President Obama helped break ground on a new lithium-ion battery cell plant in Holland, Mich. The plant will manufacture cells for electric vehicles like the Chevrolet Volt.
In August 2009, the White House set aside $2.4 billion in stimulus spending aimed at encouraging development of new battery and electric-vehicle technology. The Michigan plant is the ninth of nine new factories to start construction and is a direct result of grants from that fund.
Many of the lithium-ion cells produced at the plant will be shipped across state to a GM plant that will assemble them into batteries that will power the Volt. To date, the cell manufacturer has performed more than a million miles of testing on the battery systems and will offer an eight-year/100,000 mile warranty on the Volt.