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Michigan legislators are hoping that production of batteries for the electric vehicles the state's financially crippled carmakers have finally seen the value of will help replace some of the hundreds of thousands of lost jobs and billions in lost tax revenue the state has experiences with the decline of the traditional auto industry.

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Lithium-ion batteries on a test stand at Argonne National Laboratory.
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To that end, the state has approved a $335 million tax-incentive package to help woo EV battery development and manufacturing companies, acccording to an Associated Press report in the Detroit Daily News.


The move comes just weeks after a 14 U.S. battery suppliers, research and development labs and manufacturers formed a consortium to seek $1 billion in aid to foster battery manufacturing in the U.S.


Most batteries used for hybrids and applicable for all-electric vehicles now are built in China, Japan and other Asian countries and a number of U.S. developers and politicians have voiced concern that it will do little good to reduce the nation's dependence on foreign oil only to replace it with dependence on foreign suppliers of batteries and battery material. Most of the world supply of lithium, for example, is located in South America.


While that's a problem that can't be resolved by locating battery manufacturing within the U.S., establishing a center - or centers - of battery development and manufacturing here clearly would be in the best interest both of national energy security  and of securing a future for the domestic auto industry.


A healthy battery R&D industry in the U.S. for instance, could concentrate on efficient batteries that don't rely on material available only from producers in other, often unstable, regions of the world.


Some analysts are predicting that the advanced automotive battery industry could be a $50-billion-a-year business by 2020. 

Tags: Batteries, Tax Incentives, Electric Vehicles, EV Battery Development, Michigan Offers Tax Breaks For Battery Makers

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Michigan Offers Tax Incentives to Help Spur EV Battery Industry was originally published by Green Car Advisor. Read the full story by clicking here.