Possible reasons A123 lost the Chevy Volt contract

As we reported a few months back, all signs point to Compact Power, a subsidiary of LG Chem, being awarded the big initial battery contract for the upcoming Chevy Volt. Why? There are some obvious reasons, including that Compact Power was able to get its battery packs to the General a full two months before A123 fulfilled its end of the bargain, but there could be more to it than that, and Technology Review is postulating on some possible reasons. Could it be that A123's units were more expensive, despite not requiring as much safety hardware? That's one scenario to consider. Another is that, while A123's batteries would likely have lasted longer, there was no provision from GM to make use of that possibility in the form of a lower output pack. In any case, the official announcement awarding the contract to LG is expected before the end of the year and could be made as early as this week at the LA Auto Show. This would be something we'd Twitter to get the news out as we are writing the post, btw.

[Source: Technology Review]