Battery Developer Recharges

Advanced-battery developer ElectraStor LLC is advertising in the classified section of The Berkshire Eagle of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, for a mechanical development supervisor, a communications director and an executive assistant, all full-time positions.

Curt Preisser, ElectraStor’s spokesman, said he is not authorized to discuss the company, and that CEO Michael J. Armitage would not comment.

Formerly known as Electric Vehicles Worldwide LLC, the company planned to bring 1,000 jobs to Pittsfield in late 1999 by manufacturing electric-powered buses and vans. The original plan was to build the vehicles at the General Electric Co. redevelopment site.

EV Worldwide was given a $1.35 million grant from the Federal Transit Administration, secured through the efforts of U.S. Rep. John W. Olver, D-Mass. The company also was awarded $250,000 from the city’s GE Economic Development Fund in January 2001.

A condition of the latter grant was that EV Worldwide create 10 jobs in the first year. In October 2001, city councilors were given tours of an apparently bustling research and development facility at the Western Massachusetts Electric Co. work center at 333 West St., where the company leases space. At that time, EV Worldwide reported employing 11 people, with an annual payroll of $619,000.

The Eagle reported in September 2001 that EV Worldwide had shifted focus from building electric vehicles to developing advanced nickel hydrogen batteries through its ElectraStor LLC subsidiary.

In March 2002, ElectraStor received an $800,000 grant from the Federal Transit Administration to continue developing the battery.

The company planned to build batteries at the former GL&V Development Center at 448 Hubbard Ave., and reported having a “lease with a buy” arrangement for the facility. But ElectraStor acknowledged in 2003 that it would not be moving into the facility, having failed to assemble the necessary financing.

CEO Armitage, in a 2004 letter to Pittsfield’s mayor and city council, said, “The company finds itself in the void between R&D and commercial manufacturing. A sizable capital investment is needed.” But he said ElectraStor was “alive and well and committed to bringing jobs to Pittsfield.”