Boston-Power unveils EV battery at site of new plant

Westborough, Mass.-based Boston-Power offered a first glimpse today of the only eco-certified battery of its kind: Swing, for plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles.

The lithium-ion battery maker's announcement today was coupled with its plans to build what it says is one of the world’s most advanced battery manufacturing facilities.

The new 455,000-square-foot facility in Auburn, Mass., not far from the company’s headquarters, would add 600 new jobs. The site is expected to afford synergies between the company’s research and development and manufacturing teams as well as cost efficiencies.

Few details were given about the Swing product other than claims of its new benchmark capabilities in energy density, lifetime, safety, weight cost and environmental sustainability. Boston-Power’s rechargeable lithium-ion battery cells have earned the Nordic Ecolabel, a rigorous environmental sustainability certifying process, along with a comparable designation from the China Environmental United Certification Center.

Boston-Power is looking for $100 million from the U.S. Department of Energy’s advanced battery and cell manufacturing grant program to help fund its efforts, as well as $9 million in matching financing under the Defense Production Act, which encourages building manufacturing facilities on U.S. soil, as opposed to Asia.

Earlier this year, U.S. battery companies asked the federal government for at least $1 billion to help build a lithium-ion cell foundry to help them compete with Asian battery makers (see US car battery companies seek $1B in federal aid).

In February, Boston-Power established a five-year partnership with Taiwan-based GP Batteries, a top consumer battery manufacturer in China, to expand mass production of Boston-Power’s Sonata battery for laptop computers (see Boston-Power ramps battery production in Taiwan).

Boston-Power is in mass production with Sonata, already manufacturing millions of cells. The Sonata battery is being provided as an upgrade to Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) notebook PCs, with the help of a $55 million Series D venture capital round (see Boston-Power eyes vehicle market as it gets $55M funding)

Boston-Power has brought in $125 million in venture funding to date from Foundation Asset Management, Oak Investment Partners, Venrock, GGV Capital and Gabriel Venture Partners.