GM working with EEStor for Volt

GM is looking at technology from EEStor to power the Volt.

(Credit: GM)

With production set to begin next year, GM not only announced that the Chevrolet Volt will use lithium ion batteries, but also announced it would build a factory to manufacture battery packs for the Volt. However, in a sign that GM is actively looking for even better solutions for the Volt's electric power train, the independently run GM-Volt blog got Denise Gray, GM's Director of Advanced Batteries, to talk about GM's interest in the company EEStor, and whether the Volt will use EEStor technology.

EEStor has been issuing press releases for a few years now, and has even acquired patents, about a new energy storage device that would work like an ultra-capacitor. EEStor claims its device has several times the energy density of lithium ion, can be recharged extraordinarily quickly, and is cheap to make. The EEStor technology could be the breakthrough we need in batteries, but no one that we have heard of, including GM's Director of Advanced Batteries, has seen a prototype yet. The president of EEStor claimed in 2007 that the company's products would go into production during the middle of 2008, so obviously this technology is not ready for prime time.

(Via GM-Volt)