REMEMBER YOU HAVE TO BE HAPPY TO BE SUCCESS FULL !

no surprise that Deutsch company didn’t find plug-inability to be an issue … check out what they pay for electricity over there (even in the heavily advertised wind mill countries):

http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=92216

I suspect that gasoline, at 2-3 times what we pay in the US, is still cheaper than an equivalent amount of electrical power.

“no gas in Atlanta”

come on folks. how else to guarantee record profits than to choke off the source to limit supplies precisely when one knows demand is going to skyrocket … something like the long-term profit motive behind not building new refinerys over the past few decades … basic economics: keep supply down as demand rises equals more profit. My understanding was that refinerys in that end of the country intentionally slowed or stopped refining with the approach of the storm “for the public good”.

I’ll admit A123 has the manufacturing lead here right now BUT–and this is a big but–so many other larger players are committed here to large cell lithium production (Panasonic, Sanyo, Hitachi, Saft, Conti, the list goes on) that I seriously doubt there will be one big winner. Interesting horse race, though, and of course we’ll have a gazillion cheap Chinese knockoffs that may or may not work–their quality control to date on high discharge lipoly packs is fairly abysmal. ABAT and CBAK are two players in that space.

But returning to the real news here, the key points about Conti’s very positive announcement here are the claims that they have
a) developed a safe, reliable, and robust lithium-based HEV pack that I’m assuming has been vetted and approved by Daimler, which is a huge step forward if true–even Toyota hasn’t had the confidence to run lithium-based packs in their Prius beyond a handful of beta testers; and

b) the pack is ready NOW, and is going into some 2009 Mercedes hybrids.

Regardless of your preference for particular lithium chemistries, this is a major achievement and step forward for the entire HEV industry, and ought to be cheered. It will be interesting to see what kind of warranty Mercedes puts on these packs, and of course the big question here in the U.S. is, will these packs meet the very demanding 10-year/150,000-mile standard mandated by California and other greenie states that follow CA’s lead? Anyone know more details here?

GM should keep CPI in the wings, but should go to bed with A123. Also, GM does not need Conti. A123 packs are a lot simpler to build than CPI packs, and GM will master that someday and does not need Conti.

This is what’s got me wondering again what Lutz meant when he said that they “felt there was a little less risk with one company” ? CPI was first to get a pack out because they had decided on prismatic cells early and had delivered several packs before Conti did.

OK, The battery packs are not on the boat to the US and won’t be, if ever, therefore they are not real by definition. The problem is that items made to replace gas in foreign countries will be a threat to the people in Washington and they will make sure we can’t afford it in any quantity. Electric cars and the concept of them is just to get us off the real subject of cheaper gas and alternative fuels developed here in the good old US of A. We are tied to our cars and everybody knows it! Cheap gas is at hand, if you study the Congress like these people on this website study the Volt, you will realize that the price of gas, cars, housing is going to remain at levels that we can barely afford unless We the People do something about it at the ballot box. I hate to say it, but the oil companies are really our friends, however the environmentalist and Congress will not let them give us the public the fuel we need at a fair price, read the papers and watch TV!. Who is trying the hands of the oil companies and won’t let them drill for our oil and develop oil shale and so on. The technology for pure electric cars, trucks, trains, and etc is here, but you will never see it or get it till we remove the greed at the top! They want our money and our children’s money and on and on and on, need I say more!

I found a QT station with gas last night about 8:00PM. The line was WAY too long and I decided I would rather come back in the wee hours since I’m an early riser anyway. Thankfully they still had gas.

It is very interesting to watch the public’s reaction to this. Most are well behaved and quietly get in line. So far. I am sure if this were thought to be a longer term problem and they were about to lose their jobs and homes over the shortages, things could get different in a hurry. There have been a few reports of flaring tempers and violence already.

So, with our dependance on how Iran acts regarding the Straits of Hormuz and a wild card dictator down in Venezuela and Russia’s new aggressions, just how far are we from this being an ongoing national shortage instead of regional and temporary? (So many more hotspots I could mention.)

The Volt could be the most important automotive product of all time if any of these teetering dominoes fall. Maybe even fist fights at the dealership. There may come a time when an electric car is an absolute necessity for everyone. Seems like a real good idea right now in Atlanta.

Hope there are still some GM dealers left by 2010.

NPNS!!! (Today that means a bit more in Atlanta.)