US carmaker General Motors will take a step towards the mass manufacture of its Chevy Volt plug-in electric hybrid later today with the start of lithium-ion battery production.
Battery production will begin at GM’s Brownstown Battery Assembly Plant in Michigan and is the first such plant operated by a major carmaker in the US.
The batteries are being manufactured by Korean company LG Chem’s Compact Power and will be assembled by GM at the Brownstown plant.
The first pre-production models of the Volt rolled off the production line earlier last year, and the first 100 demonstration vehicles will be tested in California next year.
GM says that, despite the recent upheaval in the company and federal bail outs, it still hopes to start mass production of the Volt later this year.