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Lithium-ion battery start-up, A123Systems, which filed for an initial public offering last summer, is asking the US government for $1.84 billion in loans to establish a mass production facility in Michigan.

The company, which was spun out of the lab of Yet-Ming Chiang at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2001 with a $100,000 grant from the Department of Energy, now has BAE Systems, Cessna, Black and Decker, Chrysler and General Motors among its customers for its advanced lithium-ion batteries.

The loan would allow A123Systems to massively expand manufacturing capacity in the US, sufficient to supply the needs of five million hybrid or half a million plug-in electric vehicles by 2013.

The planned 650,000 m² facility would cost around $2.3 billion and create over 14,000 jobs once operational.

“We’re entering an exciting new phase for the automotive industry where we increase the electrification of vehicles,” says A123Systems president and CEO David Vieau.

“This new facility would greatly accelerate this change and help ensure that the American economy replaces its dependence on foreign oil with reliance on advanced, homegrown batteries.”

The company’s application to the Department of Energy’s Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Incentive Program has the support of a number of high-profile senators.

“The new Administration has a great opportunity to insure that a superior American technology originally developed by A123 out of MIT, leads the way to an electric transportation revolution,” says Senator John Kerry.

For further information:
www.a123systems.com/