A123 will ship a 48 Volt lithium-ion battery destined for advanced Stop-Start vehicles from its new plant in the Czech Republic, this quarter, Christopher Fehrnebacher told the Nice battery meeting last week.
And it will also ship a 12Volt 60 Ah product next year as a direct drop-in equivalent to lead-acid SLI.
The new factory is a battery assembly plant, not a cell manufacturing plant Fehrnebacher explained, with the objective of producing 1 million batteries in 2017 with 60/40 split between 48Volt and 12volt systems.
The company is able to deliver the 12 volt system with its new ‘ultrafine’ iron phosphate chemistry, which will cold crank at -30ºC— equivalent to lead-acid SLI.
Fehrnebacher gave no indication on price, however, but much of the 48Volt product may be destined for the Chinese EV market.
