development and will gain prominence in the auto indus-
try at a more gradual pace than originally anticipated,”
says Aleksandra Miziolek, director, Automotive Practice
Group at Dykema Gossett PLLC. “Barriers include the rel-
atively high cost of batteries, battery density, lack of
established infrastructure, affordable fuel prices (if they
remain at current levels) and the uncertainty stemming
from an unproven technology attempting to be deployed
at such a large scale.”
The speed and extent to which widespread rollouts
of EVs will take place may be up for debate, but there is
little doubt that such vehicles — despite significant technical
and infrastructure barriers — will have an impact on manu-
facturers, battery makers, energy utilities, workforce devel-
opment and the site selection process for years to come.
Breaking Through The Battery Barrier
The biggest obstacle in EV adoption is battery technology.
There is a global race to support vehicle electrification by
developing an inexpensive, light, reliable battery with
greater storage capacity than currently available. “All the
major manufacturers have at least one agreement with
battery developers, some of whom
— like NEC, Panasonic, LG, and
others — are not automotive suppli-
ers,” says Bruce Belzowski, assistant
research scientist, University of
Michigan, Transportation Research
Institute. “This places a large burden
on the supply base for this critical
technology, which is very unlike
previous strategies when manufac-
turers always wanted control of the
powertrain-related functions of
their vehicles.”
Affordability is a key issue. “For
widespread adoption, we believe
the cost of the batteries will need to
come down to make EVs a more
viable option for consumers,” con-
firms Ted Miller, manager, Research
and Advanced Engineering at Ford
Motor Co.
Miller says activities range from
investment in new production plants
and equipment, especially in the
United States, Japan, South Korea
and China, to automotive-specific
advanced lithium-ion battery technology research and development.
Pike Research, a Boulder, Colo.,
clean-tech market research firm,
projects in a recent study that the
expansion of new manufacturing
capacity will create an $8 billion
industry for batteries by 2015.
Increasing supply, coupled with
growing demand, is giving birth to
new supplier clusters and initiatives.
One example in the United States is
the Kentucky-Argonne Battery
Manufacturing R&D Center in
Lexington, which, Hizer explains,
received approval in late 2009 for
government funding of up to $3.5
million, to create advanced battery
technologies for vehicle applications.
Regions severely hit by the industry
downturn are also showing signs
of revival thanks to EV activity.
