AFSCME 3357-HOF'S BLOG

GM's Battery Advantage
Large-Format Battery Powers Saturn Vue Greenline

If you open up the battery packs of existing hybrids like the Toyota Prius and the Ford Escape, you'll see rows of Ni-MH batteries that look like they could come from your digital camera, often AA size. On the one hand, the standard cells are a quick answer to the argument that the battery packs will not be practically replaceable. On the other hand, the cell sizes create packaging problems and inefficiencies and suggest room for improvement.

The upcoming Saturn Greenline uses a "large format" NiMH battery from a company called Cobasys. Cobasys is a firm put together by Chevron Texaco to house its NiMH battery technology that it purchased from, guess who, General Motors. Cobasys was criticized as the evil child of an oil industry that was conspiring to keep elecric cars off the market. Cobasys had gotten into a patent battle with Toyota. That battle was resolved with a settlement that Toyota could produce and license small-format batteries only for mobile use. As I understand it, the Saturn Vue Greenline and an upcoming hybrid bus are the first applications for the Cobasys's large-format batteries.


Battery Update Part Deux - Li-Ion Maker in Financial Trouble?

Valence TechnologyInc. (VLNC) for many years a "story stock" as the company that invented a "safe" lithium-ion battery has delayed the issuance of its 10k financial report. Its previous report had an auditor's "going concern" warning. Last time I checked, Valence was trading steadily under $2.00 per share. Since going public in 1989, Valence has burned through more than $100 million in capital and still has revenue insufficient to meet its debt load.