In early 2007, China launched the so-called "863 Initiative," which initiated multiple electric vehicle research and development projects by universities, research institutes and companies.
Asked about the issue, David Sandalow, the assistant secretary of energy for policy and international affairs, said that the Energy Department, which had helped G.M. for many years on electric car research, "has no comment at this time".
Huang worked for a state-owned electric power research institute in Hubei Province after graduating from Huazhong University of Science & Technology in 1987.
"Electricity is not so much a choice, it runs your refrigerator," says Richard Sedano, a director of the Regulatory Assistance Project, an electric utility research and analysis firm.
"It's really nothing new," says John M Miller, center director in the power electronics and electric machinery research group at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.
With emerging battery needs for a vast range of applications, including electric vehicles, research and development of batteries are currently evolving at a swift pace [16, 17].
To achieve these goals, the facility in Silicon Valley "will initially focus on electric vehicle research and development, including battery, power electronics and e-machine design, development and advanced manufacturing," according to a company release.
Work at Canadian-based Ballard progressingms is prapidlying rapidly for the major engineering services contract it signed in March with Volkswagen, to advance the German automaker's fuel cell electric vehicle research programme [FCB, April 2013, p2].
