Zoomi Life

It’s a Nevada silver rush for the 21st Century! Prospectors (in this case Western Lithium) are combing Nevada for the most precious substance in the modern EV age. The third element in the periodic table, alkali gold, the stuff of battery legends. Lithium, boys, lithium.

Read More: There’s Lithium In Them Thar Hills! Drilling in Nevada

Full electric power trains like battery electrics, hydrogen fuel cells, and so forth are coming, but slowly. Let’s face it: most of those on the market so far are nothing more than curiosities. The Tesla Roadster and the Aptera 2e, while they look really good and are desirable vehicles, aren’t exactly mainstream.

Read More: Bosch Says Electric Vehicles Won’t Become Pervasive for at Least 20 Years

In 2006, ExxonMobil Chemical made the news when it was announced that they, along with their Japanese affiliate Tonen Chemical, had developed a prototype separator for use in lithium-ion batteries. This new technology, they claimed, would boost the power:density ratio by at least 40%.

Read More: ExxonMobil Chemical and Electrovaya Team Up To Exploit Lithium-Ion Breakthrough

A lot of exciting news has happened regarding corporate partnerships and alliances over the past week or so. Volkswagen and BYD, Daimler and Tesla, and others. Car makers are entering the new era of auto manufacturing by taking a lesson from the tech sector: you can’t do it all alone anymore.

Read More: BYD Gains VW As Partner, Ford May Follow - Other Partnerships Also In the Works

Boston-Power, based in Westborough, Massachusetts, has announced that they will be building a 455,000 square foot facility in Auburn, Mass. The new facility will be a state-of-the-art lithium-ion battery making manufacturing plant. A federal stimulus of $100 million will be used to build the new plant in addition to $9 million from Massachusetts.

Read More: Boston-Power Gets $100M in Federal Stimulus to Build Li-Ion Manufacturing Facility

There are some rare earth metals that are vital to electric motor production, lithium-ion battery storage, and other electric vehicle concerns. One of them, dysprosium, is essential for almost all electric motor and generator applications: cars, wind turbines, and more.

Read More: Peak Oil for Lithium-Ion Battery and EV Technology?

EnerDel officially commissioned America’s first commercial-scale production plant for lithium-ion automotive battery packs in Indiana. EnerDel (a subsidiary of Ener1) makes the batteries in the Think City, but has now signed an agreement with Fisker Auto (makers of the Karma).

Read More: New Indiana Plant to Make Lithium-Ion Battery Packs Commissioned

Four battery makers–Johnson Controls-Saft Advanced Power Solutions, KD Advanced Battery Group, A123Systems, and LG Chem-Compact Power–are getting a combined total of $543.5 million in tax credits. Between them, the companies are planning to build $1.7 billion in lithium-ion manufacturing facilities in Michigan.

Read More: Michigan Gives $543.5 Million in Tax Credits to Battery Makers

The National Alliance for Advanced Transportation Batteries (NATTBatt) has selected Glendale, Kentucky as its choice of locations to build a manufacturing campus. NATTBatt is a consortium of more than fifty corporations, associations, and research institutions involved in advanced lithium-ion battery cells for transportation.

Read More: Kentucky the Choice For Li-ion Plant From NATTBatt

OK, maybe not “like a frat boy,” exactly, but he did prove a point. Wang Chuan-Fu is the CEO of BYD and he made a point about the new generation of batteries–specifically liithium-ion ones: they’re non-toxic. He did this by drinking some of the electrolyte fluids from one of BYD’s cells.

The point was well made. Many li-ion batteries made today are made with non-toxic electrolytes and the trend is moving away from the toxic chemicals that used to make them up. If you’ll remember from a couple of years ago when a study showed that the Prius was actually more environmentally harmful to build than the Hummer? That was due to both the mining requirements for the battery cells as well as the toxic chemicals in them.

Read More: BYD’s CEO Guzzles Battery Fluid Like a Frat Boy…to prove a point