Envia Systems Awarded $4M ARPA-E Grant and $1M California Energy Commission Grant for Advanced Li-ion Storage for Vehicles
16 March 2010
Envia Systems has been awarded a $4 million grant from the US Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) and another $1 million from the California Energy Commission (CEC) to support development of high energy density Li-ion storage technology, targeted at plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles. (Earlier post.)
Envia, in partnership with Argonne National Laboratory, proposes to develop Li-ion batteries using nano silicon-carbon composite anodes and high capacity layered-layered manganese composite cathodes. Paired with the Si-C composite anode, a battery with more than 400 Wh/kg—about triple that of existing EV batteries—and long cycle life can be produced, according to the company.
In July 2009, the Envia/Argonne technology, which provides the highest energy and cycle life of all lithium-ion systems available today for the plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) and electric vehicle markets, received an R&D 100 Award.
This product was jointly developed by a team from Argonne and Envia Systems. The Argonne team consisted of Michael Thackeray, Argonne Distinguished Fellow; Khalil Amine, senior scientist; Christopher Johnson, chemist; Sun-Ho Kang, materials scientist; Ilias Belharouak, materials scientist; and Haixa Deng, post doctoral appointee. Other researchers were Jaekook Kim, associate professor, now at Chonnam National University, Korea and Sujeet Kumar, co-founder and CTO of Envia Systems.
It's nice to see this government money involved in developing new technology for EVs. DOE should pay close attention to awarding taxpayer funding to companies that will be exporting jobs overseas. Envia has some interesting chemistry but if they ever build a commercial product it will be manufactured in China.
Taxpayer funds should be carefully shepherded to companies that will make products in the taxpayer's country. While the lure of low cost labor is great in China, the U.S. needs to reinvest in manufacturing at home. Simply setting up an administrative office in Cali or Michigan does not qualify a manufacturer for taxpayer support. Public funding should be reserved for businesses that commit to developing and manufacturing domestically.
Posted by: sulleny | 16 March 2010 at 03:23 PM
Cool tech. Regretable manufacturing plan.
It sounds like they plan on contract manufacturing. They could do that with one of the factories that will eventually go up in Michigan, but who wants to wait for that?
Then again, maybe they will dominate the Chinese BEV battery market, which could be much larger than the North American market.
Posted by: HealthyBreeze | 17 March 2010 at 01:51 PM
I can recall in the 80s the Pentagon complained that they had to go to foreign countries for all of their displays. So they urged the government to get involved in helping the private sector develop and manufacture them here.
That led to ONE company, Planar that still makes computer monitors. You can lead a horse to water, but if the animal is not willing to do what is best for it, there is not much you can do. Investors will go where there is the highest return with the least risk possible, that is American capitalism.
Posted by: SJC | 18 March 2010 at 11:25 AM