Untested small suppliers almost never get in the door of the world’s major automakers. This is fascinating story about Department of Energy backed Envia Systems, General Motors, and the battery technology that wasn’t all it claimed to be, in a big way.
At the end of November 2012, Atul Kapadia and Sujeet Kumar hosted the staff of their startup company for a holiday lunch of Mexican food at a Palo Alto, California restaurant. For days, the pair—the CEO and CTO, respectively, of a lithium-ion battery company called Envia Systems—had awaited an email from General Motors.It was to contain a deal rare to an industry newcomer—a contract worth tens and possibly hundreds of millions of dollars to provide the electric central nervous system for two showcase GM models including the next-generation Chevy Volt.
