Renault, LG partner up for 180-mile EV battery tech

The
electric vehicles that
Renault offers today are having
a bit of difficulty attracting customers. Maybe 180 miles of range could make prospective car buyers shed their anxiety. That’s what
Renault and LG Chem might one day find out, since the two giants signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) last week to co-develop
battery technology for long-range EVs.

While there was no talk about the exact single-charge range figure the companies are targeting, the implication was that the collaboration would be geared to double the typical battery’s distance, which today sits at a little under 100 miles for most EVs. LG Chem is the
world’s largest maker of batteries used in those EVs,
Business Korea
reports. Renault can use all the help it can get, since the French automaker will delay the first sales of its electric Twingo because of
lower-than-expected demand.

LG Chem started making
Chevrolet Volt batteries at its Michigan factory
last summer after a long delay getting its US factory up and running due to initially slow early sales for the
Chevy PHEV, so long that LG Chem was
paying workers to be idle in Michigan while shipping battery packs over from South Korea. The situation forced LG Chem to repay $842,000 of a federal stimulus grant that had been spent on idle worker payroll.