In 2010, the U.S. continued a slow recovery from the severe recession of 2009. As part of that recovery, sales of U.S. light duty vehicles rebounded slightly to approximately 12 million from less than 10 million in 2009. Sales of hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) remain in the two to three percent range. The U.S. government continued its strong R&D support of electric drive vehicles (EDVs), including HEVs, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), and pure electric vehicles (EVs). In 2010, the United States Department of Energy (DOE) also completed all contract negotiations with the recipients of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) grants announced earlier1 for the construction of advanced battery and battery component manufacturing facilities. A description of the battery manufacturing grants is presented in Chapter II.

An important step for the electrification of the nation’s personal transportation and for the continued success of the new domestic Li-ion battery manufacturing factories is the development of more cost-effective, long lasting, and abuse- tolerant Li-ion batteries. DOE’s continuing R&D into advanced batteries for transportation offers the possibility of reducing our dependence on foreign oil and the negative economic impacts of crude oil price fluctuations. It also supports the Administration’s goal of deploying 1 million PHEVs by 2015. During the fiscal year (FY) 2010, battery R&D work continued its focus on high-energy batteries for PHEVs and EVs.