In the newly-formed National Alliance for Advanced Transportation Battery Cell Manufacture - aimed at competing with Asian companies that currently dominate the lithium-ion battery market - fourteen US technology companies have joined forces and sought $1 billion in federal aid to build a manufacturing plant for advanced batteries for electric cars.

According to experts, the alliance has a high likelihood of receiving US funding because the government would then be able to concentrate its efforts and investment in battery technology - the energy-security act passed last year pledges as much as $7 billion in loan guarantees for advanced-battery plants in the US.

The members of the alliance include 3M, ActaCell, All Cell Technologies, Altair Nanotechnologies, EaglePicher, EnerSys, Envia Systems, FMC, Johnson Controls-Saft, MicroSun, Mobius Power, SiLyte, Superior Graphite and Townsend Advanced Energy.

The alliance, which more companies are expected to join, is being advised by Federal energy laboratories, like Argonne National Laboratory. Experts opine that the plan faces several hurdles, suck as its high cost and the fact that US is no longer a leading battery manufacturer. Moreover, formidable competition from Japanese companies cannot be overlooked.

Nevertheless, since the production of affordable lithium-ion batteries is being viewed as the key to success for the next generation of hybrid and electric cars, the chief goal of the alliance is to make US-built batteries lighter, cheaper and more powerful than batteries made elsewhere.

Without doubt, the alliance is one of the most ambitious efforts till date, to boost the ability of US-based companies to meet what is expected to be swelling demand by auto makers for high-tech batteries.