Johnson Controls Inc. has won another lithium-ion battery technology contract, this one worth $5.48 million, by the U.S. Advanced Battery Consortium, the joint technology company of Ford, General Motors and Chrysler.
Under the contract, Johnson Controls will complete previously begun development work on lithium-ion batteries technology for plug-in hybrid electric vehicle applications to meet USABC goals for low-cost, long-life, high-power and high energy vehicle systems.
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 U.S. Department of Energy is helping fund the contract, which includes a 50% cost share by Johnson Controls.
USABC is a subsidiary of the United States Council for Automotive Research LLC (USCAR). Enabled by a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy, 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.
The new contract is USABC’s third with Johnson Controls, whose previous research 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.
