Boston-Power Moving to China

According to an article published in the Boston Business Journal, Boston-Power is looking for a new home in China. This news comes after, two years ago, the company failed in a bid for $100 million in federal aid to build a lithium-ion battery factory in Auburn, Mass. At the time, the company warned that it could relocate to China, and it seems to be following through. Writer James Connolly says that, “The Westborough-based company, which had raised almost $200 million in venture funds, has received $125 million in private and government funding from sources in China, and is turning its focus to China for its manufacturing, its headquarters and some of its research and development. About 35 percent of the company's roughly 110-person staff is expected to be cut in the next week or so.” Boston-Power's founder and executive chairman Christina Lampe-Onnerud obviously isn't viewing the move as a problem for the company; she's signed on for a further year to remain with the company. She has also said that she intends to remain in the Boston area looking at entrepreneurial opportunities. “It's not all that great to see most of the opportunities move out of my country,” she said. “I hope that everybody in the company can stand back and say, ‘I helped create one of the companies that actually contributed a solution to the cleantech opportunity.'”