Johnson Controls, Inc. (JCI), Duke Energy Corp (DUK): Who Benefits From a Better Battery?

General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) will be announcing later this week that it is looking for the next generation Chevy Volt to drop its current $40,000 price tag by $7,000 to $10,000. This tremendous up front savings will open up access to the Volt to thousands of buyers who couldn’t afford the first round of Volts. With the price of batteries dropping and expanding this platform to other cars, GM is expecting to finally make a profit on the plug-in hybrid platform.

One thing most people forget is that Toyota Motor Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:TM) originally took a financial gamble on the wildly popular Prius. The New York Times even said in 2004, “The original Prius was indeed an expensive experiment, a money-losing demo.” We just have to keep this in perspective before persecuting GM over not making an initial profit. Duke Energy Corp (NYSE:DUK) already has a joint venture with GM to purchase old Volt batteries to install on its wind farms, helping GM keep costs down as the original Volt’s battery packs need to be replaced.

Foolish bottom line

Its nearly impossible to determine whose technology will be used in the next generation electric cars, but betting on the beneficiaries of such batteries is easier to do. The biggest beneficiaries of these new battery technologies will be Electric Utilities in the secondary market that can finally address storage issues of their new wind farms that keep cropping up. With the U.S. set to install three to four gigawatts worth of wind generation this year, utilities will benefit the most from the availability of less expensive hybrid batteries coming into the market.

The article Who Benefits From a Better Battery? originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Wes Patoka.

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