Boston-Power to build a new battery factory

Good news:Business expanding in Massachusetts. 

From the Boston Globe

By Erin Ailworth, Globe Staff  |  June 1, 2009

A Westborough maker of a lithium-ion battery pack is poised to give
the Bay State job market a much-needed boost as it looks to move into
the auto market.

Boston-Power Inc., which manufactures the Sonata battery used in Hewlett-Packard
laptops, today is expected to detail plans for a plant in Auburn that
could employ about 600 people to produce batteries for plug-in hybrid
and electric cars.

"I'm going to help [the electric-vehicle] market take off and I'd
love to do that in the United States and, specifically, in
Massachusetts," said chief executive Christina Lampe-Onnerud, who
founded the company in 2005. It currently has about 100 employees in
the state and several hundred more overseas.

The additional jobs would also be a boon for a state where the
unemployment rate has risen to 7.7 percent from 4.1 percent in a year's
time, according to the most recent data from the Executive Office of
Labor and Workforce Development.

Lampe-Onnerud said Boston-Power is seeking $100 million in funding
from the federal energy and defense departments, as well as from the
state, to finance the factory. The company has leased a 455,000
square-foot building - an old Filene's Basement distribution center - that it plans to convert into a plant to produce the Swing battery for cars.

"It's a battery specifically for transportation, but it's a very
similar product to Sonata," Lampe-Onnerud said, adding that the company
has been in talks with potential partners in the automotive industry.

If federal funding comes through, the factory would be the latest
confirmation of Boston-Power's viability, even in a dismal economy.
Late last year, as other businesses were suffering some of their worst
fourth quarters ever, the battery maker struck a deal to provide the
Sonata - a fast-charging, environmentally friendly power pack - for HP
laptops. Soon after, the company received $55 million from several
investors to market, manufacture, and sell its product.

As a result, Boston-Power is adding employees while many firms are
reducing their workforces. In March, company officials said they
expected to hire about two dozen employees in the coming months. Last
week, about a dozen job openings were listed on the company's website.

That's good news for Massachusetts officials, who have been working
to bring jobs into the state, especially in the clean technology sector.

Contingent on federal funding, the state has committed $9 million to
help finance the new Boston-Power factory, Lampe-Onnerud said.

That support could come in the form of loans and other incentives,
said Ian Bowles, secretary of the state's Executive Office of Energy
and Environmental Affairs.

"This is one of the most significant financial commitments we've offered in the clean-energy area," Bowles said.

He said Massachusetts is willing to bet on Boston-Power because it
believes the company could help make the state an early leader in the
emerging clean-energy manufacturing sector.

"These types of batteries are generally believed to be the key step
for plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles," Bowles said. "It's a
natural strength for us, and there's a very large market opening up for
these types of products right now."

Erin Ailworth can be reached at eailworth@globe.com.