Battery maker EnerDel and automaker Fisher Karma are looking to strike a deal that will provide batteries for a new plug-in hybrid car set to launch in June 2010.

Both companies signed a letter of intent for a potential long-term battery supply agreement. Under the deal, EnerDel may manufacture 15,000 batteries annually, the number of vehicles that Fisker plans to build.

A final contract will be determined after obtaining results of a reliability and performance testing, EnerDel said.

We expect that next'generation automotive alliances, such as the one contemplated by EnerDel and Fisker, will set the pace for a transformation in transportation that is inevitable and necessary for our nation's energy security and the preservation of the global environment, Senator Evan Bayh said on Friday.

The company's deal was announced Friday, at an EnerDel facility in Indiana which that Senator Bayh attended as part of a commissioning ceremony. The plant is the first lithium-ion battery plant with commercial-scale capacity in the United States, according to EnerDel.

Fisker's plug-in hybrid vehicles will be marketed in the United States and in Europe.

Battery