13 Battery Startups Hitting the Road With Lithium-ion

With billions of dollars in government funds coming down the pipeline for advanced batteries courtesy of the stimulus package, and the auto industry gearing up to make its first real go at marketing plug-in vehicles for the masses, the race to build lithium-ion batteries for vehicles has never been hotter.

Massive international battery makers may dominate the mobile device and laptop markets for lithium-ion batteries, but a growing number of companies — some founded just in the last year, others that have been around for over a decade — are hoping to carve out a piece of the sony pcga-bp1n battery,sony pcga-bp2e battery vehicle market. They have their work cut out for them, however, as more established companies such as Sanyo, Hitachi and NEC are eying the same prize.

As the money rolls out and competition heats up, here are 13 battery startups you should know about:

A123Systems: Massachusetts-based A123Systems, working with nanoscale materials licensed from MIT, has attracted big-name backers including General Electric, Motorola and Qualcomm. The startup had raised $132 million by late 2007, and last year filed for an IPO. But A123 has since revised its registration with the SEC several times (taking into account tumult on Wall Street and in the auto industry, and most recently the introduction of new sony pcga-bp2ea battery,sony pcga-bp2nx battery government incentives) and has yet to go public.

Runner-up to supply cells for General Motors’ Chevy Volt and winner of a deal with Chrysler to make modules and battery packs for the struggling automaker’s planned plug-in vehicles, A123 is also working on energy storage systems for electric utilities and got its start with batteries for power tools. The company has its eye on at least two DOE programs, and has won state-level support as part of Michigan’s efforts to lure battery manufacturing jobs.

ActaCell: Having raised $5.8 million in a Series A round led by DFJ Mercury and joined by Google.org last summer, sony pcga-bp2ny battery,sony pcga-bp2r battery,ActaCell has been working toward a 2010 commercial launch. ActaCell’s devices, which it expects to have a longer cycle life at lower costs than the competition, are based on technology developed at the University of Texas at Austin. The company has joined the National Alliance for Advanced Transportation Battery Cell Manufacture, a group of 50 U.S. companies that plan to invest more than $600 million in a battery R&D center in Kentucky, if DOE funds come through.

Boston-Power: Massachusetts-based laptop battery maker Boston-Power unveiled a new battery for plug-in vehicles in May 2009. The 4-year-old company hasn’t released many details about this “Swing” model, other than to say that it will deliver “industry-leading capabilities” in areas such as energy density, lifespan, safety, cost savings and environmental sustainability.

While Boston-Power says it has enough manufacturing capacity to produce millions of cells per month in Asia, it aims to build a new lithium-ion sony pcga-bp2s battery,sony pcga-bp2t battery factory within three years in Auburn, Mass., for both laptop and vehicle battery cells — if it wins approval from the DOE for about $100 million in grants. Otherwise Boston-Power plans to continue to grow and open more factories to meet demand, but probably not stateside.

CFX Battery: Co-founded less than a year ago by Rachid Yazami, research director of France’s National Center for Scientific Research, Caltech professor Robert H. Grubbs and French chemist Andrew Hamwi, CFX Battery is working with technology developed at Caltech to produce prismatic (flat), cylindrical, thin-film and coin lithium-ion cells.

The Azusa, Calif.-based startup has reportedly raised $15 million and now says it is growing its team and seeking alliances with major equipment manufacturers as it develops batteries for not only electric cars but also medical devices, mobile phones, laptops, and military and industrial applications. Anticipating a lithium squeeze down the road and eying lower-cost alternatives, Yazami tells the New York Times that he is also “trying to develop a sony laptop battery ,sony vgp-bps2 battery powered by nano particles of sodium and water.”