General Motors offers eight-year battery warranty with Volt: Reuters

General Motors Co will offer those purchasing the Chevrolet Volt an eight-year warranty on the battery that powers the electric car it is rolling out starting this year.

GM said it will offer an eight-year, 100,000 mile battery warranty on the Volt, which has an expected 40-mile (64 km) range when running on electricity stored in its lithium-ion battery.

The battery is the most expensive component of an electric vehicle such as the Volt, which is expected to cost about US$40,000 before a US$7,500 federal tax credit.

The warranty on the Volt’s 400-pound battery will be transferable at no cost to other vehicle owners and cover all of its components, including the 288 cells manufactured by South Korea’s LG Chem Ltd.

GM said it hoped the eight-year warranty — three years longer than the warranty it offers on the engine and transmission of traditional gasoline-powered vehicles — would reassure consumers about its electric car technology.

“We have the confidence that we can deliver high-quality batteries that are the heart of the Chevrolet Volt,” GM product development chief Tom Stephens said.

GM’s plant in Brownstown Township, Michigan, near Detroit, has been building pre-production battery packs since January and will begin regular production in August.

The Volt has been the most visible symbol of GM’s effort to reinvent itself as a competitor in the market for fuel efficient cars and has featured prominently in GM’s marketing during the four years of its development.

GM plans to build 10,000 of the cars in 2011 and about 30,000 in 2012.