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Area Development - Site Selection, Facility Planning and Workforce Development

A123 Systems Opens North America's Largest Lithium Ion Auto Battery Plant

09/14/2010
A123 Systems has opened the largest lithium ion automotive battery plant in North America. The facility, located in Livonia, Michigan, was partly funded by a $249 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

"The opening of our Livonia facility is a significant milestone and confirms that we are accomplishing our stated objectives that accompanied the DOE grant. Bringing this factory on line in just over a year is a testament to our technology innovation and strategic plan to ramp up manufacturing, but it also speaks to the maturity of the market-without significant customer demand for our products today, a capacity expansion of this magnitude would not be possible," said David Vieau, president and CEO of A123 Systems.

Michigan's 21st Century Jobs Fund also kicked in $125 million in state incentives to help fund the project.

The company expects to create thousands of jobs in the Detroit area in the coming years. The 291,000-square-foot plant will produce prismatic cells and systems for the batteries.

A123 is also planning to open a coating plant in Romulus, Michigan, which is expected to be operational during the first half of 2011.

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