So 1000 this year and 3000 for 2009 and 10000 for 2010. Smith said their US factory should be able to do 10000 in 2010.

It is interesting that GM now say they will only do 10000 Volt in the first year of full production probably 2011. A week ago they announced that the battery was no longer the problem. It was everything else. Apparently it will be possible for battery suppliers to deliver in volume but the other producers of electric motors, inverters and control systems can’t deliver in volume so quick. They need more time. The problem appears to be that while there is a huge and established industry for supply of standard car components for ICE cars this is simply not true for electric components.

Also I managed to find some confirmation that nanotech LiFePO4 can now be ordered in volume for $600 per kWh. The following link to the price list from Thunder Sky confirm that if you order min 1250 kWh of that battery you can get it for $600 per kWh. Their web site is utterly lame and slow but they are a serious HK based company that has manufactured nanotech LiFePO4 since March 2006 and deliver large amounts of batteries to the US army. They are also opening a battery factory in the US this year of almost 100000 sq feet.

http://www.thunder-sky.com/order_en.asp

I did a little research and found out that there are several other Chine manufactures of the nanotech LiFePO4 battery. The most serious producer, however, is clearly BYD. Indirectly they claim they can manufacture the LiFePO4 battery for only $300 kWh. They will launch a PHEV this year in China that uses this battery and an electric highway capable car in 2009 named E6 also for China only (at least for now). http://www.byd.com/news/newsmore.asp?id=28&show=media BYD employed 120.000 people in 2007 up from 20 in 1995. They did 100.000 cars in 2007 and plan to produce 1.5 million in 2015. Here is a quote from BYD’s founder "We are the best in battery technologies, and I am sure we will be the best in the automobile industry as well,'' founder and Chairman Wang Chuanfu said in an interview at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit today. ``Electricity will replace gasoline,'' he added. http://www.byd.com/news/newsmore.asp?id=27&show=media He certainly appears confident.

Anyway the good news is that now the right batteries are becoming increasingly available and the price is dropping rapidly. The bad news is that it appears the most serious bottleneck to the electrification of the automotive industry is that it will take many years before factories are built or converted to do electric motors etc and not ICE. After all in 2007 the global vehicle production was almost 70 million units exclusively ICE. Now we need to go from 0 to 150 million all electric in the next 25 years.

One of the BYD people took a reporter on a ride inside of the car show on electric power. It was unauthorized and I bet a bit perturbing to others, but they seem to be excited about their new product potential.

A few years ago, Thunder Sky sold a shipment of Li-ion cells to US EV enthusiasts. These cells did not meet specifications for either internal resistance or capacity, and Thunder Sky refused to either replace them or take them back.