CPI Lands Lithium-ion Contract

The development of the hybrid-electric vehicle moves forward as Compact Power Inc. announces a $6.3 million contract with the U.S. Advanced Battery Consortium (USABC) to develop lithium-ion battery technology for HEV applications.

Lithium-ion batteries, already used extensively in consumer electronics applications such as laptop computers, are believed to be the next step to enhance the performance of HEVs compared with current nickel-metal-hydride batteries.

The contract, announced at Convergence, will focus on lithium-ion battery cell and module development, including improving lifecycle, abuse tolerance and low-temperature performance.

Despite the promise of the technology, lithium-ion literally has been under fire recently after several widely publicized incidents of laptop batteries catching fire, prompting massive recall campaigns.

However, CEO Prabhakar Patil says CPI's “large format” battery cells are designed far differently than the “small format” cells used for consumer products and do not pose a similar risk.

Patil says CPI's large-format batteries feature safer, manganese-based cathode chemistry and special high-temperature separator membranes between battery electrodes that are mechanically and thermally superior to commonly used separators in lithium-ion cells.