EnerDel Grows in Indiana, Preps for Full Production
Leaders at lithium-ion battery maker EnerDel are confident Indiana could be what Governor Mitch Daniels describes as "the capital of the electric vehicle industry" and is backing up that belief with continued investment. The Indianapolis-based company recently announced it will expand U.S. production by building its third Indiana manufacturing facility. Located in Hancock County, the $237 million dollar project is expected to create 500 jobs.
"We look at Indiana as being centric to electric drive in America and even in the world," says EnerDel Chief Financial Officer and Controller Robert Kamischke. "[Our headquarters on Hague Road in Indianapolis] are the physical location where a tremendous amount of development work took place back in the mid-90s to create the electric drive components that eventually became part of General Motor's EV-1 [electric vehicle]."EnerDel's three Indiana facilities—its headquarters in Indianapolis, battery pack assembly facility in Noblesville and manufacturing operation in Hancock County—comprise the company's only U.S. production. Founded in 2004, EnerDel has commercial and strategic partnerships with companies such as THINK, Volvo, Nissan, Mazda and the U.S. military.
EnerDel's newest facility in Hancock County, an existing building in the Axcess 70 Industrial Park at Mount Comfort Road, will be a full-scale manufacturing site and is expected to begin production as early as May. The company says the new facility will more than double its U.S. production capacity and bring its employment to a total of 1,400 in the three central Indiana locations.
"By the end of the 2010 calendar year, we'll be producing and shipping out of our Indiana facilities upwards of 900 EV battery packs per month," says Kamischke.
Company leaders say the new facility will allow it to meet the "dramatically expanding" demand for high performance lithium-ion battery systems, a critical piece of the automobile industry as cars "electrify."
"[Lithium-ion batteries] are able to hold a sizable amount of energy within a defined space," says Kamischke. "With electric drive in the automobile, there's one very valuable thing you're consuming, and that's square area within that automobile. Lithium-ion batteries are compact enough and have high enough energy density that they're able to deliver the kind of mileage standards that retail vehicle customers want in their vehicles."
In addition to vehicle applications—including hybrid, plug-in electric and electric—EnerDel also develops lithium-ion battery systems for stationary smart grid projects in the U.S. and Japan.
"That would include projects like community energy storage," says Kamischke. "For example, during non-peak hours in the evening when there's not a lot of electricity being consumed, you'd have a chance to off-load the electricity off the grid, put it into a storage device, then consume it at a later time when the entire grid system is being taxed for peak energy needs. It could also potentially provide a back up in severe weather conditions."
Kamischke says, in addition to the Hancock County facility, the Indianapolis location is expected to begin high volume production in May.
EnerDel's ambitious expansion plans are driven in part by a $118.5 million stimulus grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, recognizing the company's strategic importance as the only current U.S. manufacturer of lithium-ion batteries for hybrid and plug-in vehicles.
"The Department of Energy is pleased to officially make these funds available to support EnerDel's aggressive growth plans," says Gil Sperling, senior advisor to the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, during a visit to Indianapolis in early March. "This grant advances two of the administration's key goals – putting Americans back to work and putting a million plug-in hybrids on U.S. highways by 2015."
Consistent with this national attention, EnerDel leaders believe Indiana is emerging as a "central player" in the electric drivetrain technology sector. While the state offers close proximity to both domestic and foreign car manufacturing operations, Kamischke says a wealth of Hoosier expertise is also a critical component—powering the growth of a company that wants to make Indiana the "capital" of the electric vehicle industry.