In the back corner of the EDTA Conference last week was the EnerDel booth featuring the prototype Th!nk City with EnerDel's lithium battery pack. We chatted with Ener1 Chairman and CEO Charles Gassenheimer about the car, the battery packs and the future (Ener1 owns EnerDel).
Gassenheimer told AutoblogGreen that 2009 is the year that EnerDel will turn the corner from a "science project" (as some call it) to a profitable company. EnerDel has received a purchase order for $34 million battery packs for next year, about half of EnerDel's $70 million contract with Norway's Th!nk. EnerDel isn't saying the actual price of its packs, but Gassenheimer said that, "Analysts have estimated that we're selling packs for about $17,500 per pack, so quick math tells you that's about 1,900 to 2,000 packs for next year."
Aside from the Th!nk order, Gassenheimer said EnerDel has, "shipped a battery pack to one of the largest Tier 1s in Europe and they've already installed the pack into a vehicle for testing. What we've done is tried to diversify our customers a little bit so we're not just solely dependent on Th!nk. I anticipate we will be able to announce fairly substantial programs and get into volume production in 2009."
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