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Chevron-Cobasys, which took over control of Nickel Metal Hydride ("NiMH") battery patent licensing rights formerly owned by GM, is mostly run by former Texaco oil and lubrication salesmen and peddlers.
| But even these oillie fellows admit that NiMH is ready NOW, whereas no one knows if more expensive Lithium will ever become practical. What they don't tell you is that ALL successful production EVs were issued with NiMH batteries; none that lasted for more than 50,000 miles used ANY other battery technnology. And the 2001, 2002, 2003 Toyota RAV4-EV, using the same NiMH EV-95 battery packs, are still running, getting over 100 miles range and approaching 100,000 miles of oil-free, emission-free service. "GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz says the Volt stands a good chance at making production around 2010 - if lithium ion battery technology continues to evolve. GM has awarded two development contracts to battery suppliers. One went to Cobasys...Scott Lindholm, vice president for systems engineering at Cobasys, spoke with Automotive News Staff Reporter Richard Truett at the Detroit auto show. "Cobasys is set up to manufacture nickel-metal hydride batteries, and A123Systems makes lithium batteries. How will the two companies work together on the GM contract? "A123 is the cell supplier...If we need to evaluate lithium in a full systems solution, with our systems capability and their battery technology, we would come together in a partnership... "...Will lithium ion batteries replace nickel-metal in all hybrids? "Not necessarily. It's all going to boil down to cost, performance, packaging issues and what's available at the time. Some applications, certainly, will prefer lithium because of its energy and power density. And in a lot of applications nickel-metal hydride will be perfectly acceptable. Nickel-metal hydride is here now. It works. It's safe. It's reliable. But, on this program, GM is stretching out and wants to look at lithium as being an answer for a plug-in hybrid... "Realistically, what's your best guess when lithium ion batteries will be ready for hybrid vehicles? "I wish I knew. The best answer I can give you is that after we do this development program with GM and really have a look at packaging up the system for a vehicle, we'll have a much better idea whether it will work and if it is safe..." |
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