News United States

Gary Cowger
Group Vice President, Global Manufacturing and Labor Relations
Brownstown, MI

-          Thanks Fritz and good morning everyone.

 

-          It's my pleasure to spend a few minutes this morning providing you with an overview of our new battery plant.

 

-          The battery pack facility will be part of a wholly-owned subsidiary of General Motors called GM Subsystem Manufacturing LLC.

-          As Fritz said, it will be the first lithium ion battery pack manufacturing plant in the U.S. operated by a major automaker.

 

-          The investment includes renovation and lease costs of this 160,000-square-foot facility, new machinery and equipment, and special tooling to bring the lithium ion battery packs to Brownstown Township. We've also been able to re-use some equipment from other GM facilities which has helped us minimize our overall investments costs.

 

-          This facility will also join 54 of our other sites that are land fill free. And to be clear, our definition of Landfill Free is that the minute a residential household puts one bag of trash on the curb it is generating more trash than all our landfill free operations put together.

 

-          Now, initially, this will be a one shift operation but, ultimately our plan is to ramp up to 3 shifts.

 

-          Here's a look at key timing milestones to ready the facility for start of production next year.

 

-          We signed the lease for the building on March 30th of this year.

 

-          Building modifications are nearly complete, and as you can see, last week we began installing the overhead infrastructure to prepare for the equipment installation.

 

-          We will begin building prototypes early next year, with start of production planned for the fourth quarter.

 

-          You know, we have made quantum leaps in the development of our battery technology

 

-          When the EV1 was developed the battery weighed 1200 lbs and was 8 ft long.

 

-          The Volt battery is 400lbs and 5 ft long, and we intend for our future generations to be even smaller and lighter

 

-          Now, let's take a closer look at the battery pack that we will produce here.

 

-          There are more than 220 cells in our 16 KWH, 360 Volt pack.

 

-          The batteries current amp peak level is 400, and its dimensions are 33.5 inches x 64 inches

 

-          There are a series of cells in each of the battery packs modules. As previously announced, LG Chem will be providing the cells for the pack.

 

-          Now let's take a closer look at the three major areas of the plant:

 

-          Here you see:

-          The Battery Module Pre-assembly

-          The Battery Module Final Assembly

-          And the Pack Main Line

 

-          So, as you can see... Where you are sitting today is right in the middle of the action.

 

-          The first area of the plant is the module pre-assembly area. This is where cells are processed and installed into one of three battery modules which ultimately come together to comprise a single battery pack.

 

-          We use a rapid pre-assembly system to drive accuracy and repeatability in the assembly of these cells.

 

-          The manufacturing challenge we face is to process a single cell every 2.7 seconds or, at full production, 70,000 cells per day.

 

-          It's a big challenge, but we have a plan, and the equipment, in place to meet that goal.

 

-          The second area of the plant is final assembly and testing of the three modules.

 

-          Our employees will perform leak and electrical testing of the battery modules, and automated equipment will perform critical operations such as battery cell welding.

 

-          The automated welding equipment will perform hundreds of welds on each battery

 

-          Once built and tested, the fully functional modules transfer via conveyor to the Pack main line for final assembly.

 

-          This is where the battery receives it's final assembly including attachments of hoses, straps and electrical connections.

 

-          Let's take a 3D virtual walk through the final assembly process to see how it will work in action.

 

-          The battery pack main line utilizes Automated Guided Carts (AGC's) where a much higher level of operator interface occurs.

 

-          The entire manufacturing layout will be flexible. In other words, in the future when we have a number of different battery packs in production, this plant, like our current vehicle assembly and powertrain plants, will be able to adjust production based on market demand.

 

-          Today, I have given you a glimpse of the steps we are taking to begin battery manufacturing in 2010.

 

-          This facility represents the reality that we will re-invent the automobile.

 

-          You can see that the Lithium ion battery pack manufacturing that will be performed right here in Brownstown Township demonstrates not only our commitment to delivering the Chevy Volt as promised but also our commitment to the state of Michigan.

 

-          Thank you for your time.

 

-          And now it's my pleasure to introduce one of the state's biggest supporters of the auto industry, Lt. Governor Cherry.