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A123Systems Partners with DOE on Battery Production: Is IPO Dead?

A123Systems, the advanced battery maker based in Massachusetts, plans to partner with the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory on its effort to develop safe, less expensive, more powerful, and longer lasting batteries for hybrid-electric vehicles. The Energy Department and the battery-maker have signed a three-year, Cooperative Research and Development Agreement to examine and develop new techniques to improve thermal management in advanced transportation batteries.

Hybrid electric vehicles get as much as double the fuel economy of comparable cars. Plug-in hybrids will be even more gasoline-stingy with potential of displacing significant amount of gasoline with electricity for road transportation. To achieve these goals, affordable, high-performance, safe, and long-lasting batteries need to be produced in large quantities. Propulsion batteries – batteries that power an electric motor to assist moving a car – are key components of hybrid-electric vehicles, and will be more important in the plug-in hybrid and extended range electric cars of the future.

NREL researchers aim to help A123Systems engineers design improved thermal management systems and to optimize the design of the battery cell and develop a battery pack — making it lighter, cheaper and tougher.

A123 has pioneered high power lithium ion batteries with NanophosphateTM cathodes under a contract with the US Automotive Battery Consortium and the FreedomCAR-Fuel Partnership.