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President Barack Obama, shown here making remarks at Johnson Controls, made two visits to Holland within the span of 13 months to tout the developments of the advanced battery industry. PHOTO: JOE BOOMGAARD

It’s not often that a sitting president travels to West Michigan, but when you’re becoming a center of the global advanced battery industry, even the leader of the free world takes notice.

West Michigan continues to be a magnet to advanced battery manufacturers. Johnson Controls and LG Chem in Holland and fortu PowerCell in Muskegon all have plans to invest more than $1 billion in renovations and new facilities with the hope to supply automakers and other industries as battery demand rises.

But the global electric vehicle market and demand for grid-connected battery storage — which experts say is a niche five to seven times the size of the auto market — is merely inching along. Some recent predictions warn of significant overcapacity in battery production that could create a rocky decade for the industry.

“The red flag I’m seeing is overcapacity in electric vehicles, in batteries and in electrical components,” Mike Omotoso, senior manager of global powertrain forecasting for JD Power and Associates, said at an auto industry event in October. “…(W)hen you look at the production capacity versus the sales forecast, there is a lot more capacity than is warranted by the sales projections. …It’s going to be the Wild West.”

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• holland
• jd power and associates
• johnson controls
• lg chem
• mike omotoso