GM to pick Volt battery maker in next few months

By Kevin Krolicki

DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Corp (GM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) will announce a battery supplier for its all-electric Chevy Volt by the end of the summer, an executive said on Friday.

"My guess is that we'll have an announcement before the end of the summer," Tony Posawatz, the senior engineering executive heading up GM's Volt development program, told Reuters.

Two suppliers have been in the running to provide lithium-ion batteries for the Volt, a highly anticipated, rechargeable car that GM will begin making in November 2010.

The Volt is on track to become the first mass-market plug-in, and the GM battery contract has been closely watched as the first test for an emerging technology expected to generate billions of dollars in sales in the coming decade.

A unit of Korea's LG Chem (051910.KS: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said last week that it was ready to supply batteries for the Volt.

German auto parts supplier Continental AG (CONG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), adapting battery technology used by privately held A123 Systems, is also competing for the Volt battery contract.

Posawatz, who was speaking after a presentation at Wayne State University, said GM would need to name a battery supplier in the next few months to allow time for production planning.

He said GM would probably opt to ramp up slowly with the first production run of the 400-pound battery packs for the Volt, "just to make sure everything is bulletproof."