A123Systems, Inc, EnerDel, Inc, Angstrom Materials, LLC, Max Power, Inc and three other organizations were granted funds from the U.S. Department of Energy on Tuesday for research projects to develop advanced batteries for electric vehicles.

The remaining projects approved run under the North Carolina State University of Raleigh and American Lithium Energy LLC partnership, SION Power Corporation of Tucson and TIAX LLC of Cambridge. They will focus on improving battery material performance, developing manufacturing processes to increase performance, and decreasing the cost of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) batteries.

The acceleration of lithium-ion battery development is a key step in the successful commercialization of PHEVs, which will be capable of traveling up to 40 miles without recharging, the DOE said in a statement today.

General Motors Corp. also benefited from the funds since it is collaborating with Angstrom for the development of anodes for lithium batteries. A123 Systems will develop an electrode fabrication process for its lithium-ion battery technology and EnerDel will work on a project to eliminate the danger of overcharging lithium ion batteries.

The DOE announced a total investment of up to $10.96 million available for seven projects from its annual appropriations. The private sector will further contribute with investments for a total of up to $19.36 million, the DOE said.

Battery