Battery Maker Electrovaya Gets $5 Million Canadian Govt. Grant for PHEV Project
By Scott Doggett July 8, 2010
Electrovaya was awarded a $5 million grant from a Canadian government-funded foundation as the Toronto-based lithium-ion battery maker looks to develop better energy-storage systems for plug-in hybrid-electric trucks.
The company, which received the funding from Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC), is developing high-density lithium-ion batteries for a test fleet of Chrysler Group's Dodge Ram 1500 PHEVs, Electrovaya said in a statement today. SDTC also has a $500 million fund earmarked for developing renewable-fuel production facilities.
The grant illustrates the Canadian government's efforts to play a larger role in increased global alternative-powertrain production and help develop a commercially viable PHEV system that would benefit U.S. consumers as well.
The government in May named hybrid-electric vehicle powertrain pioneer and Illinois Institute of Technology professor Ali Emadi as one of its new research chairs and has tapped him to oversee the country's hybrid-vehicle development efforts at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.
The Electrovaya project "will create high-quality jobs for Canadians now, and provide us with a healthier environment and sustainable prosperity in the future," Jim Prentice, Canada's minister of the environment, said in the statement.
More alternative-powertrain production would help Canada offset an automotive-trade deficit that's been in place since 2006. In 2008, Canada imported $14 billion in vehicles more than it exported, mirroring the $14 billion trade surplus the industry had in 1999, according to Canadian Auto Workers' union statistics.
Electrovaya batteries have been used in projects ranging from a plug-in Hummer H3 exhibited at last year's SAE World Congress to electric vehicles that were part of last year's Maryland Science Center demonstration project funded by ExxonMobil.
Danny King, Contributor
LEAVE A COMMENT