Obama to visit site of future battery plant

HOLLAND, MICH. (July 14, 11 a.m. ET) -- President Obama is bringing national attention to the battery infrastructure that will power future hybrid and electric cars with his July 15 visit to the groundbreaking of a new battery plant in Holland, Mich.

LG Chem-Compact Power Inc. is spending more than $300 million on its new plant in Holland and will employ about 300. The city will also be home to Johnson Control-Saft Advanced Power Solutions LLC’s $220 million battery plant.

The visit comes just after Compact Power — a subsidiary of Seoul, South Korea’s LG Chem Ltd. — was named by Ford Motor Co. to build battery packs for an electric version of the Focus, set to go on sale in 2011.

The packs will use Compact’s liquid cooling technology, which uses plastics extensively in hoses, ducts and other components, along with the plastics used within lithium-ion cells, in connectors, cables and other parts.

The visit marks the president’s second visit to a lithium-ion battery technology company. In April, he visited Celgard LLC in Charlotte, N.C. Celgard makes the polypropylene and polyethylene microporous films used inside lithium-ion cells and recently announced it is building a new manufacturing site in nearby Concord, N.C., to make more films to meet the rising demand for auto batteries.

Vice President Joe Biden spoke at the groundbreaking for battery maker Dow Kokam’s $332 million plant in Midland, Mich., in June.

Electric vehicles and the lithium-ion batteries that they will use have been a major thrust for President Obama’s administration, providing $2.4 billion in grants to companies within the supply chain, including LG Chem-Compact Power, Dow Kokam and Celgard.

“We’ve got to make sure that those cars are made here in the United States of America,” Obama said during his North Carolina visit. “And so part of the reason why it’s so important for us to develop the battery technology here is if we’re developing battery technology that helps us leverage more auto production here in the United States. The grant we gave creates 300 jobs in the company, but potentially a thousand jobs in suppliers, the same is true with the auto industry.”

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