Lear wall-mounted charging station

When the Chevrolet Volt goes on sale later this year, the chargers that will load up the EREV’s battery pack will come from Lear Corporation – a Southfield, Michigan-based automotive seat supplier. The 240-volt residential charger will be capable of filling up the Volt’s batteries to the brim with electricity in a matter of three to four hours.

The fact that Lear will be providing the chargers comes as a surprise. After all, Lear isn’t primarily an electronics firm: it earned only 20 percent of its 2009 sales from vehicle electronics.

However, Lear has been hard at work in establishing itself in the hybrid and electric vehicle components space: more than 60 percent of its 2009 patents were related to hybrid and electric vehicles. While developing the charger, the company worked closely with GM, meeting with The General’s engineers on a weekly basis over the past two years.

So, who will install the home chargers?

“We will be partnering with a provider that will go ahead and take care of our home installations on a nationwide basis,” said Gery Kissel, an engineering specialist for GM.

So far, General Motors hasn’t announced an installation partner for the home charger.

[Source: Detroit Free Press]