The GM factory that will produce the battery for the Chevrolet Volt is not ready yet. It won’t be up and running before late next year, and right now the one and only factory in North America producing lithium-ion automotive cells is in Indiana, it belongs to Ener1. This company makes the factory pack for the Think City electric car, it also has a contract with Volvo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96tHNmHC5lQ

It won’t be for many cars, only a handful of prototypes, electric C30 2-doors hatchbacks, but Ener1 has found another much unexpected customer: Hyundai Heavy Industries. The Korean company is working on an electric bus (not an hybrid, a pure electric vehicle, on batteries). It will build the prototypes with batteries from Ener1. That is one incredibly rare outsourcing, and you’d hard-pressed to find another example of a Korean company (whatever the business) buying batteries from an American supplier.