EnerDel joined the parade of U.S. and European electric-vehicle companies striking deals with Chinese competitors, announcing on Thursday a joint venture with Chinese auto parts supplier Wanxiang.
The two companies will jointly manufacture lithium ion batteries with an eye on selling to the explosive Chinese car market, now the world’s largest.
Daimler is driving to China, but so is EnerDel, which announced a joint venture Thursday to manufacture lithium-ion betteries in China.
The deal is the most recent in a string of joint ventures underscoring the attractiveness of the rapidly growing Chinese market and the desire of Chinese companies to gain access to advanced Western technologies. By some measures, Chinese technologies trail those in the West and Japan by as much as a decade.
Among the Western interlopers is Germany’s Daimler AG, which early Thursday launched a $88 million joint venture with Chinese battery maker turned car developer BYD to build an electric car for the Chinese market.
Earlier this week, CODA of Santa Monica said it planned to open a Columbus, Ohio, lithium-ion battery factory. Lio Energy Systems, a joint venture between Coda and Chinese company Lishen Power Battery, will operate the plant.
The sometimes surprising bedfellows highlight the bond now forming between otherwise potential adversaries – largely to take advantage of the manufacturing muscle available from Chinese companies. “Our new joint venture is well positioned to make the most of the vast potential of electric mobility in China,” said Dieter Zetsche, Damiler’s chairman.
EnerDel, the battery-making arm of Ener1, said it expects its joint venture to produce 20,000 battery packs annually by year’s end and 40,000 by the end of 2011. The capacity will greatly expand production at the Indianapolis company, which now makes 20,000 battery packs at a facility in Korea and anticipates an additional 30,000 at a soon-to-open Indianapolis plant. A second Indianapolis facility operates at a comparatively modest level.
But does more than raise the company’s global capacity, according to a spokesperson. It gives EnerDel access to the high priority Chinese market. The company did not say what it will invest in the joint venture.
Wanxiang, China’s largest auto-parts supplier, is the majority stakeholder in domestic carmaker Guangzhou Automobile and has supply relationships with vehicle makers SAIC, Chana, Haima and Yutong – all of which are potential battery customers.
Daimlers says its alliance is designed to combine its expertise in electric cars with BYD’s command of battery technology and drive systems. BYD has 3,000 engineers working in Shanghai, with plans to hire more.
The new vehicle will be marketed under a yet unannounced brand. BYD, which counts Warren Buffett among its backers, already has built two electric cars: the hybrid F3DM and the soon to be released e6.
Coda says it is scouting sites for its plant. It also will apply for a manufacturing loan from the Energy Department. The company’s joint venture produces 20,000 battery packs a year in China, but will close the facility when the Ohio operations begin.
Posted by Mark Boslet 
