Manufacturer of Batteries for Hybrid Vehicles Plans $100 Million Expansion

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas). Cobasys, LLC (Orion, Michigan) is planning to expand its Springboro, Ohio manufacturing plant. The plant manufactures nickel metal hydride (NiMH) batteries and systems for transportation and stationary applications. The plant current employs 120 people and expects to add 150 more within three years of initial operations of the expansion.

Cobasys plans to construct a 40-50,000 square-foot expansion to the existing 170,000 square-foot plant. Miller Valentine Construction (Dayton, Ohio) has been chosen as the general contractor for the building addition. In addition Cobasys has plans to spend $137 million on new equipment for the existing operation. Cobasys will install parts handling equipment, encapsulators, vibration weld tooling, nanogram collators, nanogram assemblies, powder handling machines, and other related equipment. Construction is expected to begin in early 2007 and is expected to be complete by early 2008.

Cobasys has been chosen to provide NiMHax Nickel Metal Hydride 36-volt battery systems for GM’s 2007 Saturn Aura Green Line Hybrid Mid-Size Sedan. The company also provides the same system to GM for its Saturn VUE Green Line sport utility vehicle.

Cobasys designs and manufactures advanced NiMH battery system solutions for transportation markets, including hybrid electric vehicles (HEV), electric vehicles (EV), heavy duty vehicles (HDV) and 36/42-volt applications, in addition to stationary back-up power supply systems for uninterruptible power supplies (UPS), telecommunications, and distributed generation (DG) applications.

Cobasys, Texaco Ovonic Battery Systems, LLC was formed in 2001 as a battery system solutions and is a joint venture between Chevron Technology Ventures, LLC, and Energy Conversion Devices, Incorporated (NASDAQ:ENER) (Rochester, Michigan). Today, the company is a leader in advanced NiMH battery systems solutions.

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