ACADEMIA

EnerG2 announced that automotive visionary Robert Lutz has joined its Board of Directors.

Mr. Lutz's automotive career has spanned five decades and has included senior leadership positions at GM, Ford, Chrysler and BMW.

Until 2010, Lutz was Vice Chairman at GM, where he helped introduce the Chevrolet Volt. The Volt is an extended range plug-in hybrid electric vehicle with two sources of energy - a battery that allows 35 miles of gas-free driving, and an onboard gas generator that produces electricity so the driver can travel up to an additional 375 miles on a full tank of gas.

"I'm a big believer in EnerG2 because I'm a big believer in the future of vehicle drive train electrification," says Lutz. "Right now, energy storage technologies have limitations for the automotive industry, but breakthroughs in materials innovation and manufacturing at EnerG2 will help accelerate performance and lower cost."

Mr. Lutz's experience in energy storage and vehicle electrification runs deep into the supply chain having served as the CEO of Exide, one the world's largest manufacturers of lead-acid batteries.

Adds Rick Luebbe, CEO of EnerG2: "Bob Lutz is the most prominent evangelist of vehicle electrification in the country, and we're honored to have him join our Board of Directors. With his deep and unprecedented experience in both the automotive and energy storage industries, Bob is in a special position to help guide EnerG2 as our unique carbon-enhanced systems are adopted into automotive applications."

EnerG2's recently opened plant in Albany, Oregon is the world's first manufacturing facility dedicated to the commercial-scale production of engineered carbon material. Materials from this factory are destined for use in high-performance energy storage applications - including those employed in electric vehicles, heavy hybrids, and an array of other devices and machinery.

The company's proprietary Carbon Technology Platform (CTP) rapidly advances the speed with which materials technologies are developed, commercialized, and manufactured at large-scale for energy storage applications. The CTP is both technology- and market-neutral, creating an unprecedented and valuable flexibility across a portfolio of energy storage applications - those that are available today as well as those that will be possible tomorrow.

"I've had significant experience with multiple energy storage technologies," explains Lutz, "and, in my view, EnerG2's unique Carbon Technology Platform will contribute to both current system performance and future innovation in potentially all segments of electrochemical storage."