the US Department of Energy (DOE), USABC’s mission is to develop electrochemical energy storage technologies that support commercialization of hybrid, plug-in hybrid, electric and fuel cell vehicles. As such, USABC has developed mid- and long-term goals to guide its projects and measure its progress.

Founded in 1992, USCAR is the collaborative automotive technology company for Chrysler Group LLC, Ford Motor Company and General Motors.