Non-polluting electric cars are no longer the stuff of far-fetched impractical eco-friendly dreams. They really are going to happen, or at least that’s what fourteen U.S. battery manufacturing companies think. They chose to close ranks and form a body called The National Alliance for Advanced Transportation Battery Cell Manufacture.

Their goal is to raise $1 billion to $2 billion worth of federal funds. This money would then be used to make the United States a worthy competitor on the already crowded electric car battery market. To be more exact, a special center for the development of this technology on American soil would be created.

According to TechNewsWorld, these are the companies which founded the Alliance: 3M, ActaCell, All Cell Technologies, Altair Nanotechnologies, Dontech Global, EaglePicher Corporation, EnerSys, Envia Systems, FMC, MicroSun Technologies, Mobius Power, SiLyte, Superior Graphite, and Townsend Advanced Energy.

Also, the Argonne National Laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy is acting as advisor for the group. “U.S. truck and auto makers and representatives of the Department of Defense will be invited to serve on the Alliance's advisory board,” said Reed Smith’s James Greenberger, attorney of the Alliance.

With so many involved in this Alliance initiative, it may be that appropriate funds will indeed soon be invested in U.S.-made electric car batteries. But catching up with Asian manufacturers will be no easy feat.  Right now, China is building no less than four dozen advanced battery factories, and the United States is in danger of one day becoming as dependent on foreign batteries as on foreign oil.