Re: What's your opinion

[jfaggella@gis.net (Joe Faggella)]

On Tue, 31 Oct 2000 15:20:05 -0800, "HOLLAND,MIKE (HP-USA,ex1)"
<mike_holland@hp.com> wrote:

>I have believed for a while that California's ZEV sales requirement of 2003
>would give large auto manufacturers a significant financial incentive to
>pour LOTS of money into battery research (how to make higher capacity
>batteries that are cheaper).  These improvements in battery technology I

The auto manufacturers, with the exception of GM/Ovonics, were never
involved in battery research.  GM seemed to be sitting on the development
of the NiMH battery, often with false and conflicting statements.
GM/Ovonics was recently bought out by Texaco/Ovonics and Texaco was
swallowed up by Chevron so I guess Chevron/Texaco/Ovonics will be in charge
of development of the NiMH which is now in oily hands and it remains to be
seen if they will follow in GM's footsteps and try to kill the technology
or will sincerely develop it.

While GM stopped the production of the EV1,  hoping to kill off the NiMH
battery and thus the pure EV , the Japanese were pursuing the Hybrid auto 
with the Prius and the Insight which utilize a smaller NiMH pack.
Initially the Prius was being produced at a loss but the latest I have seen
was that with the strong demand for the vehicles they are approaching the
break even point.  Also with the increased production they have been able
to lower the cost of the NiMH battery pack.

>I also wonder if they might ask for more time to create fuel cell powered
>vehicles. (Then all we'll need is local hydrogen stations to fill up). 

The auto companies are trying to water down and eliminate the California
mandate and will use the fool cell as an excuse to delay the mandate so
they can continue to produce their gas guzzling SUV's.  They know that it
would take at least 10 years to get the hydrogen fuel station
infrastructure going and on board reformers, due to their high cost and
polution, are a non option.  Has anyone seen any figures on the cost of a
fuel cell compared to a NiMH battery pack?

The big date to watch is Nov 7th which will determine the fate of the EV.