In 2008, at the suggestion of then Senator Barack Obama, Jim Greenberger, Jeff Chamberlain, Ralph Brodd and Carlos Helou founded the National Alliance for Advanced Transportation Batteries (“NAATBatt”). The goal of NAATBatt was to create an R&D consortium of companies to promote the manufacture of lithium-ion and other advanced batteries in the United States. Based on SEMATECH in the semiconductor industry, NAATBatt’s mission was to ensure that as automobile drive trains electrified, the United States vehicle fleet did not trade dependence on foreign petroleum for dependence on foreign batteries. By the end of 2008, NAATBatt had 52 corporate members.

In 2009, NAATBatt revised its mission and reincorporated as a Section 501(c)(6) trade association.  NAATBatt International, a descendant of the original NAATBatt, exists today for the purpose of promoting the interests of companies working to commercialize advanced electrochemical energy storage technology in high tech applications worldwide.

Advanced electrochemical energy storage is the most important technology challenge of our time.   Progress in key technologies that will shape human society in the 21st Century, from vehicles to the Smart Grid, to robotics, consumer electronics, medical devices, weapons systems, monitoring systems and more, depends in large part on being able to store more and more electric energy in less and less mass.

The challenge of electrochemical energy storage technology is a challenge that does not know national boundaries.  Promoting that technology and helping it move more rapidly into commerce is NAATBatt International’s mission today.