Toyota Plans Hybrid, Electric Car Lab in China
By NORIHIKO SHIROUZU
BEIJING—Toyota Motor Corp. announced plans to open a research center in China that, among other things, aims to work on plug-in hybrids and all-electric battery car technology.
The Japanese auto maker said Wednesday it plans to invest $234 million to establish a technical center in the eastern city of Changshu, northwest of Shanghai. Toyota plans to open part of the center, to be called Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing (China) Co., by early next year. It will start with some 200 employees, with the number of engineers and others eventually growing to 1,000, the company said.
The move comes as China's government is weighing the draft of 10-year plan that would set rules for how foreign auto makers transfer key technology to China if they opt to produce and market electric cars and plug-in hybrids in the nation, the world's largest auto market.
The plan, being prepared by China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, has worried international auto executives because it suggests the government could compel foreign auto makers that want to produce electric vehicles in China to share critical technologies by requiring them to enter joint ventures in which they have minority stakes.
Hitoshi Yokoyama, a Beijing-based Toyota spokesman, said, however, that the newly established research center isn't likely to be used to carry out any such transfer of key technology to China, because the center is wholly owned by Toyota and is intended to do "more basic" research.
"It isn't that the new tech center isn't going to be engaged in technology transfer at all; we plan to work with our Chinese partners and universities using this research center," he said.
But developing actual components and vehicles using advanced "new energy" technology would be responsibilities of product-development centers Toyota jointly runs with its local Chinese partners: Guangzhou Automobile Group Co. and FAW Group Corp., Mr. Yokoyama said. He noted that if Toyota and other foreign auto makers are mandated by the Chinese government to transfer electric-car technology, it would do so via the two jointly owned product development centers.
According to Toyota, the new Changshu center will focus on market research, quality confirmation and assurance, and China-specific gasoline engines, as well as new-energy vehicle technologies.
Fuji Heavy Planning Hybrid Vehicle For U.S. In '12
The company unveiled the Subaru Hybrid Tourer concept car at the Tokyo Motor Show in October last year.
TOKYO (Nikkei)--Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. (7270), the maker of Subaru cars, is planning to launch a hybrid vehicle in the U.S. in 2012.
The automaker will develop the hybrid with the help of leading shareholder Toyota Motor Corp. (7203). The move is intended to expand Fuji Heavy's sales in the southern U.S. and California, where its market shares have been low but interest in environment friendly cars is strong.
Details have not been disclosed, but it is understood that Fuji Heavy will not launch a dedicated hybrid vehicle like Toyota's Prius, instead adding a hybrid version to one of its mainstay midsize cars. The company plans to adapt Toyota's hybrid vehicle technology to work with Fuji Heavy's unique horizontally opposed engines.
Once completed, the hybrid will first be released in Japan in 2012, where demand for such vehicles is high. It will then be modified slightly for the U.S. market for release by the end of that year. For now, plans are to build it at Fuji Heavy's plant in Ota, Gunma Prefecture, for export to America, the company's largest market that accounts for nearly 40% of its global sales. The vehicle could be introduced in other overseas markets if U.S. sales take off.
In 2010, Fuji Heavy's U.S. sales are projected to rise 15.4% to 250,000 units, but most of that is coming from the snowy northern regions where customers tend to favor four-wheel-drive vehicles.
(The Nikkei Business Daily Nov. 17 edition)
Kyocera To Sell Recharging System For Electric Bicycles
KYOTO (Nikkei)--Kyocera Corp. (6971) said Tuesday that it will introduce a solar-powered recharging system for motor-assisted bicycles Wednesday.
The system consists of a solar module, which can be installed as a fence around the space where a bicycle is parked, and a control board. Recharging is done by removing the bicycle's battery and plugging it into the control board. Charge up your bike courtesy of the sun.
The solar module has an output capacity of 208 watts. The standard system configuration based on three solar modules is capable of recharging six batteries at a time. If the power output from the solar module is insufficient, the system will automatically tap the power line.
The standard system is priced at 1.89 million yen. Installation will be handled by a Kyocera group firm. It will cost several hundred thousand yen and take one to two days.
By pitching the system to commercial facilities, local governments, businesses and schools, Kyocera hopes to generate 300 million yen in annual sales.
(The Nikkei Nov. 17 morning edition)
Electric Car Tax Breaks: Will Battery Makers Benefit?
n a minor sign of sanity on Monday among clean transportation stock investors, a major headline regarding corporate America calling for federal subsidies to support electric car purchases failed to cause lithium-ion battery makers to pop. Maybe all those quarterly losses and rising expenses have finally tightened investors wallets when it comes to funding the next round of stock purchases in the clean transportation universe of stocks.
Big-picture headlines have the power to move clean transportation stocks more than earnings fundamentals. It's understandable, at least at this point, as these companies don't have profits to speak of. It also gets out of hand, headline to headline, as a lithium-ion battery maker like A123 Systems(AONE_) pops when General Electric(GE_) says it plans to convert a significant chunk of its corporate fleet to electric cars. Mind you, A123 doesn't even have its lithium-ion batteries available in a current model, but the fact that one of its financial backers, GE, is even moving in the direction of electric cars is enough to rally A123 shares, regardless of another earnings disappointment.
Hybrid Storage Device Combines Ultracapacitor, Battery Technologies
Ioxus device can store more than double the energy of traditional ultracapacitors and charge in a matter of seconds.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
By Peter Alpern
Technology developers have struggled for some time with the challenge of how to create a battery that’s powerful enough to operate an electric or hybrid vehicle, but also keep it relatively small in size and weight. Add to that equation how to keep these batteries affordable and it crystallizes just how complex the energy storage issue is becoming for next-generation technologies.
One promising energy storage technology has been ultracapacitors, which are devices able to store relatively little energy, but also deliver immense bursts of power.
Today, energy storage developer Ioxus announced a hybrid storage device that combines ultracapacitor technology with a lithium-ion battery. The hybrid capacitor, as it’s called, can store more than twice the energy of traditional ultracapacitors. The device, which is about the size of a C cell battery, can be charged in seconds.
The first generation of these hybrid capacitors are being targeted for automotive subsystems such as power windows and door locks, memory back-up, LED lighting and off-grid lighting.
In industrial applications, it is also well-suited for portable hand tools and industrial flashlights. A user, for instance, could fully charge a tool in 90 seconds, according to Ioxus chief operating officer Chad Hall.
“The technology has evolved in that we’ve taken the fast charge/discharge of ultracapacitors and improved the energy density by designing in a lithium ion electrode and putting it all in the same device,” said Hall.
That device, he explained, combines the activated carbon material of an ultracapacitor that stores charge and layers of lithium ion material wrapped in a cylinder form.
“The technology is evolving and I think that larger and larger hybrid capacitors will be developed to handle larger applications,” said Hall.
Next generation hybrid capacitors could power any application which requires repetitive motion or a regular start and stop. That could mean a garbage truck, a fork lift or other material handling devices, which stop every few hundred feet.
“The hybrid capacitor is a breakthrough in energy density and power that will fuel the development of environmentally friendly applications in markets from transportation to consumer goods,” said Ioxus CEO Mark McGough.
Saft in talks to enter Chinese market
(Reuters) - Saft (S1A.PA), the last big European battery producer, and its automotive partner Johnson Controls (JCI.N) are in talks with a number of local companies to enter the Chinese market for electric vehicles (EVs).
"It is a key effort of the executives of the joint venture to build these relationships in China," Chief Executive John Searle told the Reuters Global Autos Summit on Tuesday.
Johnson Controls-Saft manufactures the cells and cooling system for the lithium-ion battery used in the Mercedes S-Class and BMW 7 Series mild hybrids built by German luxury carmakers Daimler (DAIGn.DE) and BMW (BMWG.DE).
China now wants to leapfrog established western auto companies by skipping development of high-tech combustion engines and going straight to drivetrains powered partly or entirely with electricity.
"The Chinese government is going to subsidize the industry very significantly to bring clean vehicles to market, but these subsidies are going to be directed at the 100 percent Chinese companies like Shanghai Automotive, Beijing Automotive, Geely and Chery and not the western-Chinese joint ventures."
While lithium-ion batteries are used in a myriad of consumer electronics, the car industry is only just starting to employ them since the technology previously did not exist that were guaranteed to be safe enough not to cause a fire and durable enough to be used for 10 years without a marked loss of performance.
"Battery technologies improve slowly -- it's not like microprocessors where you double performance every two years. Between 1992 when the first (lithium ion batteries) were made and now the Japanese have increased the performance by around 120 percent," Searle said.
"We're in the early stages with the batteries we're making today for cars. We've still got decades of improvements to do. We will be able to double the performance in time I have no doubt -- with ongoing work on materials, composition, structure, and mechanicals," he explained.
Searle said studies suggest the lithium-ion car battery market could be worth $5 billion by 2015, or even twice that depending on how quick carmakers bring models to the market.
"As much as 20 pct of the cars built in the world in 2020 could be in some respect clean vehicles, either hybrids or plug-in hybrids or electric vehicles ... which would be about 20 million vehicles," he explained.
"When you get to a market that size, then the battery portion of that business could be many tens of billions of dollars a year."
Carmakers distinguish between mild hybrids on the one hand like the Mercedes S-Class 400h where electrical power provides an added boost, and full hybrids (HEV) on the other hand such as the Toyota Prius which under certain conditions can fully propel a vehicle without any help from the engine.
Plug-in hybrids have larger batteries and therefore predominantly run on electricity, while electric cars have no combustion engine whatsoever and so have a limited range that mainly makes them suitable for little more than a daily commute.
Only about 3 percent of those 20 million vehicles in 2020 might be pure EVs, he said -- less than ideal since this slice of the market would be the most profitable for his own company.
"We need to sell 10 HEV batteries to get the same revenue as for one EV. A plug-in hybrid will probably be the equivalent of three HEV batteries, or four depending on the range," he said.
If electric cars were to take off, Saft could easily respond to higher demand since the chemistry and manufacturing process behind the batteries is essentially the same.
Right now Johnson Controls-Saft has the ability to produce 20,000 lithium-ion car batteries a year in its French site and could churn out four times that amount if needed.
The joint venture is also building a new plant in Michigan, funded in part by a $300 million grant by the U.S. government, which will have five times the total technically installed manufacturing capacity of its French site.
Asahi Kasei Receives 2010 Green Technology Award
Tokyo (JCN) - Asahi Kasei has received the 2010 Green Technology Award, one of a series of "Green Awards" presented by China Business News.
Asahi Kasei was selected in recognition of its focus on many environment-friendly products and technologies, including technology to eliminate harmful substances from production processes for petrochemicals; environmental products which are made using different feedstocks as a substitute for petroleum and which do not emit harmful gases when burned; lithium-ion battery technology, together with material supply for its production; and a geothermal heating/cooling system.
BASF is building production facility for battery materials
2010-11-16 P-10-479
• Company launches construction activities in Elyria (Ohio), USA with support from US Department of Energy
• New plant to supply innovative cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries from mid 2012
In Elyria in the US State of Ohio, BASF has commenced construction of a $50+ million production facility for innovative cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries used to power hybrid and full-electric vehicles. The facility is being built with the help of a $24.6 million grant from the US Department of Energy under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
“The production facility in Elyria will be our center for supplying the market with advanced cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries,” emphasizes Frank Bozich, BASF Catalysts Division president. “These materials will be available on time for the production launch of the next generation of batteries. BASF sees this investment as an important step towards gaining a leading position in the production of components for lithium-ion batteries.”
In the USA, BASF is one of only two licensed suppliers of the Argonne National Laboratory's (ANL) patented lithium-stabilized Nickel-Cobalt-Manganese cathode materials, which employ a unique combination of lithium and manganese-rich mixed metal oxides. The license covers a broad range of uses of these materials in today's lithium-ion batteries. When fully operational in 2012, the BASF plant is expected to be the most advanced cathode materials production plant in North America.
The next, improved generation of lithium-ion batteries is planned to have a higher energy density, a longer lifetime and improved safety. BASF sees electromobility as a key technology of the future and will continue working on innovative materials and system solutions for electric vehicles at its research centers in Beachwood, Ohio and Ludwigshafen, Germany.
China BAK Battery To Supply Lithium Phosphate Energy Storage Solution To Sanke
RTTNews) - China BAK Battery Inc. (CBAK) said the company entered into a supply agreement to supply the company's lithium phosphate energy storage solution - Uninterruptible Power Supply or UPS to China Sanke Electrical Co. Ltd. Pursuant to the supply deal terms, China BAK would supply 10,000 units of UPS to Sanke by the end of this year.
Xiangqian Li, chief executive of China BAK said, "Our supply agreement with Sanke reflects the growing acceptance of our lithium phosphate energy storage solutions, which offer better reliability, flexibility and immediate delivery. The most common type of battery used in UPS is sealed lead-acid, however, our lithium batteries are small, lightweight and more friendly to the environment."
5 Reasons to Avoid GM’s IPO Like the Plague
GM's problems include unstable management, shrinking market share
it the Brakes When it Comes to GM
There’s a lot of revved-up excitement on Wall Street right now in front of GM’s new IPO. Strong investor demand for the salvaged U.S. automaker’s new offering has pushed GM’s initial public offering to $32 to $33 per share. It was announced today that GM plans to raise $12 billion, making the IPO the second largest in U.S. history.
Now, if you’re an investor looking to get in on the ground floor of GM’s comeback, then you’re probably excited about the prospect of a groundswell of demand for the bailed-out auto-giant’s shares. But my advice is to put the brakes on that excitement.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not opposed to auto stocks or IPOs. I bought and made money on electric car maker Tesla Motors’ (NASDAQ: TSLA) IPO earlier this year, and I’m also a big fan of Ford Motor (NYSE: F). Ford’s recent quarterly earnings surged 68%, a clear sign that the auto industry is making a comeback. Yet that still doesn’t make me bullish on GM’s IPO. I think the company faces too many roadblocks, and as such, investors should avoid the stock like the plague. Here are my top five reasons why.
#1 Unproven and Unstable Management
On Sept. 1, Ed Whitacre ceded his job as CEO to former GM director Daniel Akerson, a direct-talking and often abrasive former telecom executive without any automotive experience.
GM has been a revolving door at the top, with Akerson becoming the third CEO in the last two years.
# 2 Shrinking Market Share
GM is bleeding out when it comes to its share of the U.S. auto market. The troubled car maker’s market share slipped to a measly 18% in September, near its lowest point ever.
I suspect that unless this metric improves markedly, GM will have a tough time making significant headway going forward.
#3 No Lucrative Finance Unit
GM sold a majority stake in its very lucrative GMAC (General Motors Acceptance Corp.) finance unit in 2006 in a bid to raise cash. Now, GM is trying to correct this deficiency by purchasing finance firm AmeriCredit, a provider of subprime financing, for a whopping $3.5 billion.
This new purchase poses a bevy of big integration challenges going forward, especially for a behemoth like GM.
#4 Lots of Sellers
A big pool of sellers is champing at the bit to dump GM. The Obama administration has a lot at stake in this IPO. The government would love to sell its GM shares at a profit to show taxpayers that they made back their money on the unpopular bailout.
That means the Treasury Department has 912 million shares and in itchy trigger finger on the “sell” button. In addition, Canada and the UAW also are big potential sellers.
#5 Massive Employee-Benefit Liabilities
Unfortunately for GM, the company faces an astounding $26 billion in unfunded pension liabilities and $9 billion of retiree health-care costs. This is a huge fiscal overhang that will likely put a lot of downward pressure on the company’s bottom line, and its stock, going forward.
As if these five reasons weren’t enough for investors to avoid GM like the plague, consider that the stock is likely also overvalued. If GM shares open above $30, it means the company is being valued at more than $46 billion — roughly the same as what Ford is worth today. The two companies are far from equivalent fiscally, and in nearly every other sense. So, if you’re ready to get behind the wheel of GM’s IPO, I say think a second time. You’ll be much better off staying on the sidewalk.
LA Auto Show preview: Hydrogen-powered Mercedes-Benz F-Cell prepares for leasing
Mercedes-Benz will display its upcoming F-Cell fuel-cell vehicle at the Los Angeles Auto Show next week, as it prepares to lease about 100 examples in California this December. Lease price is estimated to be between $600 to $800 a month, though more specifics are expected to be announced at the event.
Based on the B-Class four-door hatchback, the latest F-Cell carries 3.7 kg of hydrogen in tanks pressurized to 10,150 psi. The gaseous energy powers a 136 hp electric motor and 35-kilowatt lithium-ion battery under the floor. The company claims a range of about 230 miles, and it describes fuel economy as equivalent to 54 miles per gallon.
The cost to fill the F-Cell up with hydrogen would be around $50 to $60 in Southern California--about the same as filling the tank of a large SUV. Hydrogen fuel, however, will be included in the lease price of the F-Cell, along with free maintenance and insurance.
At the other end of the spectrum, Mercedes will also show a 550-horsepower 2012 CLS63 AMG. Also of note, there will be an updated CL coupe and R-Class wagon.
Mercedes-Benz will display its upcoming F-Cell fuel-cell vehicle at the Los Angeles Auto Show next week, as it prepares to lease about 100 examples in California this December. Lease price is estimated to be between $600 to $800 a month, though more specifics are expected to be announced at the event.
Based on the B-Class four-door hatchback, the latest F-Cell carries 3.7 kg of hydrogen in tanks pressurized to 10,150 psi. The gaseous energy powers a 136 hp electric motor and 35-kilowatt lithium-ion battery under the floor. The company claims a range of about 230 miles, and it describes fuel economy as equivalent to 54 miles per gallon.
The cost to fill the F-Cell up with hydrogen would be around $50 to $60 in Southern California--about the same as filling the tank of a large SUV. Hydrogen fuel, however, will be included in the lease price of the F-Cell, along with free maintenance and insurance.
At the other end of the spectrum, Mercedes will also show a 550-horsepower 2012 CLS63 AMG. Also of note, there will be an updated CL coupe and R-Class wagon.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Monday, November 15, 2010
11-15-2010 Li-ion battery news
Tesla Wants To License EV Tech To Toyota, Others: CEO
TOKYO (Nikkei)--U.S. electric car start-up Tesla Motors Inc. is interested in licensing its battery and other EV driving technologies to Toyota Motor Corp. (7203) and others, Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk told The Nikkei Friday in Tokyo.
Tesla is planning to mass-produce EVs at its plant in the U.S. state of California, which is located where New United Motor Manufacturing Inc.'s factory once stood. The joint venture between Toyota and General Motors Corp. is now defunct.
One of the first of Tesla's mass-produced cars will likely be the Model S sedan, due to be launched in the U.S. in mid-2012.
Unlike other companies' EVs, which use specially designed batteries, Tesla's offerings are equipped with several thousand cylinder-shaped general-purpose lithium ion batteries, which are typically found in notebook computers.
While major automakers are rushing to develop high-performance batteries for their EVs by teaming up with electrical machinery makers, the high cost of producing such batteries remains a major hurdle for bolstering the popularity of the green cars.
Tesla's technology based on general-purpose batteries has the potential to solve this problem. Rather than using it just for its own products, the company is now considering licensing it to other companies.
In fact, Tesla has already contacted tie-up partners Toyota and Daimler AG and asked them if they are interested in licensing its technologies, Musk said.
Tesla is also interested in joining hands with Toyota in the area of customer service, Musk said, adding that Tesla's cars can be serviced at Toyota facilities.
On Friday, Musk presented Toyota President Akio Toyoda with Tesla's Roadster 2.5 electric vehicle.
Pointing out that developing recharging facilities will be a major challenge for EVs, Toyoda said that one of the solutions may be to set up recharging systems at Toyota's roughly 4,800 dealerships nationwide.
(The Nikkei Nov. 13 morning edition)
A123 Systems Selected to Develop Battery Pack for New Chinese Electric
A123 will use its cells to develop a customized battery pack that it will provide to Advanced Traction Battery Systems Co. (ATBS), the joint venture established between A123 and SAIC Motor Co. Ltd., for production.
By aftermarketNews staff
Thursday, November 11, 2010
WATERTOWN, Mass. and SHANGHAI, China -- A123 Systems, a developer and manufacturer of advanced Nanophosphate lithium ion batteries and systems, has been selected to develop battery packs for a new 2012 model year electric passenger car from Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. (SAIC), China’s largest automaker. Under the terms of the agreement, A123 will use its cells to develop a customized battery pack that it will provide to Advanced Traction Battery Systems Co. (ATBS), the joint venture established between A123 and SAIC Motor Co. Ltd., for production. This announcement accentuates the ongoing success of the A123/SAIC joint venture — the first to be established between a non-Chinese battery manufacturer and a leading Chinese automaker — and its focus on developing, manufacturing and selling complete vehicle traction battery systems in China, the largest and fastest growing automotive market in the world. In addition to this new zero-emission passenger car, A123 currently supplies battery technology to SAIC for several of its other electric drive-train vehicles in development, including the Roewe 750 hybrid electric sedan and the Roewe 550 plug-in hybrid electric sedan.
Battery maker A123 sees slower demand
Saturday, 13 Nov 2010
Reuters reported that A123 Systems which develops and builds advanced battery systems posted a deeper Q3 loss and warned that automakers were moving more slowly on electric car projects sending its shares tumbling. The Watertown, Massachusetts based company cautioned that an increase in sales from electric car related projects it had told investors to expect would be delayed by about half a year until the Q2 of 2011. Mr David Vieau CEO of A123 said that the battery pack for the 2012 model year vehicle will be developed by JV between the 2 companies and the cells will be shipped to China. A123 already has a contract to supply batteries to SAIC for a hybrid and a plug in hybrid vehicle. A123, which had its initial public offering in September 2009, posted a net loss of USD 43.7 million or 42 cents per share compared with a loss of USD 22.8 million a year earlier. Revenue rose 11% to USD 26.2 million. Operating expenses almost doubled to USD 41 million as the company incurred costs to open a battery plant in Livonia, Michigan that was also funded by USD 249 million grants from the US Department of Energy. The plant is part of a plan by A123 to double its lithium ion battery production capacity by the end of 2010. A123 has been named a battery supplier for BMW and plug in hybrid developer Fisker Automotive. Mr David Vieau said that the company has made progress in a development deal with a major automaker that he expected would lead to a production contract. The vehicle under development would be a pure EV powered by A123 batteries. A123 had previously forecast that Q4 2010 revenue would jump to around USD 45 million up from the average of USD 23 million in the previous Q3. He said that we said previously we really thought that the Q4 was when some of these new automotive programs would start to kick in. Based on the customer ramp up, it looks like that's going to shift to the Q2. So it's about a 6 month slowdown that we're having.
3 Reasons to Sell Tesla Motors
Travis Hoium
November 12, 2010
The market reacted very positively to Tesla Motors' (Nasdaq: TSLA) loss, which can be described not quite as bad as Wall Street expected. But there is still a lot of optimism priced into the stock, with a lot of dominos that have to fall just right to reach Tesla's lofty goals.
So why do I think the market has gotten ahead of itself? Here are the three biggest reasons why you should sell Tesla today.
Delays
Tesla is projecting its next vehicle the Model S to be available in mid-2012. There are high hopes for this model because it is a lower cost four-door sedan that will reach a wider audience. But product launches almost never go as planned. A123 Systems (Nasdaq: AONE) was crushed this week based largely on electric vehicle competitors delaying production. Competitor Fisker has delayed the Karma's debut, and Tesla's own Roadster was also delayed nearly a year because of a variety of issues. There isn't much you can count on in new product development, but a delayed launch is one thing I will bet on any day.
Competition
Tesla has been operating with virtually no competition to this point, but that's about to change. GM's Chevy Volt is hitting showrooms, Nissan's Leaf will be available next month, and the list goes on and on.
Tesla has arguably the most compelling vehicles in the electric car business. A relatively small number of initial buyers, however, will be spread over a growing number of manufacturers.
Value
Tesla is worth $2.7 billion and recently reported a quarterly loss of $34.9 million. The company isn't even expecting to report a profit until at least 2012, so there is a long wait for profitability.
A quick back of the napkin calculation shows just how far Tesla has to go. If we average Ford's (NYSE: F) 8.6 price-to-earnings ratio and Toyota's (NYSE: TM) 21.4 P/E ratio we get a pretty reasonable P/E of 15 to apply to Tesla.
To live up to a $2.7 billion market cap with a 15 P/E ratio, the company will eventually have to earn $180 million each year (before discounting). Tesla will barely reach half of that in revenue this year, so we're assuming a lot of growth and some pretty high margins on vehicles.
I hope Tesla is a wild success as a car company. I would love to own the stock, but I think investors are looking at this company through rose colored glasses right now. Leave your thoughts about Tesla in the comments section below.
The governors of Michigan and Georgia, in separate announcements made on Nov. 5, are welcoming investments by South Korean chemical companies that expand high-technology manufacturing in their states.
LG Chem will build a new electrolyte production plant in Holland, Mich., to supply its nearby $300 million lithium-ion battery cell facility, currently under construction. The battery facility received significant government incentives, including a $151 million federal grant for battery manufacturers and more than $100 million in state tax credits.
“We appreciate LG Chem CEO Peter Kim’s assertion that the company intends to make this key component in Michigan,” said Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm. “Today’s announcement sends a strong signal about the market potential for electric vehicles and reaffirms LG Chem’s commitment to our state.”
The battery cells will be assembled into electric-car batteries by LG Chem’s North American subsidiary, Compact Power, in Troy, Mich. Compact Power will supply batteries for General Motors’ plug-in hybrid Chevy Volt and Ford Motor’s all-electric 2012 Ford Focus BEV.
In Georgia, Gov. Sonny Perdue said a new facility to produce film for solar panels will open in Covington, an hour’s drive east of Atlanta. The plant will be built by SKC, a U.S. subsidiary of South Korea’s SK Group, a manufacturer of specialty polyester films.
Like the LG plant, the SKC project will be an expansion of an existing manufacturing campus. The state offered the company an $8.5 million incentive package for job creation. SKC’s $100 million investment is expected to create 120 jobs; the company says it will begin hiring for the 200,000-sq-ft plant in April 2011.
The governors aim to create a virtuous cycle of establishing high-tech manufacturing that in turn lures additional jobs and investment to fill out the supply chain, says Willy C. Shih, professor of management practice at Harvard Business School. For component manufacturers, he says, “it makes sense to locate where the point of consumption is.”
But governments should be careful, Shih warns. “It’s very hard to get it right in terms of incentives and market uptake rate. Do you actually help, or are you amplifying a boom-and-bust cycle?”
Chemical & Engineering News
Controversial battery plant gets initial nod on annexation
Thursday, 11 November 2010
A once operational battery plant along U.S. Highway 441 is on the path to annexation by the City of Alachua. The 146.23-acre site broken up over three tax parcels got approval on first reading from the Alachua City Commission Monday. Although the battery manufacturing facility is considered by many to be in the City of Alachua, the one-time major employment center has never been within the city’s corporate limits. A concern among city leaders about contamination at the site has long been a major factor in keeping the property outside of the City of Alachua’s boundaries. About half of the nearly 150 acres is contaminated. City of Alachua Planner Brandon Stubbs said cleanup efforts on the site date back to the 1970s and still continues. The half of the property now known was Phoenix Commercial Park is said not to be contaminated, but is designated as a “Brownfield site” because of the perception of contamination. That designation lends itself to incentivizing use of the park by companies wishing to take advantage of the already industrialized site. When asked about pending environmental or legal issues associated with the site, Stubbs and City Attorney Marion Rush said the city would not be taking on the liability by annexing the property. Mayor Gib Coerper said he wants absolute confidence that annexing the former battery plant site will not lead to a liability for the city in future years. Meanwhile, Coerper also lauded the Hipp family who purchased and opened a part of the site as Phoenix Commercial Park. “The Hipp family has done a terrific job of with the Phoenix park,” he said.
General Electric (GE) opened the plant in1963. Years later in the late 1980s, it sold to Gates Energy Products. By 1993, Energizer Battery purchased the plant and property and added additional capabilities such as lithium ion battery cell manufacturing. Moltech Power Systems purchased the facility in 1999 but went bankrupt about two years later. That was the last major manufacturing the site has seen since much of the original battery production equipment was transferred to a Chinese company which purchased belly-up Moltech Power Systems. The Chinese company was blocked from transferring the $150 million lithium ion plant originally built by Energizer. The lithium ion manufacturing facility remains at the site today and has since been in use on a smaller scale. In its heyday, Energizer employed nearly 1,500 people at the site.
The annexation was passed in a 5-0 vote of the commission. A second and likely final public hearing on the annexation is set for the city’s Nov. 22 commission meeting.
Other annexations
Commissioners also gave the initial okay for annexation of 225.46 acres known as the Jeffords property. Located across from Santa Fe Ford along U.S. 441, the property is currently zoned as agriculture and would remain that way upon annexation. An application by 441, LLC to voluntarily annex 17.5 acres into the City of Alachua was also unanimously approved by the commission. The parcel is located along U.S. 441, northwest of the entrance to Turkey Creek. That property is also currently zoned Agriculture under the Alachua County zoning atlas.
All three annexations considered Monday are set to be reviewed at a second public hearing scheduled for the Nov. 22
Will BYD Be the World’s Biggest Car Maker? EVs By the Numbers
A cornucopia of interesting data points from The Networked EV conference.
A number of industry experts and executives gathered in San Francisco this week to discuss the future of electric cars and the grid at The Networked EV. Here are some of the more interesting data points:
2015: The year that China's BYD says it will become the largest car maker, by unit volumes, in China, according to Liam Li, senior business director of BYD America.
2025: The year that BYD wants to become the world's largest car maker. It sounds farfetched from this vantage point, but you have to admit the company has an interesting history. It was founded in 1995 as a lithium ion battery maker. In 2000, it started selling batteries to Motorola. In 2003, it entered the car market. By 2010, it had sold 1 million cars, the fastest ramp ever for a new car company in China. It already has plug-in hybrids, all-electric sedans and all-electric buses.
80 to 85 percent: The percentage of time that consumers will charge their cars at home, according to Jose A. Salazar, Senior Project Manager at the Advanced Technology, Field Technologies Group for Southern California Edison, which has been studying computer simulations on the issue. And that's in the long run. Over the next few years, the number will be closer to 100 percent, he told me later.
If Salazar is right, this could prove problematic for charging companies like Better Place or Coulomb Technologies that want to encourage customers to enter into subscription service contracts for EV charging services. If consumers buy the bulk of their power at home, will they really want to pay $20 a month for an occasional blast?
3: The number of payment options SCE will offer EV customers. Customers can get a separate meter for their EV, just add it to their bill, or join a time-of-use plan. They program has existed for years -- it was created for the EV1 and other electric cars ten years ago -- but is being revived. A calculator helps you decide which program best suits your needs.
5: The number of cities that will soon buy electric buses and high-speed charging stations from Proterra. The cities are Seattle, Reno, Pomona, Tallahassee and Fresno. The projects are underwritten by a $25 million grant from the Federal Transportation Agency.
Marc Gottschalk, chief business development officer, also told us to keep our eyes peeled for a foreign deal. Pomona already has a few Proterra buses and charging stations. An electric bus will likely never be a chick magnet, but considering that diesel buses get 2 miles per gallon, the new models could help substantially curb fuel consumption and particulate emissions.
$500 a kilowatt hour: The price that Coda Automotive, which will come out soon with an all-electric sedan, can get batteries for from its sister company Lio Energy Systems, according to Phil Gow, vice president of battery systems at Coda Automotive. (Phil also worked on the battery system for GM's EV1.
More: The number of cars that General Motors will make around the plug-in hybrid platform created for the Chevy Volt, according to Dave Barthmuss, Group Manager, Western Region, Environment & Energy Communications at GM. Next up might be a crossover-like vehicle. GM has shown prototypes of plug-in crossovers. Tesla Motors is eyeing the crossover/SUV market: a prototype of its Model X should show up next year.
3 pounds: The amount of copper in a charging station, according to John R. Bryan, CTO, Fleet Energy and Former Program Manager, V2G PHEV project, Xcel Energy. Security to keep thieves away will be needed.
145 grams: The amount of carbon dioxide, per mile, that gas cars will emit over worst-case-scenario electric cars, according to NREL stats from Bryan. A gas car with a 20 mile per gallon rating emits 465 grams of CO2 per mile. An electric car powered by coal generated 100 percent by coal generates 320 grams. 145 is the difference.
Bryan, of course, notes that this is a worst-case scenario. The U.S. only gets around 45 percent of its electricity from coal, so the reduction in emissions in real life will be higher.
$1,500 to $1,750: The amount of money that will be required per household to upgrade the grid in a region of 100,000 in the service territory of Pacific Gas & Electric if consumers don't agree to charge their cars during off-peak hours, according to Kevin Dasso, the senior director of smart grid at PG&E. The total bill, in other words, would be $150 million to $175 million.
"If you can convince them to charge off-peak, you could lower the need for upgrades quite substantially," he said. "We still have to make some investments, but they can be a lot lower if we are smart about it."
Here's how Dasso's estimates break down by region. In coastal regions with low air conditioning needs, PG&E would have to perform upgrades (i.e., install new and more transformers, etc.) nearly 50 percent of the time. Off-peak charging would reduce this figure to ten percent. In the whole Inland Empire, upgrades could be needed 10 percent to 60 percent of the time. Off-peak would lower it to zero.
A 7.2 kilowatt charger running at 240 volts is equal to 1.3 homes to a transformer, he added.
530,000: The number of EVs expected to be tooling around in PG&E's service territory by 2020, according to Dasso. The estimates range from 220,000 to 850,000.
50 percent: the percentage of the U.S. population that likely can't qualify for car loans, according to Phil Davis, Senior Manager, Solutions, Schneider Electric and a former car dealership owner. High prices will be a deterrent for many. Davis further added that the average U.S. car stays on the road seven to nine years, which really reduces the resale value.
11.55 million: The number of cars that will get sold in the U.S. in 2010, according to Brandon Mason, Global Powertrain Lead Analyst, U.S. Auto Practice, PricewaterhouseCoopers. It will increase to 12.5 million by 2011.
By 2016, the number will rise to 15 million, but manufacturing capacity will be at 16.5 million.
34.1 miles per gallon: The "real" CAFE standard for 2016. The Department of Transportation has told car makers that they have to boost their cumulative/collective MPG rating to 35.5 miles per hour by 2016, but part of the gains can be from air conditioning. (Panasonic, for instance is coming out with an air conditioner powered by waste heat from the engine.) Thus, drivetrain engineers can aim for the 34.1 MPG mark.
62 MPG: the number being touted in Washington for the CAFE standard in 2025.
1.4% to 1.8%: The percentage of cars shipped in the U.S. that will be EVs or plug-in hybrids by 2016, according to Mason.
Ultra-Thin Gadget Batteries in the Works
Paper-thin power for your gadgets will soon be a reality.
Batteries may be the primary portable source preferred for our portable peripherals, but they're not what you'd call efficient. In fact, a significant percentage of a handheld gadget's weight is from its battery. NEC, a company known more for its monitors than alternative energy sources, has come up with a concept that plans to change everything. NEC has dubbed this latest project the ORB, or Organic Radical Battery. The latest prototype may not as paper-thin as the initial proof-of-concept they released five years ago, but at just over a quarter of an inch thick, it's still a lot leaner than most efficient current-generation power cells. The ORB can thank two things for its high power-to-weight ratio: its affordable carbon anodes, and its highly conductive nano-composite cathode. The latter is achieved by rendering an organic material into a gel, then impregnated with carbon materials. The one-two punch gives it a power output that's 40% higher than conventional batteries. It won't be replacing lithium-ions anytime soon, but at the very least the ORB can see future use in powering microcircuitry, implants, and tech-gear. Hey, it's better than using our own bodies as batteries, right? That's a robopocalypse waiting to happen.
[source: NEC via Engadget]
South Korean Firms Invest In U.S.
Cleantech: LG Chem and SKC expand high-tech manufacturing facilities
Melody Voith
The governors of Michigan and Georgia, in separate announcements made on Nov. 5, are welcoming investments by South Korean chemical companies that expand high-technology manufacturing in their states. LG Chem will build a new electrolyte production plant in Holland, Mich., to supply its nearby $300 million lithium-ion battery cell facility, currently under construction. The battery facility received significant government incentives, including a $151 million federal grant for battery manufacturers and more than $100 million in state tax credits.
“We appreciate LG Chem CEO Peter Kim’s assertion that the company intends to make this key component in Michigan,” said Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm. “Today’s announcement sends a strong signal about the market potential for electric vehicles and reaffirms LG Chem’s commitment to our state.” The battery cells will be assembled into electric-car batteries by LG Chem’s North American subsidiary, Compact Power, in Troy, Mich. Compact Power will supply batteries for General Motors’ plug-in hybrid Chevy Volt and Ford Motor’s all-electric 2012 Ford Focus BEV.
In Georgia, Gov. Sonny Perdue said a new facility to produce film for solar panels will open in Covington, an hour’s drive east of Atlanta. The plant will be built by SKC, a U.S. subsidiary of South Korea’s SK Group, a manufacturer of specialty polyester films. Like the LG plant, the SKC project will be an expansion of an existing manufacturing campus. The state offered the company an $8.5 million incentive package for job creation. SKC’s $100 million investment is expected to create 120 jobs; the company says it will begin hiring for the 200,000-sq-ft plant in April 2011. The governors aim to create a virtuous cycle of establishing high-tech manufacturing that in turn lures additional jobs and investment to fill out the supply chain, says Willy C. Shih, professor of management practice at Harvard Business School. For component manufacturers, he says, “it makes sense to locate where the point of consumption is.” But governments should be careful, Shih warns. “It’s very hard to get it right in terms of incentives and market uptake rate. Do you actually help, or are you amplifying a boom-and-bust cycle?”
Powering the electric car revolution
LG Chem plans to increase capacity to about 60 million cells annually by 2013
November 15, 2010
OCHANG, North Chungcheong - The massive LG Chem electric vehicle battery plant and R&D facility in Daejeon makes clear that the company intends to maintain its position as the leader in electric vehicle batteries. LG Chem has the world’s largest facility that produces lithium-ion polymer batteries for electric vehicles and has signed supply contracts with major automotive companies, including General Motors and Ford. With the 57,000 square meter (613,543 square feet) EV battery production facility in Ochang, LG’s annual capacity of 8.5 million cells is the world’s first and largest production line. LG said that this is only the beginning as they are in the process of building a 67,000 square-meter (721,182 square feet) plant next to the first one. LG said it will invest 1 trillion won ($886.5 million) in the Ochang facility by 2013, and $300 million in its Holland plant in Michigan, as it plans to increase overall capacity ten-fold to about 80 million cells annually. That includes 60 million in Korea and 20 million in Michigan. The Ochang production facility is one of the most technologically advanced and automated in the world.
“The reason we were able to sign deals with companies like GM, Ford, Volvo, and Renault, is we copy nobody’s technology, but lead the market with our own,” said Kim Myung-hwan, senior vice president of LG Chem’s Battery Research & Development. “Other companies and ventures may come up with wonderful products in their labs, but when it comes to mass production, it will be a whole different story as things will require a much higher output and [level of] safety,” he added.
Kim said that with over 10 years of experience in EV batteries, LG holds the world’s leading technologies, the best materials, the safest products and sees no competitors on the horizon. LG currently holds eight deals with leading automakers around the world. The company’s EV battery business is currently aiming for 1 trillion won in sales by 2013 and 3 trillion won by 2015. The company’s position in the industry is the result of its R&D department’s work over the last decade.
When Japanese companies were showing strength in nickel hydride batteries, LG focused on lithium-ion batteries and made further developments concentrating on EV batteries. Such developments have allowed the company to improve its production efficiency by 30 percent compared to competitors. Also, being a chemical company with employees from various backgrounds and fields of study, LG said it is able to make better products with its own technology.
A good example of its technological prowess is its safety-reinforced separator technology, or SRS, which separates the cathode and the anode of the battery to allow effective flow of power. In an experiment which took place at LG Chem’s Research Park, when exposed to a temperature of 180 degrees Celsius (356 degrees Fahrenheit) for over 1 minute, regular batteries deformed and turned black, but LG’s batteries with the SRS technology maintained their original form. “Our EV battery, which is protected by our SRS technology that we hold the patent to, is not a can type, but a pouch type, giving no dangers to explosions, and also holds a longer battery life,” said Kim. “Our competitors in and out of the country are using our SRS technology, thinking that we would not know about this, but such infringements will become an issue.” LG’s SRS technology protects the battery in a layer of nano-scale ceramic particles and polyolefin film, since the battery can explode or show poor performance if the separator becomes torn. LG said at an international forum about two years ago that when it first came up with the idea, everyone was wondering why the company would want to spend more money on such a thing. However, LG stated that safety was one of its most important issues, along with quality and performance. The company also holds a unique technology called stack and folding, which stacks the cathode, separator and anode and folds into a tight shape, preventing any kind of performance loss or deformations that competitors with winding methods showed. “As a chemical company, we have the strength of producing our own material and lower costs in production, meaning that we have safety, performance, better price and competitive power, having everything that an EV battery should have,” said Kim. The company said that it is currently in the process of developing technology that will allow a vehicle’s range to triple and battery price to fall to one third of what it is now. Confident in all aspects, LG is focusing on the competition for a better battery. Local competitor SB LiMotive, which is a joint venture between Samsung SDI and Bosch, started things off by signing deals with BMW and Delphi, and recently announced a deal with Chrysler to power the Fiat. But SK Energy, who also claim to be in competition with LG and said they would announce surprising deals soon, has not been able to follow through with its promise. Its most recent deal to power Hyundai Motor’s BlueOn does not involve mass production, which the Volt and Focus offer in the market. Kim said, rival firms have taken to applying the method despite their earlier doubts about the need for such a device.
Kim also said that a rival company has even announced that they developed the technology independently. Kim did not mention any company by name but said that practically all lithium ion polymer battery makers are involved. In addition, Kim said that LG Chem’s stack and folding technology could also lead to legal disputes. The technique stacks the anode, separator and cathode before folding them instead of the conventional winding method that rolls the materials together. The news conference was held while the company opened its plant in Ochang Scientific Industrial Complex in North Chungcheong Province to the media for the first time on Friday.
The plant, the works on which began last July, went into operation in June. The plant is capable of producing 8.5 million cells on an annual basis, which is sufficient to power 400,000 Avante LPi hybrid vehicles. The company is currently expanding the plant’s production line, and plans to inject 1 trillion won ($886 million) by 2013 to raise the Ochang plant’s production capacity to 60 million cells. Including the company’s overseas production facilities, the company will be able to produce 80 million cells on an annual basis. By Choi He-suk (cheesuk@heraldm.com)
TOKYO (Nikkei)--U.S. electric car start-up Tesla Motors Inc. is interested in licensing its battery and other EV driving technologies to Toyota Motor Corp. (7203) and others, Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk told The Nikkei Friday in Tokyo.
Tesla is planning to mass-produce EVs at its plant in the U.S. state of California, which is located where New United Motor Manufacturing Inc.'s factory once stood. The joint venture between Toyota and General Motors Corp. is now defunct.
One of the first of Tesla's mass-produced cars will likely be the Model S sedan, due to be launched in the U.S. in mid-2012.
Unlike other companies' EVs, which use specially designed batteries, Tesla's offerings are equipped with several thousand cylinder-shaped general-purpose lithium ion batteries, which are typically found in notebook computers.
While major automakers are rushing to develop high-performance batteries for their EVs by teaming up with electrical machinery makers, the high cost of producing such batteries remains a major hurdle for bolstering the popularity of the green cars.
Tesla's technology based on general-purpose batteries has the potential to solve this problem. Rather than using it just for its own products, the company is now considering licensing it to other companies.
In fact, Tesla has already contacted tie-up partners Toyota and Daimler AG and asked them if they are interested in licensing its technologies, Musk said.
Tesla is also interested in joining hands with Toyota in the area of customer service, Musk said, adding that Tesla's cars can be serviced at Toyota facilities.
On Friday, Musk presented Toyota President Akio Toyoda with Tesla's Roadster 2.5 electric vehicle.
Pointing out that developing recharging facilities will be a major challenge for EVs, Toyoda said that one of the solutions may be to set up recharging systems at Toyota's roughly 4,800 dealerships nationwide.
(The Nikkei Nov. 13 morning edition)
A123 Systems Selected to Develop Battery Pack for New Chinese Electric
A123 will use its cells to develop a customized battery pack that it will provide to Advanced Traction Battery Systems Co. (ATBS), the joint venture established between A123 and SAIC Motor Co. Ltd., for production.
By aftermarketNews staff
Thursday, November 11, 2010
WATERTOWN, Mass. and SHANGHAI, China -- A123 Systems, a developer and manufacturer of advanced Nanophosphate lithium ion batteries and systems, has been selected to develop battery packs for a new 2012 model year electric passenger car from Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. (SAIC), China’s largest automaker. Under the terms of the agreement, A123 will use its cells to develop a customized battery pack that it will provide to Advanced Traction Battery Systems Co. (ATBS), the joint venture established between A123 and SAIC Motor Co. Ltd., for production. This announcement accentuates the ongoing success of the A123/SAIC joint venture — the first to be established between a non-Chinese battery manufacturer and a leading Chinese automaker — and its focus on developing, manufacturing and selling complete vehicle traction battery systems in China, the largest and fastest growing automotive market in the world. In addition to this new zero-emission passenger car, A123 currently supplies battery technology to SAIC for several of its other electric drive-train vehicles in development, including the Roewe 750 hybrid electric sedan and the Roewe 550 plug-in hybrid electric sedan.
Battery maker A123 sees slower demand
Saturday, 13 Nov 2010
Reuters reported that A123 Systems which develops and builds advanced battery systems posted a deeper Q3 loss and warned that automakers were moving more slowly on electric car projects sending its shares tumbling. The Watertown, Massachusetts based company cautioned that an increase in sales from electric car related projects it had told investors to expect would be delayed by about half a year until the Q2 of 2011. Mr David Vieau CEO of A123 said that the battery pack for the 2012 model year vehicle will be developed by JV between the 2 companies and the cells will be shipped to China. A123 already has a contract to supply batteries to SAIC for a hybrid and a plug in hybrid vehicle. A123, which had its initial public offering in September 2009, posted a net loss of USD 43.7 million or 42 cents per share compared with a loss of USD 22.8 million a year earlier. Revenue rose 11% to USD 26.2 million. Operating expenses almost doubled to USD 41 million as the company incurred costs to open a battery plant in Livonia, Michigan that was also funded by USD 249 million grants from the US Department of Energy. The plant is part of a plan by A123 to double its lithium ion battery production capacity by the end of 2010. A123 has been named a battery supplier for BMW and plug in hybrid developer Fisker Automotive. Mr David Vieau said that the company has made progress in a development deal with a major automaker that he expected would lead to a production contract. The vehicle under development would be a pure EV powered by A123 batteries. A123 had previously forecast that Q4 2010 revenue would jump to around USD 45 million up from the average of USD 23 million in the previous Q3. He said that we said previously we really thought that the Q4 was when some of these new automotive programs would start to kick in. Based on the customer ramp up, it looks like that's going to shift to the Q2. So it's about a 6 month slowdown that we're having.
3 Reasons to Sell Tesla Motors
Travis Hoium
November 12, 2010
The market reacted very positively to Tesla Motors' (Nasdaq: TSLA) loss, which can be described not quite as bad as Wall Street expected. But there is still a lot of optimism priced into the stock, with a lot of dominos that have to fall just right to reach Tesla's lofty goals.
So why do I think the market has gotten ahead of itself? Here are the three biggest reasons why you should sell Tesla today.
Delays
Tesla is projecting its next vehicle the Model S to be available in mid-2012. There are high hopes for this model because it is a lower cost four-door sedan that will reach a wider audience. But product launches almost never go as planned. A123 Systems (Nasdaq: AONE) was crushed this week based largely on electric vehicle competitors delaying production. Competitor Fisker has delayed the Karma's debut, and Tesla's own Roadster was also delayed nearly a year because of a variety of issues. There isn't much you can count on in new product development, but a delayed launch is one thing I will bet on any day.
Competition
Tesla has been operating with virtually no competition to this point, but that's about to change. GM's Chevy Volt is hitting showrooms, Nissan's Leaf will be available next month, and the list goes on and on.
Tesla has arguably the most compelling vehicles in the electric car business. A relatively small number of initial buyers, however, will be spread over a growing number of manufacturers.
Value
Tesla is worth $2.7 billion and recently reported a quarterly loss of $34.9 million. The company isn't even expecting to report a profit until at least 2012, so there is a long wait for profitability.
A quick back of the napkin calculation shows just how far Tesla has to go. If we average Ford's (NYSE: F) 8.6 price-to-earnings ratio and Toyota's (NYSE: TM) 21.4 P/E ratio we get a pretty reasonable P/E of 15 to apply to Tesla.
To live up to a $2.7 billion market cap with a 15 P/E ratio, the company will eventually have to earn $180 million each year (before discounting). Tesla will barely reach half of that in revenue this year, so we're assuming a lot of growth and some pretty high margins on vehicles.
I hope Tesla is a wild success as a car company. I would love to own the stock, but I think investors are looking at this company through rose colored glasses right now. Leave your thoughts about Tesla in the comments section below.
The governors of Michigan and Georgia, in separate announcements made on Nov. 5, are welcoming investments by South Korean chemical companies that expand high-technology manufacturing in their states.
LG Chem will build a new electrolyte production plant in Holland, Mich., to supply its nearby $300 million lithium-ion battery cell facility, currently under construction. The battery facility received significant government incentives, including a $151 million federal grant for battery manufacturers and more than $100 million in state tax credits.
“We appreciate LG Chem CEO Peter Kim’s assertion that the company intends to make this key component in Michigan,” said Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm. “Today’s announcement sends a strong signal about the market potential for electric vehicles and reaffirms LG Chem’s commitment to our state.”
The battery cells will be assembled into electric-car batteries by LG Chem’s North American subsidiary, Compact Power, in Troy, Mich. Compact Power will supply batteries for General Motors’ plug-in hybrid Chevy Volt and Ford Motor’s all-electric 2012 Ford Focus BEV.
In Georgia, Gov. Sonny Perdue said a new facility to produce film for solar panels will open in Covington, an hour’s drive east of Atlanta. The plant will be built by SKC, a U.S. subsidiary of South Korea’s SK Group, a manufacturer of specialty polyester films.
Like the LG plant, the SKC project will be an expansion of an existing manufacturing campus. The state offered the company an $8.5 million incentive package for job creation. SKC’s $100 million investment is expected to create 120 jobs; the company says it will begin hiring for the 200,000-sq-ft plant in April 2011.
The governors aim to create a virtuous cycle of establishing high-tech manufacturing that in turn lures additional jobs and investment to fill out the supply chain, says Willy C. Shih, professor of management practice at Harvard Business School. For component manufacturers, he says, “it makes sense to locate where the point of consumption is.”
But governments should be careful, Shih warns. “It’s very hard to get it right in terms of incentives and market uptake rate. Do you actually help, or are you amplifying a boom-and-bust cycle?”
Chemical & Engineering News
Controversial battery plant gets initial nod on annexation
Thursday, 11 November 2010
A once operational battery plant along U.S. Highway 441 is on the path to annexation by the City of Alachua. The 146.23-acre site broken up over three tax parcels got approval on first reading from the Alachua City Commission Monday. Although the battery manufacturing facility is considered by many to be in the City of Alachua, the one-time major employment center has never been within the city’s corporate limits. A concern among city leaders about contamination at the site has long been a major factor in keeping the property outside of the City of Alachua’s boundaries. About half of the nearly 150 acres is contaminated. City of Alachua Planner Brandon Stubbs said cleanup efforts on the site date back to the 1970s and still continues. The half of the property now known was Phoenix Commercial Park is said not to be contaminated, but is designated as a “Brownfield site” because of the perception of contamination. That designation lends itself to incentivizing use of the park by companies wishing to take advantage of the already industrialized site. When asked about pending environmental or legal issues associated with the site, Stubbs and City Attorney Marion Rush said the city would not be taking on the liability by annexing the property. Mayor Gib Coerper said he wants absolute confidence that annexing the former battery plant site will not lead to a liability for the city in future years. Meanwhile, Coerper also lauded the Hipp family who purchased and opened a part of the site as Phoenix Commercial Park. “The Hipp family has done a terrific job of with the Phoenix park,” he said.
General Electric (GE) opened the plant in1963. Years later in the late 1980s, it sold to Gates Energy Products. By 1993, Energizer Battery purchased the plant and property and added additional capabilities such as lithium ion battery cell manufacturing. Moltech Power Systems purchased the facility in 1999 but went bankrupt about two years later. That was the last major manufacturing the site has seen since much of the original battery production equipment was transferred to a Chinese company which purchased belly-up Moltech Power Systems. The Chinese company was blocked from transferring the $150 million lithium ion plant originally built by Energizer. The lithium ion manufacturing facility remains at the site today and has since been in use on a smaller scale. In its heyday, Energizer employed nearly 1,500 people at the site.
The annexation was passed in a 5-0 vote of the commission. A second and likely final public hearing on the annexation is set for the city’s Nov. 22 commission meeting.
Other annexations
Commissioners also gave the initial okay for annexation of 225.46 acres known as the Jeffords property. Located across from Santa Fe Ford along U.S. 441, the property is currently zoned as agriculture and would remain that way upon annexation. An application by 441, LLC to voluntarily annex 17.5 acres into the City of Alachua was also unanimously approved by the commission. The parcel is located along U.S. 441, northwest of the entrance to Turkey Creek. That property is also currently zoned Agriculture under the Alachua County zoning atlas.
All three annexations considered Monday are set to be reviewed at a second public hearing scheduled for the Nov. 22
Will BYD Be the World’s Biggest Car Maker? EVs By the Numbers
A cornucopia of interesting data points from The Networked EV conference.
A number of industry experts and executives gathered in San Francisco this week to discuss the future of electric cars and the grid at The Networked EV. Here are some of the more interesting data points:
2015: The year that China's BYD says it will become the largest car maker, by unit volumes, in China, according to Liam Li, senior business director of BYD America.
2025: The year that BYD wants to become the world's largest car maker. It sounds farfetched from this vantage point, but you have to admit the company has an interesting history. It was founded in 1995 as a lithium ion battery maker. In 2000, it started selling batteries to Motorola. In 2003, it entered the car market. By 2010, it had sold 1 million cars, the fastest ramp ever for a new car company in China. It already has plug-in hybrids, all-electric sedans and all-electric buses.
80 to 85 percent: The percentage of time that consumers will charge their cars at home, according to Jose A. Salazar, Senior Project Manager at the Advanced Technology, Field Technologies Group for Southern California Edison, which has been studying computer simulations on the issue. And that's in the long run. Over the next few years, the number will be closer to 100 percent, he told me later.
If Salazar is right, this could prove problematic for charging companies like Better Place or Coulomb Technologies that want to encourage customers to enter into subscription service contracts for EV charging services. If consumers buy the bulk of their power at home, will they really want to pay $20 a month for an occasional blast?
3: The number of payment options SCE will offer EV customers. Customers can get a separate meter for their EV, just add it to their bill, or join a time-of-use plan. They program has existed for years -- it was created for the EV1 and other electric cars ten years ago -- but is being revived. A calculator helps you decide which program best suits your needs.
5: The number of cities that will soon buy electric buses and high-speed charging stations from Proterra. The cities are Seattle, Reno, Pomona, Tallahassee and Fresno. The projects are underwritten by a $25 million grant from the Federal Transportation Agency.
Marc Gottschalk, chief business development officer, also told us to keep our eyes peeled for a foreign deal. Pomona already has a few Proterra buses and charging stations. An electric bus will likely never be a chick magnet, but considering that diesel buses get 2 miles per gallon, the new models could help substantially curb fuel consumption and particulate emissions.
$500 a kilowatt hour: The price that Coda Automotive, which will come out soon with an all-electric sedan, can get batteries for from its sister company Lio Energy Systems, according to Phil Gow, vice president of battery systems at Coda Automotive. (Phil also worked on the battery system for GM's EV1.
More: The number of cars that General Motors will make around the plug-in hybrid platform created for the Chevy Volt, according to Dave Barthmuss, Group Manager, Western Region, Environment & Energy Communications at GM. Next up might be a crossover-like vehicle. GM has shown prototypes of plug-in crossovers. Tesla Motors is eyeing the crossover/SUV market: a prototype of its Model X should show up next year.
3 pounds: The amount of copper in a charging station, according to John R. Bryan, CTO, Fleet Energy and Former Program Manager, V2G PHEV project, Xcel Energy. Security to keep thieves away will be needed.
145 grams: The amount of carbon dioxide, per mile, that gas cars will emit over worst-case-scenario electric cars, according to NREL stats from Bryan. A gas car with a 20 mile per gallon rating emits 465 grams of CO2 per mile. An electric car powered by coal generated 100 percent by coal generates 320 grams. 145 is the difference.
Bryan, of course, notes that this is a worst-case scenario. The U.S. only gets around 45 percent of its electricity from coal, so the reduction in emissions in real life will be higher.
$1,500 to $1,750: The amount of money that will be required per household to upgrade the grid in a region of 100,000 in the service territory of Pacific Gas & Electric if consumers don't agree to charge their cars during off-peak hours, according to Kevin Dasso, the senior director of smart grid at PG&E. The total bill, in other words, would be $150 million to $175 million.
"If you can convince them to charge off-peak, you could lower the need for upgrades quite substantially," he said. "We still have to make some investments, but they can be a lot lower if we are smart about it."
Here's how Dasso's estimates break down by region. In coastal regions with low air conditioning needs, PG&E would have to perform upgrades (i.e., install new and more transformers, etc.) nearly 50 percent of the time. Off-peak charging would reduce this figure to ten percent. In the whole Inland Empire, upgrades could be needed 10 percent to 60 percent of the time. Off-peak would lower it to zero.
A 7.2 kilowatt charger running at 240 volts is equal to 1.3 homes to a transformer, he added.
530,000: The number of EVs expected to be tooling around in PG&E's service territory by 2020, according to Dasso. The estimates range from 220,000 to 850,000.
50 percent: the percentage of the U.S. population that likely can't qualify for car loans, according to Phil Davis, Senior Manager, Solutions, Schneider Electric and a former car dealership owner. High prices will be a deterrent for many. Davis further added that the average U.S. car stays on the road seven to nine years, which really reduces the resale value.
11.55 million: The number of cars that will get sold in the U.S. in 2010, according to Brandon Mason, Global Powertrain Lead Analyst, U.S. Auto Practice, PricewaterhouseCoopers. It will increase to 12.5 million by 2011.
By 2016, the number will rise to 15 million, but manufacturing capacity will be at 16.5 million.
34.1 miles per gallon: The "real" CAFE standard for 2016. The Department of Transportation has told car makers that they have to boost their cumulative/collective MPG rating to 35.5 miles per hour by 2016, but part of the gains can be from air conditioning. (Panasonic, for instance is coming out with an air conditioner powered by waste heat from the engine.) Thus, drivetrain engineers can aim for the 34.1 MPG mark.
62 MPG: the number being touted in Washington for the CAFE standard in 2025.
1.4% to 1.8%: The percentage of cars shipped in the U.S. that will be EVs or plug-in hybrids by 2016, according to Mason.
Ultra-Thin Gadget Batteries in the Works
Paper-thin power for your gadgets will soon be a reality.
Batteries may be the primary portable source preferred for our portable peripherals, but they're not what you'd call efficient. In fact, a significant percentage of a handheld gadget's weight is from its battery. NEC, a company known more for its monitors than alternative energy sources, has come up with a concept that plans to change everything. NEC has dubbed this latest project the ORB, or Organic Radical Battery. The latest prototype may not as paper-thin as the initial proof-of-concept they released five years ago, but at just over a quarter of an inch thick, it's still a lot leaner than most efficient current-generation power cells. The ORB can thank two things for its high power-to-weight ratio: its affordable carbon anodes, and its highly conductive nano-composite cathode. The latter is achieved by rendering an organic material into a gel, then impregnated with carbon materials. The one-two punch gives it a power output that's 40% higher than conventional batteries. It won't be replacing lithium-ions anytime soon, but at the very least the ORB can see future use in powering microcircuitry, implants, and tech-gear. Hey, it's better than using our own bodies as batteries, right? That's a robopocalypse waiting to happen.
[source: NEC via Engadget]
South Korean Firms Invest In U.S.
Cleantech: LG Chem and SKC expand high-tech manufacturing facilities
Melody Voith
The governors of Michigan and Georgia, in separate announcements made on Nov. 5, are welcoming investments by South Korean chemical companies that expand high-technology manufacturing in their states. LG Chem will build a new electrolyte production plant in Holland, Mich., to supply its nearby $300 million lithium-ion battery cell facility, currently under construction. The battery facility received significant government incentives, including a $151 million federal grant for battery manufacturers and more than $100 million in state tax credits.
“We appreciate LG Chem CEO Peter Kim’s assertion that the company intends to make this key component in Michigan,” said Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm. “Today’s announcement sends a strong signal about the market potential for electric vehicles and reaffirms LG Chem’s commitment to our state.” The battery cells will be assembled into electric-car batteries by LG Chem’s North American subsidiary, Compact Power, in Troy, Mich. Compact Power will supply batteries for General Motors’ plug-in hybrid Chevy Volt and Ford Motor’s all-electric 2012 Ford Focus BEV.
In Georgia, Gov. Sonny Perdue said a new facility to produce film for solar panels will open in Covington, an hour’s drive east of Atlanta. The plant will be built by SKC, a U.S. subsidiary of South Korea’s SK Group, a manufacturer of specialty polyester films. Like the LG plant, the SKC project will be an expansion of an existing manufacturing campus. The state offered the company an $8.5 million incentive package for job creation. SKC’s $100 million investment is expected to create 120 jobs; the company says it will begin hiring for the 200,000-sq-ft plant in April 2011. The governors aim to create a virtuous cycle of establishing high-tech manufacturing that in turn lures additional jobs and investment to fill out the supply chain, says Willy C. Shih, professor of management practice at Harvard Business School. For component manufacturers, he says, “it makes sense to locate where the point of consumption is.” But governments should be careful, Shih warns. “It’s very hard to get it right in terms of incentives and market uptake rate. Do you actually help, or are you amplifying a boom-and-bust cycle?”
Powering the electric car revolution
LG Chem plans to increase capacity to about 60 million cells annually by 2013
November 15, 2010
OCHANG, North Chungcheong - The massive LG Chem electric vehicle battery plant and R&D facility in Daejeon makes clear that the company intends to maintain its position as the leader in electric vehicle batteries. LG Chem has the world’s largest facility that produces lithium-ion polymer batteries for electric vehicles and has signed supply contracts with major automotive companies, including General Motors and Ford. With the 57,000 square meter (613,543 square feet) EV battery production facility in Ochang, LG’s annual capacity of 8.5 million cells is the world’s first and largest production line. LG said that this is only the beginning as they are in the process of building a 67,000 square-meter (721,182 square feet) plant next to the first one. LG said it will invest 1 trillion won ($886.5 million) in the Ochang facility by 2013, and $300 million in its Holland plant in Michigan, as it plans to increase overall capacity ten-fold to about 80 million cells annually. That includes 60 million in Korea and 20 million in Michigan. The Ochang production facility is one of the most technologically advanced and automated in the world.
“The reason we were able to sign deals with companies like GM, Ford, Volvo, and Renault, is we copy nobody’s technology, but lead the market with our own,” said Kim Myung-hwan, senior vice president of LG Chem’s Battery Research & Development. “Other companies and ventures may come up with wonderful products in their labs, but when it comes to mass production, it will be a whole different story as things will require a much higher output and [level of] safety,” he added.
Kim said that with over 10 years of experience in EV batteries, LG holds the world’s leading technologies, the best materials, the safest products and sees no competitors on the horizon. LG currently holds eight deals with leading automakers around the world. The company’s EV battery business is currently aiming for 1 trillion won in sales by 2013 and 3 trillion won by 2015. The company’s position in the industry is the result of its R&D department’s work over the last decade.
When Japanese companies were showing strength in nickel hydride batteries, LG focused on lithium-ion batteries and made further developments concentrating on EV batteries. Such developments have allowed the company to improve its production efficiency by 30 percent compared to competitors. Also, being a chemical company with employees from various backgrounds and fields of study, LG said it is able to make better products with its own technology.
A good example of its technological prowess is its safety-reinforced separator technology, or SRS, which separates the cathode and the anode of the battery to allow effective flow of power. In an experiment which took place at LG Chem’s Research Park, when exposed to a temperature of 180 degrees Celsius (356 degrees Fahrenheit) for over 1 minute, regular batteries deformed and turned black, but LG’s batteries with the SRS technology maintained their original form. “Our EV battery, which is protected by our SRS technology that we hold the patent to, is not a can type, but a pouch type, giving no dangers to explosions, and also holds a longer battery life,” said Kim. “Our competitors in and out of the country are using our SRS technology, thinking that we would not know about this, but such infringements will become an issue.” LG’s SRS technology protects the battery in a layer of nano-scale ceramic particles and polyolefin film, since the battery can explode or show poor performance if the separator becomes torn. LG said at an international forum about two years ago that when it first came up with the idea, everyone was wondering why the company would want to spend more money on such a thing. However, LG stated that safety was one of its most important issues, along with quality and performance. The company also holds a unique technology called stack and folding, which stacks the cathode, separator and anode and folds into a tight shape, preventing any kind of performance loss or deformations that competitors with winding methods showed. “As a chemical company, we have the strength of producing our own material and lower costs in production, meaning that we have safety, performance, better price and competitive power, having everything that an EV battery should have,” said Kim. The company said that it is currently in the process of developing technology that will allow a vehicle’s range to triple and battery price to fall to one third of what it is now. Confident in all aspects, LG is focusing on the competition for a better battery. Local competitor SB LiMotive, which is a joint venture between Samsung SDI and Bosch, started things off by signing deals with BMW and Delphi, and recently announced a deal with Chrysler to power the Fiat. But SK Energy, who also claim to be in competition with LG and said they would announce surprising deals soon, has not been able to follow through with its promise. Its most recent deal to power Hyundai Motor’s BlueOn does not involve mass production, which the Volt and Focus offer in the market. Kim said, rival firms have taken to applying the method despite their earlier doubts about the need for such a device.
Kim also said that a rival company has even announced that they developed the technology independently. Kim did not mention any company by name but said that practically all lithium ion polymer battery makers are involved. In addition, Kim said that LG Chem’s stack and folding technology could also lead to legal disputes. The technique stacks the anode, separator and cathode before folding them instead of the conventional winding method that rolls the materials together. The news conference was held while the company opened its plant in Ochang Scientific Industrial Complex in North Chungcheong Province to the media for the first time on Friday.
The plant, the works on which began last July, went into operation in June. The plant is capable of producing 8.5 million cells on an annual basis, which is sufficient to power 400,000 Avante LPi hybrid vehicles. The company is currently expanding the plant’s production line, and plans to inject 1 trillion won ($886 million) by 2013 to raise the Ochang plant’s production capacity to 60 million cells. Including the company’s overseas production facilities, the company will be able to produce 80 million cells on an annual basis. By Choi He-suk (cheesuk@heraldm.com)
Saturday, November 13, 2010
11-13-2010 Li-ion battery news
Nissan Recalls More Than 600,000 Vehicles
Associated Press
DETROIT—Nissan Motor Co. is recalling more than 600,000 vehicles in North and South America and Africa due to steering or battery cable problems.
The Japanese auto maker said Thursday that the steering recall affects 303,000 Frontier pickup trucks and 283,000 Xterra sport utility vehicles in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil and other Latin American countries. Nissan said a corrosion problem with the lower steering column joint and shaft can limit steering movement, making the vehicles difficult to steer. In some cases the corrosion can cause the joint to crack.
Nissan also is recalling 18,500 Sentra sedans because of a battery cable terminal connector problem that can make the cars difficult to start or stall at low speeds.
The company says no injuries or accidents have been reported because of either issue.
The Frontiers covered by the recall are from the 2002 through 2004 model years and were made from July 9, 2001, to Oct. 20, 2004, in Smyrna, Tenn., for the North American market, Nissan said in a statement. Frontiers made from Nov. 30, 2001, to June 26, 2008, in Curitiba, Brazil, for South and Central American markets also are in the recall.
The 2002-2004 North American Xterras in the recall were made from July 9, 2001, to Jan. 6, 2005, also at the Smyrna plant.
Xterras made from Feb. 17, 2003, to June 13, 2008, in Curitiba, Brazil, for South and Central American markets also are affected.
Nissan also said it will replace the positive battery cable terminal on affected Sentras. The vehicles were built at the Aguascalientes, Mexico, plant from May 22, 2010 to July 8, 2010.
The auto maker said it will notify owners in early December when parts are available, and dealers will fix the problem at no cost to the owners.
Nissan said the steering problem was discovered from cases in Brazil and Canada, and there have been no field reports in the U.S.
"The isolated field reports from Brazil and Canada are likely related to some unique environmental conditions not commonly present in other areas, combined with a greater percentage of off-pavement usage," Nissan spokesman Colin Price said in an e-mail. "Nevertheless, out of an abundance of caution, we have decided that field action is appropriate in all the potentially affected markets."
About 240,000 Frontiers, 261,000 Xterras and 14,000 Sentras are affected in the U.S.
White House Confirms India Deals
Last week India Real Time posted a list of possible deals to be announced during President Barack Obama’s visit to India. An hour ahead of Mr. Obama’s address to CEOs in Mumbai, the White House announced the following deals, saying that they total almost $15 billion and will “support” 53,670 jobs. The following list of deals and details has been quoted verbatim from the official White House statement:
• Heavy Transport Aircraft: The Boeing Company and the Indian Air Force have reached preliminary agreement on the purchase of 10 C-17 Globemaster III military transport aircraft, and are now in the process of finalizing the details of the sale. Once all have been delivered, the Indian Air Force will be the owner and operator of the largest fleet of C-17s outside of the United States. Boeing, headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, is the aircraft manufacturer. Boeing reports that each C-17 supports 650 suppliers across 44 U.S. states and that this order will support Boeing’s C-17 production facility in Long Beach, California, for an entire year. This transaction is valued at approximately $4.1 billion, all of which is U.S. export content, supporting an estimated 22,160 jobs.
• Engine Sale for the Light Combat Aircraft: On October 1, the General Electric Company, headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, was declared the lowest bidder and selected to negotiate a contract to provide the Indian Aeronautical Development Agency with 107 F414 engines to be installed on the Tejas light combat aircraft. Upon finalizing the contract, General Electric’s facility in Lynn, Massachusetts, and other sites across the United States will be positioned to export almost one billion dollars in high technology aerospace products. This transaction is tentatively valued at approximately $822 million, all of which is U.S. export content, supporting an estimated 4,440 jobs.
• Commercial Aircraft Sale: Boeing Company, headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, and SpiceJet, a leading private airline in India, concluded a definitive agreement for the sale of 30 B737-800 commercial aircraft. SpiceJet currently operates 22 Boeing aircraft and has several 737 deliveries remaining from previous agreements. This new agreement will enable SpiceJet to offer more domestic routes and to begin offering international flights to neighboring countries. This transaction is valued at approximately $2.7 billion, based on catalogue prices, with an estimated $2.4 billion in U.S. export content, supporting an estimated 12,970 jobs.
• Gas and Steam Turbine Sale: The General Electric Company, headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, was selected to supply six advanced class 9FA gas turbines and three steam turbines for the 2,500-megawatt Samalkot power plant expansion to be constructed by Reliance Power Ltd., a division of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, one of the largest conglomerates in India. General Electric purchases equipment from 240 suppliers across the United States—an estimated 14 percent of which are small- and medium-sized enterprises—for every 9FA gas-fired turbine, which are assembled in Greenville, South Carolina. The combined equipment and maintenance contracts are valued at approximately $750 million, with an estimated $491 million in U.S. export content, supporting an estimated 2,650 jobs.
• Reliance Power and U.S. Ex-Im Bank Agreement: Reliance Power Ltd., the flagship company of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, and the Export – Import Bank of the United States announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). This MOU will indicate Ex-Im Bank’s willingness to provide up to $5 billion in financial support to Reliance Power for the purchase of U.S. goods and services to be used in the development of up to 8,000 megawatts of gas-fired electricity generating units and up to 900 megawatts of renewable (solar and wind) energy facilities.
• Diesel Locomotive Manufacturing Venture: The United States has worldwide leaders in diesel locomotive manufacturing, and the Indian Ministry of Railways announced the prequalification of the sole two bidders—GE Transportation (Erie, Pennsylvania) and Electro-Motive Diesel (LaGrange, Illinois)—for a venture to manufacture and supply of 1,000 diesel locomotives over 10 years. The estimated U.S. content of this contract is expected to exceed $1B.
• Motorcycle Assembly Plant: Harley-Davidson Motor Company, headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, announced that preparations are underway to open a new plant in India for the assembly of Harley-Davidson motorcycles from U.S.-built “complete knock-down” kits. This investment by the company entails job creation in both the United States and India, and it will allow the company to reduce the tariff burden on its motorcycles for sale in the Indian market, driving sales growth by making its motorcycles more accessible to Indian consumers.
• Sale of U.S. Mining Equipment and Related Support Equipment: On October 21, the Export – Import Bank of the United States announced the approval of more than $900 million in export finance guarantees to Sasan Power Ltd., a subsidiary of Reliance Power Ltd., supporting the sale of U.S. mining equipment and services from Bucyrus International of South Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and other U.S. vendors, in association with the 3,960-megawatt coal-fired Sasan power plant in Madhya Pradesh, India. This financial commitment supports $641 million in U.S. export content, supporting an estimated 3,460 jobs.
• Tunneling Equipment for Underground Water Channel: On July 22, Robbins Company, headquartered in Solon, Ohio, announced an agreement with UNITY-IVRCL, a large infrastructure engineering and construction conglomerate, to provide tunnel-boring machines, conveyer equipment, and associated technical services for the construction of tunnels to convey water for the city of Mumbai. Separately, through a contract signed in 2008 with Jaiprakash Associates, a large infrastructure conglomerate, the Robbins Company is already supplying high technology tunnel-boring machines and technical assistance to bore some of the longest underground tunnels in the world underneath a protected tiger sanctuary in Andhra Pradesh, which will increase irrigation for the production of cotton and other agricultural products. The Mumbai contract alone is valued at $10 million, with $7 million in U.S. export content, supporting an estimated 35 jobs.
• Maharashtra Homeland Security Pilot Projects: Palantir Technologies, a small Silicon Valley software development firm, announced a strategic partnership agreement with the Maharashtra State Police, a law enforcement agency in India, to conduct a pilot program, whereby Palantir’s end-to-end analytical software platform will be used on a trial basis to identify and alert authorities to security threats in order to help keep the citizens of Mumbai and Maharashtra safe.
• Medanta Duke Research Institute (MDRI): Duke Medicine, located in Durham, North Carolina, one of the leading academic health systems in the United States, and Medanta Medicity, located in Gurgaon, Haryana, a hospital and medical research complex, are announcing a joint venture agreement to launch the MDRI, a proof-of-concept clinical research facility within Medanta’s hospital. Duke Medicine will provide scientific and operational leadership, while Medanta will contribute financial resources and clinical and operational services. Duke Medicine also will be partnering with Jubilant Life Sciences, headquartered in Uttar Pradesh, to conduct research studies and co-develop promising discoveries, with significant funding and in-kind support provided by Jubilant. Subsequent commercialization is expected to result in licensing revenue for Duke Medicine.
• Long-range Antenna System for Rural Telecommunications: SPX Communication Technology, a division of SPX Corporation operating out of Raymond, Maine, is in the final phase of the pilot deployment of its long-range antenna system with two leading Indian mobile operators. This innovative technology has been shown to offer a significantly greater coverage area. Once implemented, it is expected to create significant economies of scale, thereby improving the economic viability of rural wireless networks and making wireless communications available for people who either could not afford service or who live in areas that lack coverage. The value of the initial trial equipment is expected to generate approximately $1 million, with 100 percent U.S. export content, supporting an estimated 5 jobs.
• Production Equipment for the Manufacture of Pre-fabricated Housing: Spancrete Machinery Corporation, a family-owned business in Waukesha, Wisconsin, announced the sale of six sets of its hollow core, precast production equipment, including installation, training, and after-sales support, to Hindustan Prefab Limited, a state-owned company within the Indian Ministry of Housing and Poverty Alleviation. The production equipment will be used to manufacture inexpensive, prefabricated housing on a mass scale in India. Spancrete also is working with Somat Engineering, Inc., from Detroit, Michigan, and their affiliate, SP Infrastructure India Ltd., in New Delhi. This transaction is valued at approximately $35 million, all of which is U.S. export content. Based on the company’s estimates, the transaction will support 30 jobs.
• Cell Phone Rollout for Small Indian Businesses: Intuit, a company headquartered in Mountain View, California, which serves millions of small businesses worldwide, will launch a new mobile and web-based marketing service in partnership with Nokia, called “Intuit GoConnect”. This innovative technology will help Indian micro and small businesses grow and thrive by bringing customer management tools to the entrepreneur, improving the way they communicate with their customers in an increasingly mobile world.
• The Unique Identification Project: L-1 Identity Solutions, headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, and another U.S.-headquartered company, lead two of the three vendor consortia, which have been prequalified by the Unique Identity Authority of India for the first phase of an effort to register Indian residents with a 12-digit unique number using biometric identifiers. Unprecedented in scale, seeking to register 1.2 billion Indian residents, the Unique Identification program aims to enhance delivery of government services in India.
• Sale of Precision Measurement Instruments for Fuel Cell Research: Advanced Materials Corporation (AMC), a small, six-person firm in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, received an order to supply a specially-designed Pressure-Composition Isotherm Measurement Instrument to the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in Varanasi, India. BHU will utilize AMC’s instrument to test fuel cell applications, as part of an Indian central government research program.
• Trace Explosive Detection Equipment: Implant Sciences, a small company based in Wilmington, Massachusetts, signed a contract with the Ministry of Defence in January to supply its Quantum Sniffer H-150, trace detection devices to be used by the Indian Army to detect the presence of explosive, bomb-making materials that could be used in a terrorist attack. The company announced that the equipment will be ready for pre-dispatch inspection and delivery in November. The transaction is valued at approximately $6 million, all of which is U.S. export content, supporting an estimated 30 jobs.
• VIP Helicopter Sale: On August 25, Bell Helicopter, based in Hurst, Texas, signed a purchase agreement with Span Air, a private air charter company, for the sale of its first Bell Model 429 corporate VIP helicopter in India. Span Air has a second order slated for delivery in mid-2011. Bell Helicopter recently sold its 100th helicopter in India.
• Sales of Pre-owned Refurbished Healthcare Equipment: Skelley Medical, a rural New Hampshire-based company, sells refurbished medical equipment to Indian hospitals in second and third tier cities through partnerships with various distributors in India. Skelley announced plans to open an after-sales service facility in Mumbai as part of a new venture with Triage Systems, a Mumbai-based Indian medical equipment distributor. This facility will service medical equipment purchased by their Indian hospital customers.
• Monitoring Equipment for Greening Buildings: Noveda Technologies, a small start-up company in Branchburg, New Jersey, is finalizing a new venture with Chennai-based Wysine Technology to jointly develop and market a new solution for web-based, real-time energy monitoring for “greening” buildings.
• Dredges for Maharashtra Maritime Board: Ellicott Dredges, a small company based in Baltimore, Maryland, announced the sale of two cutter suction dredges to the Maharashtra Maritime Board, a Maharashtra government entity. The equipment will be utilized to dredge a fisherman’s port and various tributaries in the state of Maharashtra.
Toyota President: iQ Compact-Based EV Likely For Domestic MarketTOKYO (Dow Jones)
--Toyota Motor Corp. (7203) President Akio Toyoda said the compact electric vehicle under development based on Toyota's ultra mini compact iQ could be a fit for the Japanese market.
"In Japan, I think customers are probably saying they would use electric vehicles to commute short distances, so we are considering the iQ-based EV," he said.
He said it may be an option to set up charging equipment at about 5,000 dealers in Japan to ensure there are sufficient charging locations.
Toyota Motor Corp. President Akio Toyoda (left) smiles from the driving seat of a Tesla Motor's Roadster electric car with Tesla Motor Inc. Chief Executive Elon Musk in Tokyo November 12.
Toyoda was speaking to reporters after a ceremony in Tokyo, where Tesla Motors Inc. Chief Executive Elon Musk presented the Tesla Roadster to its partner, Toyota.
Earlier this year, Toyota invested $50 million in the California-based electric car maker.
Under the partnership, Toyota will develop an electric RAV4 small sport-utility vehicle using Tesla's battery technology, aiming to sell the model in 2012 in the U.S.
The iQ-based electric vehicle will be powered by a Toyota-developed battery system and will be introduced in the U.S. in 2012.
Earlier this month, Panasonic Corp. (6752) said it invested $30 million in Tesla as the two companies plan to jointly market and sell Tesla battery packs using Panasonic battery cells.
Panasonic To Make Long-Lasting Alkaline Batteries In ThailandOSAKA (Nikkei)
--Panasonic Corp. (6752) said Thursday it will begin producing long-lasting dry-cell alkaline batteries in Thailand in March.
Output of Evolta alkaline batteries is expected to be on a par with the company's factory in Moriguchi, Osaka, which churns out 200 million units annually.
Introduced in 2008, the Evolta battery has a useful life of 10 years, longest in the industry. Panasonic currently exports the batteries from Japan to some 60 countries. Exporting them from Thailand will help lower distribution costs.
By 2015, the company plans to increase overall dry-cell battery production volume, including manganese dry cells, by 50% to 6 billion units per year. With a 15% global market share, Panasonic ranks third in the industry. By cultivating demand in Europe and Asia, it aims to become the global leader.
Solar Cell Shipments Double On FITs, School New DealTOKYO (Nikkei)
--Domestic photovoltaic battery shipments rose 110% on the year to 467,941 kilowatts in terms of power generating capacity in the April-September half, the Japan Photovoltaic Energy Association said Thursday.
In November 2009, the government introduced feed-in tariffs, under which utility companies buy, at premium unit prices, excess electricity generated by households using solar cells.
That has helped those who installed solar cells halve the period needed to recoup their initial investment costs to about 10 years. As such, the domestic solar cell market has expanded exponentially.
In the fiscal 2010 first half, shipments for households, which account for 80% of the overall domestic market, grew 90%.
Shipments for the public and industrial sectors surged 520%, due to the "school new deal" policy in which the government subsidizes schools installing solar cells.
Tesla CEO Expects Japan To Become Firm's No. 2 Market
TOKYO (Dow Jones)
--The head of electric sports car maker Tesla Motors Inc. said Friday that he expects Japan to become the Palo Alto, California-based company's largest market outside of the U.S.
Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk also predicted that the niche luxury auto maker's U.S.-dominated client base will expand steadily overseas so that its sales are evenly split between the U.S., Europe and Asia.
"We do believe Japan will be our No. 2 country in terms of sales over time," Musk said, speaking at a joint press conference with the CEO of Toyota Motor Corp. (7203). "Japan is a key market for the kind of product we produce," he added.
Tesla opened its first showroom in Asia last month in Tokyo's swank Aoyama district and has announced plans to enter the European market with a dealership in Paris.
The company has sold less than 1,500 of its $100,000-plus Roadsters, which debuted earlier this year. It plans to introduce a midsize sports sedan from 2012.
Tesla has strong ties to Japan as two of its major shareholders are corporate titans Toyota and Panasonic Corp. (6752).
Earlier this year, Toyota invested $50 million in Tesla, with which it will develop an electric sport utility vehicle. Panasonic, which provides battery cells to Tesla, injected the firm with $30 million on Nov. 6.
Under Tesla's partnership with Toyota, the two companies will collaborate on an electric version of Toyota's RAV4 model using Tesla's battery technology. Limited production of the small sports utility vehicle will begin at a former Toyota-owned factory in Freemont, California with commercial sales starting in 2012, but there are no current plans for mass production.
One reason may be that Toyota plans to sell its own, independently developed electric vehicle in the U.S. from 2012. Toyota's President Akio Toyoda said this ultra mini-car, which is being developed independent of Tesla and is based on its British and Japanese market iQ model, also may be sold in Japan.
"In Japan, I think customers are probably saying they would use electric vehicles to commute short distances, so we are considering the iQ-based EV," Toyoda said.
Musk and Toyoda spoke to reporters after a ceremony at a dealership of Toyota's luxury Lexus-brand vehicles, just across from Tesla's new Tokyo showroom where a limited-edition Tesla Roadster with a custom "twilight red" paint job was presented to Toyoda.
The car is a right-hand drive twin of Musk's own left hand drive Roadster, which the Toyota CEO drove during a recent visit to Palo Alto.
A123 Systems Sees Shipment Shrink, but Tomorrow Better, Really
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2010/11/11/a123-systems-sees-shipment-shrink-but-tomorrow-bet.aspx
Michael Kanellos, Greentechmedia.com
November 11, 2010
Another quarter, another urge to look to the future from A123 Systems (Nasdaq: AONE).
The Massachusetts-based battery company today reported third quarter revenue of $26.2 million, an increase of $23.6 million, and reiterated an alliance to produce car batteries for the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp.
That was the good news. Here's the bad news. Losses increased to $43.7 million over $22.8 million from the same period the year before. More ominous, product shipments are dropping. The company shipped the equivalent of 15.8 million watt hours of batteries in the quarter, down from 17.1 million in the same quarter a year ago. Shipments for the first three quarters have dropped to 44.2 million watt hours compared to 44.8 million for the first nine months of 2009.
Product revenue in the quarter dropped from $19 million to $20 million a year ago. The bump in revenue came from a rise in revenue from service projects.
The Fisker Karma comes out later this year and will be powered by A123 Systems batteries. What do these shipments mean for the Karma, which has been delayed from late 2009, to September 2010 to sometime soon. Transportation revenue grew to $9.5 million from $8.3 million in the quarter, but has declined to $30 million from $34 million for the first three quarters.
Last quarter, the company stated that it is dropping out of a project to supply batteries to Fiat/Chrysler for electric cars and urged investors to look to the future. (Not the three months away future. The future.)
Last year, A123 lost out on the GM Volt contract, and longtime customer Black and Decker began to phase out incorporating A123 batteries in its power tools.
The company is also experiencing increased competition from other companies. Phil Gow, vice president of battery systems at Coda Automotive, told us at The Networked EV yesterday that Lio Energy Systems, Coda's sister battery company, can make batteries for $500 a kilowatt hour. Tesla Motors (Nasdaq: TSLA) CEO Elon Musk recently told us that his company can produce battery packs for less than $700 to $600 a kilowatt hour. The quote is in the first video, the Zapruder film of EV videos.
Charlie Vartanian, an A123 exec speaking at the Emerging Technologies Summit in Sacramento this week, said that A123 was approaching the $1000 per kilowatt mark when talking about grid storage battery packs. It's not a direct comparison, but it underscores the challenges.
Disclosure: I've been somewhat skeptical of A123 for some time, so I stand accused of sometimes taking a more critical slant on this topic than other reporters. But those are the numbers.
Flow Batteries Coming Into Homes?
For approximately $7,500, you might soon be able to get a 30-kilowatt-hour flow battery to match your solar panels.
Sacramento--Flow batteries soon won't be just for utilities and cell phone carriers anymore if Premium Power is right.
The North Reading, Mass.-based company is currently working on a device called the HomeFlow, a scaled-down version of the zinc bromide flow batteries it currently sells to industrial customers. The HomeFlow will store approximately 30 kilowatt-hours of energy, have a 10-kilowatt rating, and cost around $7,500, said Doug Alderton, director of government sales at the company during a session at the Emerging Technologies Summit earlier this week in Sacramento.
The price includes an inverter, so if you are linking it up to a solar system, your costs will be lower.
The ambitious company seems to want to become the Dell Computers of flow batteries. It plans on bringing out a variety of flow batteries -- ranging from the HomeFlow to a 6 megawatt-hour/2-megawatt behemoth that would function like a power plant -- based around a basic building block made from 54 cells. (Dell, in its heyday, mastered the art of designing a few basic SKUs and tweaking them to produce a complete product line.)
Just above the HomeFlow in the product line is the ZincFlow, a 45-kilowatt-hour/15 kilowatt machine. The LocalFlow is next in the line at 100 kilowatt hours/30 kilowatts. The TransFlow 2000, which can hold 2.8 megawatt-hours of energy, has a 500 kilowatt rating, and is 53 feet long. The company is in the process of installing five near Syracuse and Sacramento to help curb peak power in those two regions. (Editor's note: Premium rates its batteries by both kilowatt hours and kilowatts.)
If successful, the batteries will help delay grid upgrades. Other applications exist as well. Lee Burrows of VantagePoint Venture Partners in an earlier interview suggested that flow batteries could be used to recharge electric cars instead of high-speed charging stations.
And, like Dell, the company wants to make them cheap. Most of Premium's flow batteries cost $250 to $300 a kilowatt hour or $250 to $350 a kilowatt. That's incredibly cheap. Rival Deeya Energy last year came out with flow batteries that cost $4,000 a kilowatt. A123 Systems, which makes lithium ion batteries, makes battery packs that are close to $1,000 a kilowatt hour, said company exec Charliee Vartanian at the same conference.
The company's batteries last 30 years and take up 1/15th of the space of conventional batteries, he added.
Whether and when Premium Power can achieve its goals remains to be seen, but the potential is intriguing. At these rates, storage could be added fairly easily to wind farms and solar arrays. Government officials and developers in Africa have been regularly calling the company to see if Premium's batteries could power microgrids.
Flow batteries pretty much act like their name suggests. A charged electrolyte infused with zinc and bromide ions flows from one tank to another. The trick is in coming up with a battery design that allows the zinc to continually be recycled. After zinc bromide is broken up into its separate elements (a key part of the process for harvesting electrons), the zinc adheres to plates inside the battery. That plate has to be polished before the recharging process can begin again.
Zinc bromide, he added, is a byproduct of shellfish. In other words, there's a lot of it.
The Fuel-Cell-Powered F-CELL
In addition, an update about the U.S. rollout of the fuel-cell-powered Mercedes-Benz F-CELL car will take place at the Mercedes-Benz exhibit during news media activities prior to the public opening of the show. Essentially an electric car that makes its own power on board, the Mercedes-Benz F-CELL boasts 54 miles per gallon (EPA combined city-highway equivalent fuel mileage) and a range of about 230 miles. Running on compressed hydrogen, and with water as the F-CELL's only exhaust emission, the hydrogen and air react without combustion in the fuel cell, producing current to run the 136-horsepower electric motor. The F-CELL is also equipped with a 35-kilowatt lithium-ion battery that stores recovered braking energy, helps provide instant acceleration and ensures fast starting in very cold weather.
The hydrogen gas is stored in 10,150-psi tanks that can be refueled in only three minutes. Beginning in Southern California, the new F-CELL car is being offered through a lease program in markets with growing networks of hydrogen refueling stations.
Research and Markets: This Electric Buses and Taxis 2011-2021 Report Forecasts the Industry to Grow to $60 Billion
DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Research and Markets
(http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/5a5f62/electric_buses_and) has announced the addition of the "Electric Buses and Taxis 2011-2021" report to their offering.
The electrification of commercial on-road transport is now being progressed strongly by both paybacks and mandates of local and national governments across the world. Even where paybacks are underwhelming, the green agendas of the participants is driving things forward but there are impediments too, including up-front cost and the poor range and reliability of some versions and the practicality and cost of infrastructure. This report gives numbers and value for hybrid and for pure electric buses and taxis, market drivers and overall transport statistics to put this in context. The most active countries are identified and projections specifically for China are given. Large numbers of suppliers are identifies and some interesting ones are profiled. Drive trains and batteries are examined.
This is the world's first report forecasting the global market for electric buses and taxis both hybrid and pure electric. It separately forecasts the market in the most important country, China, and it takes a detailed look at technologies present and future with a blunt assessment of reasons for failure and threats for the future, not just the positive aspects. The market for electric buses and taxis will rise 8.7 times from 2011 to 2021, approaching $60 billion not long after that. The buses will be designed exclusively for purpose, though some will have power trains used for trucks as well. The taxis will largely consist of regular cars and people movers with modest adaptation. We explain why, for both, this is the decade of the hybrid but with pure electric versions coming up fast. China will become by far the largest market for both electric buses and electric taxis within the decade. This report looks at the statistics and trends for conventional buses and taxis, the government incentives, paybacks and new technologies with detailed tables and figures to summarise the situation, so the reader can understand the situation with ease. There are no rambling anecdotes or cut and paste of catalog items here - this is all summary, comparison and prediction with numbers, unit values, specifications and a profusion of images.
This uniquely up to date reference book is extremely thorough. Just one of the tables lists 78 hybrid bus manufacturers with country and product image, another lists 53 pure electric bus manufacturers with country and product image and another compares 68 lithium-ion traction battery manufacturers with cathode and anode chemistry and other technical detail and who is using these batteries - naming bus, car and other companies using them, explaining who is winning and why. There is a table comparing eight electric taxi projects with country, image and commentary, including technical detail, and another comparing many fuel cell bus trials. Many of the figures are graphs, bar charts, pie charts, and other analysis to allow you to assess the situation quickly and conveniently.
The market forecasts cover units, unit prices and total market value 2011-2021 backed up by forecasts for the market for all types of bus taken together, each for global and separately China. Taxi number, unit value and market value is similarly forecasted and the whole is put in the context of statistics for past sales and production output by manufacturer and forecasts for the electric vehicle market as a whole. The leading suppliers are identified. Transmission manufacturers are compared using sectioned technical diagrams. There is a glossary of terms and one hour of free consultancy with every purchase will answer any questions you have remaining.
In addition, all report purchases include one hour free consulting with a report author from IDTechEx, by email or telephone. This needs to be used within three months of purchasing the report.
Electric Vehicle Summit at Greentech Media’s Networked EV Event
Tesla, Coda, BYD, GM and Panasonic weigh in on their upcoming electric vehicles and batteries.
Reporting from Greentech Media's The Networked EV event in San Francisco:
Electric Vehicles (EVs) aren't new, but the next-generation EVs hitting the market in late 2010 and 2011 will mark the first time in the history of EVs where price and performance might actually live up to the hype.
In a panel moderated by Greentech Media Editor-In-Chief, Michael Kanellos, the audience assembled at the PG&E auditorium got to hear from automakers about what could be the year that electric vehicles broke and a bit about the batteries that make them go.
Diarmuid O'Connell, Vice President of Business Development at Tesla Motors, focused on his firm's big bet -- the Model S sedan that's due in 2012 and is being built at the immense Nummi plant in Fremont. See Taking the Tesla Factory Tour and their Q3 Earnings data here.
Dave Barthmuss, Group Manager, Western Region, Environment & Energy Communications, General Motors, celebrated GM being "back in the business of electric vehicles."
He said that the "Chevy Volt is a kick to drive" and spoke of the "instant torque" when you step on the accelerator. He saw the vehicle's 50-mile range as the sweet spot and regards the charging engine as being able to alleviate range anxiety. The battery takes three to four hours to charge at 220 volts and ten to twelve hours at 120 volts. The car will be in showrooms at the end of the year.
Peter M. Fannon, Vice President, Technology Policy, Panasonic Corp. of North America, said that by 2019, Panasonic wants to get one-third of their revenue from energy-related activities and to be the number-one green manufacturer in the world.
Panasonic has a long history in electric vehicles; they made the nickel metal hydride (NiMh) batteries for the hybrid Prius and are now the supplier of choice for the lithium-ion cells for the Tesla Roadster. They recently announced a $30 million investment in Tesla and they expect to see their batteries halve in price over the coming years (see Panasonic Invests $30M in Tesla).
Liam Li, Senior Business Director, BYD America, dropped what was for this reporter one of the biggest pieces of news of the session -- the $25,000 cost of the BYD electric vehicle will be subsidized by about half by the Chinese government for Chinese consumers. Compare that to the Chevy Volt, which will retail at about $30,000 after tax credits.
Phil Gow, Vice President, Battery Systems, CODA Automotive, spoke of his firm's 4-door, 5-passenger EV sedan that is equipped with the standard amenities you'd expect on any car in this class -- air bags, anti-lock brakes, etc. It has a 90-to-120-mile all-season range from the 33.8-kWh LiFe PO4 battery system. Read more about Coda's pricing here and about the recent CEO issues here.
And while we're talking EVs, you can read about Wright Speed's recent funding announcement and view a video test drive with Michael Kanellos here.
The Greentech Media event, however, wasn't meant to focus solely on the cars themselves, but rather on the relationship of those vehicles to the grid and the impact of charging millions of EVs on an electric grid not yet engineered for that purpose. We'll discuss this impact and the role of EVs as the gateway drug for adding smarts to the utility grid and the way it will change the consumer's relationship to the grid in upcoming articles. Stay tuned.
New grant paves the way for transformative science at magnet lab
Scientists at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory at The Florida State University are working to open a new frontier in chemistry, biology and materials studies, thanks to a recent $1.3 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF).
To explore that new frontier, magnet-lab researchers are developing a spectrometer (a machine that measures the mass of molecules) to work with a powerful new magnet. The grant will pay for the design and construction of a portable, 500-pound-plus array of electronic amplifiers and devices needed to advance science. Construction of the magnet, known as the Series Connected Hybrid, started in 2006 with an $11.7 million grant from the NSF.
When completed in 2013, the combined tools will allow scientists "to perform potentially transformative science in an unexplored magnetic-field range for a broad range of applications, from biological tissues to battery materials," magnet-lab physicist Bill Brey The spectrometer will enable researchers to use nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques similar in principle to those employed by MRI machines — but at very high magnetic fields. Hospitals routinely scan patients inside MRI machines whose magnets produce a field of no more than 3 tesla. (Tesla is a scientific measure of magnetic-field intensity; by comparison, the Earth's magnetic field is about 0.00005 tesla.) What makes the Series Connected Hybrid magnet unique is that it will combine an amazingly powerful magnetic-field strength of 36 tesla with the field quality needed for NMR.
"For nuclear magnetic resonance, 23 tesla is now the cutting edge for science," Brey said. "So 36 tesla is years and years beyond the cutting edge. It's an increase in field strength of more than 50 percent."
Associated Press
DETROIT—Nissan Motor Co. is recalling more than 600,000 vehicles in North and South America and Africa due to steering or battery cable problems.
The Japanese auto maker said Thursday that the steering recall affects 303,000 Frontier pickup trucks and 283,000 Xterra sport utility vehicles in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil and other Latin American countries. Nissan said a corrosion problem with the lower steering column joint and shaft can limit steering movement, making the vehicles difficult to steer. In some cases the corrosion can cause the joint to crack.
Nissan also is recalling 18,500 Sentra sedans because of a battery cable terminal connector problem that can make the cars difficult to start or stall at low speeds.
The company says no injuries or accidents have been reported because of either issue.
The Frontiers covered by the recall are from the 2002 through 2004 model years and were made from July 9, 2001, to Oct. 20, 2004, in Smyrna, Tenn., for the North American market, Nissan said in a statement. Frontiers made from Nov. 30, 2001, to June 26, 2008, in Curitiba, Brazil, for South and Central American markets also are in the recall.
The 2002-2004 North American Xterras in the recall were made from July 9, 2001, to Jan. 6, 2005, also at the Smyrna plant.
Xterras made from Feb. 17, 2003, to June 13, 2008, in Curitiba, Brazil, for South and Central American markets also are affected.
Nissan also said it will replace the positive battery cable terminal on affected Sentras. The vehicles were built at the Aguascalientes, Mexico, plant from May 22, 2010 to July 8, 2010.
The auto maker said it will notify owners in early December when parts are available, and dealers will fix the problem at no cost to the owners.
Nissan said the steering problem was discovered from cases in Brazil and Canada, and there have been no field reports in the U.S.
"The isolated field reports from Brazil and Canada are likely related to some unique environmental conditions not commonly present in other areas, combined with a greater percentage of off-pavement usage," Nissan spokesman Colin Price said in an e-mail. "Nevertheless, out of an abundance of caution, we have decided that field action is appropriate in all the potentially affected markets."
About 240,000 Frontiers, 261,000 Xterras and 14,000 Sentras are affected in the U.S.
White House Confirms India Deals
Last week India Real Time posted a list of possible deals to be announced during President Barack Obama’s visit to India. An hour ahead of Mr. Obama’s address to CEOs in Mumbai, the White House announced the following deals, saying that they total almost $15 billion and will “support” 53,670 jobs. The following list of deals and details has been quoted verbatim from the official White House statement:
• Heavy Transport Aircraft: The Boeing Company and the Indian Air Force have reached preliminary agreement on the purchase of 10 C-17 Globemaster III military transport aircraft, and are now in the process of finalizing the details of the sale. Once all have been delivered, the Indian Air Force will be the owner and operator of the largest fleet of C-17s outside of the United States. Boeing, headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, is the aircraft manufacturer. Boeing reports that each C-17 supports 650 suppliers across 44 U.S. states and that this order will support Boeing’s C-17 production facility in Long Beach, California, for an entire year. This transaction is valued at approximately $4.1 billion, all of which is U.S. export content, supporting an estimated 22,160 jobs.
• Engine Sale for the Light Combat Aircraft: On October 1, the General Electric Company, headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, was declared the lowest bidder and selected to negotiate a contract to provide the Indian Aeronautical Development Agency with 107 F414 engines to be installed on the Tejas light combat aircraft. Upon finalizing the contract, General Electric’s facility in Lynn, Massachusetts, and other sites across the United States will be positioned to export almost one billion dollars in high technology aerospace products. This transaction is tentatively valued at approximately $822 million, all of which is U.S. export content, supporting an estimated 4,440 jobs.
• Commercial Aircraft Sale: Boeing Company, headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, and SpiceJet, a leading private airline in India, concluded a definitive agreement for the sale of 30 B737-800 commercial aircraft. SpiceJet currently operates 22 Boeing aircraft and has several 737 deliveries remaining from previous agreements. This new agreement will enable SpiceJet to offer more domestic routes and to begin offering international flights to neighboring countries. This transaction is valued at approximately $2.7 billion, based on catalogue prices, with an estimated $2.4 billion in U.S. export content, supporting an estimated 12,970 jobs.
• Gas and Steam Turbine Sale: The General Electric Company, headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, was selected to supply six advanced class 9FA gas turbines and three steam turbines for the 2,500-megawatt Samalkot power plant expansion to be constructed by Reliance Power Ltd., a division of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, one of the largest conglomerates in India. General Electric purchases equipment from 240 suppliers across the United States—an estimated 14 percent of which are small- and medium-sized enterprises—for every 9FA gas-fired turbine, which are assembled in Greenville, South Carolina. The combined equipment and maintenance contracts are valued at approximately $750 million, with an estimated $491 million in U.S. export content, supporting an estimated 2,650 jobs.
• Reliance Power and U.S. Ex-Im Bank Agreement: Reliance Power Ltd., the flagship company of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, and the Export – Import Bank of the United States announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). This MOU will indicate Ex-Im Bank’s willingness to provide up to $5 billion in financial support to Reliance Power for the purchase of U.S. goods and services to be used in the development of up to 8,000 megawatts of gas-fired electricity generating units and up to 900 megawatts of renewable (solar and wind) energy facilities.
• Diesel Locomotive Manufacturing Venture: The United States has worldwide leaders in diesel locomotive manufacturing, and the Indian Ministry of Railways announced the prequalification of the sole two bidders—GE Transportation (Erie, Pennsylvania) and Electro-Motive Diesel (LaGrange, Illinois)—for a venture to manufacture and supply of 1,000 diesel locomotives over 10 years. The estimated U.S. content of this contract is expected to exceed $1B.
• Motorcycle Assembly Plant: Harley-Davidson Motor Company, headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, announced that preparations are underway to open a new plant in India for the assembly of Harley-Davidson motorcycles from U.S.-built “complete knock-down” kits. This investment by the company entails job creation in both the United States and India, and it will allow the company to reduce the tariff burden on its motorcycles for sale in the Indian market, driving sales growth by making its motorcycles more accessible to Indian consumers.
• Sale of U.S. Mining Equipment and Related Support Equipment: On October 21, the Export – Import Bank of the United States announced the approval of more than $900 million in export finance guarantees to Sasan Power Ltd., a subsidiary of Reliance Power Ltd., supporting the sale of U.S. mining equipment and services from Bucyrus International of South Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and other U.S. vendors, in association with the 3,960-megawatt coal-fired Sasan power plant in Madhya Pradesh, India. This financial commitment supports $641 million in U.S. export content, supporting an estimated 3,460 jobs.
• Tunneling Equipment for Underground Water Channel: On July 22, Robbins Company, headquartered in Solon, Ohio, announced an agreement with UNITY-IVRCL, a large infrastructure engineering and construction conglomerate, to provide tunnel-boring machines, conveyer equipment, and associated technical services for the construction of tunnels to convey water for the city of Mumbai. Separately, through a contract signed in 2008 with Jaiprakash Associates, a large infrastructure conglomerate, the Robbins Company is already supplying high technology tunnel-boring machines and technical assistance to bore some of the longest underground tunnels in the world underneath a protected tiger sanctuary in Andhra Pradesh, which will increase irrigation for the production of cotton and other agricultural products. The Mumbai contract alone is valued at $10 million, with $7 million in U.S. export content, supporting an estimated 35 jobs.
• Maharashtra Homeland Security Pilot Projects: Palantir Technologies, a small Silicon Valley software development firm, announced a strategic partnership agreement with the Maharashtra State Police, a law enforcement agency in India, to conduct a pilot program, whereby Palantir’s end-to-end analytical software platform will be used on a trial basis to identify and alert authorities to security threats in order to help keep the citizens of Mumbai and Maharashtra safe.
• Medanta Duke Research Institute (MDRI): Duke Medicine, located in Durham, North Carolina, one of the leading academic health systems in the United States, and Medanta Medicity, located in Gurgaon, Haryana, a hospital and medical research complex, are announcing a joint venture agreement to launch the MDRI, a proof-of-concept clinical research facility within Medanta’s hospital. Duke Medicine will provide scientific and operational leadership, while Medanta will contribute financial resources and clinical and operational services. Duke Medicine also will be partnering with Jubilant Life Sciences, headquartered in Uttar Pradesh, to conduct research studies and co-develop promising discoveries, with significant funding and in-kind support provided by Jubilant. Subsequent commercialization is expected to result in licensing revenue for Duke Medicine.
• Long-range Antenna System for Rural Telecommunications: SPX Communication Technology, a division of SPX Corporation operating out of Raymond, Maine, is in the final phase of the pilot deployment of its long-range antenna system with two leading Indian mobile operators. This innovative technology has been shown to offer a significantly greater coverage area. Once implemented, it is expected to create significant economies of scale, thereby improving the economic viability of rural wireless networks and making wireless communications available for people who either could not afford service or who live in areas that lack coverage. The value of the initial trial equipment is expected to generate approximately $1 million, with 100 percent U.S. export content, supporting an estimated 5 jobs.
• Production Equipment for the Manufacture of Pre-fabricated Housing: Spancrete Machinery Corporation, a family-owned business in Waukesha, Wisconsin, announced the sale of six sets of its hollow core, precast production equipment, including installation, training, and after-sales support, to Hindustan Prefab Limited, a state-owned company within the Indian Ministry of Housing and Poverty Alleviation. The production equipment will be used to manufacture inexpensive, prefabricated housing on a mass scale in India. Spancrete also is working with Somat Engineering, Inc., from Detroit, Michigan, and their affiliate, SP Infrastructure India Ltd., in New Delhi. This transaction is valued at approximately $35 million, all of which is U.S. export content. Based on the company’s estimates, the transaction will support 30 jobs.
• Cell Phone Rollout for Small Indian Businesses: Intuit, a company headquartered in Mountain View, California, which serves millions of small businesses worldwide, will launch a new mobile and web-based marketing service in partnership with Nokia, called “Intuit GoConnect”. This innovative technology will help Indian micro and small businesses grow and thrive by bringing customer management tools to the entrepreneur, improving the way they communicate with their customers in an increasingly mobile world.
• The Unique Identification Project: L-1 Identity Solutions, headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, and another U.S.-headquartered company, lead two of the three vendor consortia, which have been prequalified by the Unique Identity Authority of India for the first phase of an effort to register Indian residents with a 12-digit unique number using biometric identifiers. Unprecedented in scale, seeking to register 1.2 billion Indian residents, the Unique Identification program aims to enhance delivery of government services in India.
• Sale of Precision Measurement Instruments for Fuel Cell Research: Advanced Materials Corporation (AMC), a small, six-person firm in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, received an order to supply a specially-designed Pressure-Composition Isotherm Measurement Instrument to the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in Varanasi, India. BHU will utilize AMC’s instrument to test fuel cell applications, as part of an Indian central government research program.
• Trace Explosive Detection Equipment: Implant Sciences, a small company based in Wilmington, Massachusetts, signed a contract with the Ministry of Defence in January to supply its Quantum Sniffer H-150, trace detection devices to be used by the Indian Army to detect the presence of explosive, bomb-making materials that could be used in a terrorist attack. The company announced that the equipment will be ready for pre-dispatch inspection and delivery in November. The transaction is valued at approximately $6 million, all of which is U.S. export content, supporting an estimated 30 jobs.
• VIP Helicopter Sale: On August 25, Bell Helicopter, based in Hurst, Texas, signed a purchase agreement with Span Air, a private air charter company, for the sale of its first Bell Model 429 corporate VIP helicopter in India. Span Air has a second order slated for delivery in mid-2011. Bell Helicopter recently sold its 100th helicopter in India.
• Sales of Pre-owned Refurbished Healthcare Equipment: Skelley Medical, a rural New Hampshire-based company, sells refurbished medical equipment to Indian hospitals in second and third tier cities through partnerships with various distributors in India. Skelley announced plans to open an after-sales service facility in Mumbai as part of a new venture with Triage Systems, a Mumbai-based Indian medical equipment distributor. This facility will service medical equipment purchased by their Indian hospital customers.
• Monitoring Equipment for Greening Buildings: Noveda Technologies, a small start-up company in Branchburg, New Jersey, is finalizing a new venture with Chennai-based Wysine Technology to jointly develop and market a new solution for web-based, real-time energy monitoring for “greening” buildings.
• Dredges for Maharashtra Maritime Board: Ellicott Dredges, a small company based in Baltimore, Maryland, announced the sale of two cutter suction dredges to the Maharashtra Maritime Board, a Maharashtra government entity. The equipment will be utilized to dredge a fisherman’s port and various tributaries in the state of Maharashtra.
Toyota President: iQ Compact-Based EV Likely For Domestic MarketTOKYO (Dow Jones)
--Toyota Motor Corp. (7203) President Akio Toyoda said the compact electric vehicle under development based on Toyota's ultra mini compact iQ could be a fit for the Japanese market.
"In Japan, I think customers are probably saying they would use electric vehicles to commute short distances, so we are considering the iQ-based EV," he said.
He said it may be an option to set up charging equipment at about 5,000 dealers in Japan to ensure there are sufficient charging locations.
Toyota Motor Corp. President Akio Toyoda (left) smiles from the driving seat of a Tesla Motor's Roadster electric car with Tesla Motor Inc. Chief Executive Elon Musk in Tokyo November 12.
Toyoda was speaking to reporters after a ceremony in Tokyo, where Tesla Motors Inc. Chief Executive Elon Musk presented the Tesla Roadster to its partner, Toyota.
Earlier this year, Toyota invested $50 million in the California-based electric car maker.
Under the partnership, Toyota will develop an electric RAV4 small sport-utility vehicle using Tesla's battery technology, aiming to sell the model in 2012 in the U.S.
The iQ-based electric vehicle will be powered by a Toyota-developed battery system and will be introduced in the U.S. in 2012.
Earlier this month, Panasonic Corp. (6752) said it invested $30 million in Tesla as the two companies plan to jointly market and sell Tesla battery packs using Panasonic battery cells.
Panasonic To Make Long-Lasting Alkaline Batteries In ThailandOSAKA (Nikkei)
--Panasonic Corp. (6752) said Thursday it will begin producing long-lasting dry-cell alkaline batteries in Thailand in March.
Output of Evolta alkaline batteries is expected to be on a par with the company's factory in Moriguchi, Osaka, which churns out 200 million units annually.
Introduced in 2008, the Evolta battery has a useful life of 10 years, longest in the industry. Panasonic currently exports the batteries from Japan to some 60 countries. Exporting them from Thailand will help lower distribution costs.
By 2015, the company plans to increase overall dry-cell battery production volume, including manganese dry cells, by 50% to 6 billion units per year. With a 15% global market share, Panasonic ranks third in the industry. By cultivating demand in Europe and Asia, it aims to become the global leader.
Solar Cell Shipments Double On FITs, School New DealTOKYO (Nikkei)
--Domestic photovoltaic battery shipments rose 110% on the year to 467,941 kilowatts in terms of power generating capacity in the April-September half, the Japan Photovoltaic Energy Association said Thursday.
In November 2009, the government introduced feed-in tariffs, under which utility companies buy, at premium unit prices, excess electricity generated by households using solar cells.
That has helped those who installed solar cells halve the period needed to recoup their initial investment costs to about 10 years. As such, the domestic solar cell market has expanded exponentially.
In the fiscal 2010 first half, shipments for households, which account for 80% of the overall domestic market, grew 90%.
Shipments for the public and industrial sectors surged 520%, due to the "school new deal" policy in which the government subsidizes schools installing solar cells.
Tesla CEO Expects Japan To Become Firm's No. 2 Market
TOKYO (Dow Jones)
--The head of electric sports car maker Tesla Motors Inc. said Friday that he expects Japan to become the Palo Alto, California-based company's largest market outside of the U.S.
Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk also predicted that the niche luxury auto maker's U.S.-dominated client base will expand steadily overseas so that its sales are evenly split between the U.S., Europe and Asia.
"We do believe Japan will be our No. 2 country in terms of sales over time," Musk said, speaking at a joint press conference with the CEO of Toyota Motor Corp. (7203). "Japan is a key market for the kind of product we produce," he added.
Tesla opened its first showroom in Asia last month in Tokyo's swank Aoyama district and has announced plans to enter the European market with a dealership in Paris.
The company has sold less than 1,500 of its $100,000-plus Roadsters, which debuted earlier this year. It plans to introduce a midsize sports sedan from 2012.
Tesla has strong ties to Japan as two of its major shareholders are corporate titans Toyota and Panasonic Corp. (6752).
Earlier this year, Toyota invested $50 million in Tesla, with which it will develop an electric sport utility vehicle. Panasonic, which provides battery cells to Tesla, injected the firm with $30 million on Nov. 6.
Under Tesla's partnership with Toyota, the two companies will collaborate on an electric version of Toyota's RAV4 model using Tesla's battery technology. Limited production of the small sports utility vehicle will begin at a former Toyota-owned factory in Freemont, California with commercial sales starting in 2012, but there are no current plans for mass production.
One reason may be that Toyota plans to sell its own, independently developed electric vehicle in the U.S. from 2012. Toyota's President Akio Toyoda said this ultra mini-car, which is being developed independent of Tesla and is based on its British and Japanese market iQ model, also may be sold in Japan.
"In Japan, I think customers are probably saying they would use electric vehicles to commute short distances, so we are considering the iQ-based EV," Toyoda said.
Musk and Toyoda spoke to reporters after a ceremony at a dealership of Toyota's luxury Lexus-brand vehicles, just across from Tesla's new Tokyo showroom where a limited-edition Tesla Roadster with a custom "twilight red" paint job was presented to Toyoda.
The car is a right-hand drive twin of Musk's own left hand drive Roadster, which the Toyota CEO drove during a recent visit to Palo Alto.
A123 Systems Sees Shipment Shrink, but Tomorrow Better, Really
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2010/11/11/a123-systems-sees-shipment-shrink-but-tomorrow-bet.aspx
Michael Kanellos, Greentechmedia.com
November 11, 2010
Another quarter, another urge to look to the future from A123 Systems (Nasdaq: AONE).
The Massachusetts-based battery company today reported third quarter revenue of $26.2 million, an increase of $23.6 million, and reiterated an alliance to produce car batteries for the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp.
That was the good news. Here's the bad news. Losses increased to $43.7 million over $22.8 million from the same period the year before. More ominous, product shipments are dropping. The company shipped the equivalent of 15.8 million watt hours of batteries in the quarter, down from 17.1 million in the same quarter a year ago. Shipments for the first three quarters have dropped to 44.2 million watt hours compared to 44.8 million for the first nine months of 2009.
Product revenue in the quarter dropped from $19 million to $20 million a year ago. The bump in revenue came from a rise in revenue from service projects.
The Fisker Karma comes out later this year and will be powered by A123 Systems batteries. What do these shipments mean for the Karma, which has been delayed from late 2009, to September 2010 to sometime soon. Transportation revenue grew to $9.5 million from $8.3 million in the quarter, but has declined to $30 million from $34 million for the first three quarters.
Last quarter, the company stated that it is dropping out of a project to supply batteries to Fiat/Chrysler for electric cars and urged investors to look to the future. (Not the three months away future. The future.)
Last year, A123 lost out on the GM Volt contract, and longtime customer Black and Decker began to phase out incorporating A123 batteries in its power tools.
The company is also experiencing increased competition from other companies. Phil Gow, vice president of battery systems at Coda Automotive, told us at The Networked EV yesterday that Lio Energy Systems, Coda's sister battery company, can make batteries for $500 a kilowatt hour. Tesla Motors (Nasdaq: TSLA) CEO Elon Musk recently told us that his company can produce battery packs for less than $700 to $600 a kilowatt hour. The quote is in the first video, the Zapruder film of EV videos.
Charlie Vartanian, an A123 exec speaking at the Emerging Technologies Summit in Sacramento this week, said that A123 was approaching the $1000 per kilowatt mark when talking about grid storage battery packs. It's not a direct comparison, but it underscores the challenges.
Disclosure: I've been somewhat skeptical of A123 for some time, so I stand accused of sometimes taking a more critical slant on this topic than other reporters. But those are the numbers.
Flow Batteries Coming Into Homes?
For approximately $7,500, you might soon be able to get a 30-kilowatt-hour flow battery to match your solar panels.
Sacramento--Flow batteries soon won't be just for utilities and cell phone carriers anymore if Premium Power is right.
The North Reading, Mass.-based company is currently working on a device called the HomeFlow, a scaled-down version of the zinc bromide flow batteries it currently sells to industrial customers. The HomeFlow will store approximately 30 kilowatt-hours of energy, have a 10-kilowatt rating, and cost around $7,500, said Doug Alderton, director of government sales at the company during a session at the Emerging Technologies Summit earlier this week in Sacramento.
The price includes an inverter, so if you are linking it up to a solar system, your costs will be lower.
The ambitious company seems to want to become the Dell Computers of flow batteries. It plans on bringing out a variety of flow batteries -- ranging from the HomeFlow to a 6 megawatt-hour/2-megawatt behemoth that would function like a power plant -- based around a basic building block made from 54 cells. (Dell, in its heyday, mastered the art of designing a few basic SKUs and tweaking them to produce a complete product line.)
Just above the HomeFlow in the product line is the ZincFlow, a 45-kilowatt-hour/15 kilowatt machine. The LocalFlow is next in the line at 100 kilowatt hours/30 kilowatts. The TransFlow 2000, which can hold 2.8 megawatt-hours of energy, has a 500 kilowatt rating, and is 53 feet long. The company is in the process of installing five near Syracuse and Sacramento to help curb peak power in those two regions. (Editor's note: Premium rates its batteries by both kilowatt hours and kilowatts.)
If successful, the batteries will help delay grid upgrades. Other applications exist as well. Lee Burrows of VantagePoint Venture Partners in an earlier interview suggested that flow batteries could be used to recharge electric cars instead of high-speed charging stations.
And, like Dell, the company wants to make them cheap. Most of Premium's flow batteries cost $250 to $300 a kilowatt hour or $250 to $350 a kilowatt. That's incredibly cheap. Rival Deeya Energy last year came out with flow batteries that cost $4,000 a kilowatt. A123 Systems, which makes lithium ion batteries, makes battery packs that are close to $1,000 a kilowatt hour, said company exec Charliee Vartanian at the same conference.
The company's batteries last 30 years and take up 1/15th of the space of conventional batteries, he added.
Whether and when Premium Power can achieve its goals remains to be seen, but the potential is intriguing. At these rates, storage could be added fairly easily to wind farms and solar arrays. Government officials and developers in Africa have been regularly calling the company to see if Premium's batteries could power microgrids.
Flow batteries pretty much act like their name suggests. A charged electrolyte infused with zinc and bromide ions flows from one tank to another. The trick is in coming up with a battery design that allows the zinc to continually be recycled. After zinc bromide is broken up into its separate elements (a key part of the process for harvesting electrons), the zinc adheres to plates inside the battery. That plate has to be polished before the recharging process can begin again.
Zinc bromide, he added, is a byproduct of shellfish. In other words, there's a lot of it.
The Fuel-Cell-Powered F-CELL
In addition, an update about the U.S. rollout of the fuel-cell-powered Mercedes-Benz F-CELL car will take place at the Mercedes-Benz exhibit during news media activities prior to the public opening of the show. Essentially an electric car that makes its own power on board, the Mercedes-Benz F-CELL boasts 54 miles per gallon (EPA combined city-highway equivalent fuel mileage) and a range of about 230 miles. Running on compressed hydrogen, and with water as the F-CELL's only exhaust emission, the hydrogen and air react without combustion in the fuel cell, producing current to run the 136-horsepower electric motor. The F-CELL is also equipped with a 35-kilowatt lithium-ion battery that stores recovered braking energy, helps provide instant acceleration and ensures fast starting in very cold weather.
The hydrogen gas is stored in 10,150-psi tanks that can be refueled in only three minutes. Beginning in Southern California, the new F-CELL car is being offered through a lease program in markets with growing networks of hydrogen refueling stations.
Research and Markets: This Electric Buses and Taxis 2011-2021 Report Forecasts the Industry to Grow to $60 Billion
DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Research and Markets
(http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/5a5f62/electric_buses_and) has announced the addition of the "Electric Buses and Taxis 2011-2021" report to their offering.
The electrification of commercial on-road transport is now being progressed strongly by both paybacks and mandates of local and national governments across the world. Even where paybacks are underwhelming, the green agendas of the participants is driving things forward but there are impediments too, including up-front cost and the poor range and reliability of some versions and the practicality and cost of infrastructure. This report gives numbers and value for hybrid and for pure electric buses and taxis, market drivers and overall transport statistics to put this in context. The most active countries are identified and projections specifically for China are given. Large numbers of suppliers are identifies and some interesting ones are profiled. Drive trains and batteries are examined.
This is the world's first report forecasting the global market for electric buses and taxis both hybrid and pure electric. It separately forecasts the market in the most important country, China, and it takes a detailed look at technologies present and future with a blunt assessment of reasons for failure and threats for the future, not just the positive aspects. The market for electric buses and taxis will rise 8.7 times from 2011 to 2021, approaching $60 billion not long after that. The buses will be designed exclusively for purpose, though some will have power trains used for trucks as well. The taxis will largely consist of regular cars and people movers with modest adaptation. We explain why, for both, this is the decade of the hybrid but with pure electric versions coming up fast. China will become by far the largest market for both electric buses and electric taxis within the decade. This report looks at the statistics and trends for conventional buses and taxis, the government incentives, paybacks and new technologies with detailed tables and figures to summarise the situation, so the reader can understand the situation with ease. There are no rambling anecdotes or cut and paste of catalog items here - this is all summary, comparison and prediction with numbers, unit values, specifications and a profusion of images.
This uniquely up to date reference book is extremely thorough. Just one of the tables lists 78 hybrid bus manufacturers with country and product image, another lists 53 pure electric bus manufacturers with country and product image and another compares 68 lithium-ion traction battery manufacturers with cathode and anode chemistry and other technical detail and who is using these batteries - naming bus, car and other companies using them, explaining who is winning and why. There is a table comparing eight electric taxi projects with country, image and commentary, including technical detail, and another comparing many fuel cell bus trials. Many of the figures are graphs, bar charts, pie charts, and other analysis to allow you to assess the situation quickly and conveniently.
The market forecasts cover units, unit prices and total market value 2011-2021 backed up by forecasts for the market for all types of bus taken together, each for global and separately China. Taxi number, unit value and market value is similarly forecasted and the whole is put in the context of statistics for past sales and production output by manufacturer and forecasts for the electric vehicle market as a whole. The leading suppliers are identified. Transmission manufacturers are compared using sectioned technical diagrams. There is a glossary of terms and one hour of free consultancy with every purchase will answer any questions you have remaining.
In addition, all report purchases include one hour free consulting with a report author from IDTechEx, by email or telephone. This needs to be used within three months of purchasing the report.
Electric Vehicle Summit at Greentech Media’s Networked EV Event
Tesla, Coda, BYD, GM and Panasonic weigh in on their upcoming electric vehicles and batteries.
Reporting from Greentech Media's The Networked EV event in San Francisco:
Electric Vehicles (EVs) aren't new, but the next-generation EVs hitting the market in late 2010 and 2011 will mark the first time in the history of EVs where price and performance might actually live up to the hype.
In a panel moderated by Greentech Media Editor-In-Chief, Michael Kanellos, the audience assembled at the PG&E auditorium got to hear from automakers about what could be the year that electric vehicles broke and a bit about the batteries that make them go.
Diarmuid O'Connell, Vice President of Business Development at Tesla Motors, focused on his firm's big bet -- the Model S sedan that's due in 2012 and is being built at the immense Nummi plant in Fremont. See Taking the Tesla Factory Tour and their Q3 Earnings data here.
Dave Barthmuss, Group Manager, Western Region, Environment & Energy Communications, General Motors, celebrated GM being "back in the business of electric vehicles."
He said that the "Chevy Volt is a kick to drive" and spoke of the "instant torque" when you step on the accelerator. He saw the vehicle's 50-mile range as the sweet spot and regards the charging engine as being able to alleviate range anxiety. The battery takes three to four hours to charge at 220 volts and ten to twelve hours at 120 volts. The car will be in showrooms at the end of the year.
Peter M. Fannon, Vice President, Technology Policy, Panasonic Corp. of North America, said that by 2019, Panasonic wants to get one-third of their revenue from energy-related activities and to be the number-one green manufacturer in the world.
Panasonic has a long history in electric vehicles; they made the nickel metal hydride (NiMh) batteries for the hybrid Prius and are now the supplier of choice for the lithium-ion cells for the Tesla Roadster. They recently announced a $30 million investment in Tesla and they expect to see their batteries halve in price over the coming years (see Panasonic Invests $30M in Tesla).
Liam Li, Senior Business Director, BYD America, dropped what was for this reporter one of the biggest pieces of news of the session -- the $25,000 cost of the BYD electric vehicle will be subsidized by about half by the Chinese government for Chinese consumers. Compare that to the Chevy Volt, which will retail at about $30,000 after tax credits.
Phil Gow, Vice President, Battery Systems, CODA Automotive, spoke of his firm's 4-door, 5-passenger EV sedan that is equipped with the standard amenities you'd expect on any car in this class -- air bags, anti-lock brakes, etc. It has a 90-to-120-mile all-season range from the 33.8-kWh LiFe PO4 battery system. Read more about Coda's pricing here and about the recent CEO issues here.
And while we're talking EVs, you can read about Wright Speed's recent funding announcement and view a video test drive with Michael Kanellos here.
The Greentech Media event, however, wasn't meant to focus solely on the cars themselves, but rather on the relationship of those vehicles to the grid and the impact of charging millions of EVs on an electric grid not yet engineered for that purpose. We'll discuss this impact and the role of EVs as the gateway drug for adding smarts to the utility grid and the way it will change the consumer's relationship to the grid in upcoming articles. Stay tuned.
New grant paves the way for transformative science at magnet lab
Scientists at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory at The Florida State University are working to open a new frontier in chemistry, biology and materials studies, thanks to a recent $1.3 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF).
To explore that new frontier, magnet-lab researchers are developing a spectrometer (a machine that measures the mass of molecules) to work with a powerful new magnet. The grant will pay for the design and construction of a portable, 500-pound-plus array of electronic amplifiers and devices needed to advance science. Construction of the magnet, known as the Series Connected Hybrid, started in 2006 with an $11.7 million grant from the NSF.
When completed in 2013, the combined tools will allow scientists "to perform potentially transformative science in an unexplored magnetic-field range for a broad range of applications, from biological tissues to battery materials," magnet-lab physicist Bill Brey The spectrometer will enable researchers to use nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques similar in principle to those employed by MRI machines — but at very high magnetic fields. Hospitals routinely scan patients inside MRI machines whose magnets produce a field of no more than 3 tesla. (Tesla is a scientific measure of magnetic-field intensity; by comparison, the Earth's magnetic field is about 0.00005 tesla.) What makes the Series Connected Hybrid magnet unique is that it will combine an amazingly powerful magnetic-field strength of 36 tesla with the field quality needed for NMR.
"For nuclear magnetic resonance, 23 tesla is now the cutting edge for science," Brey said. "So 36 tesla is years and years beyond the cutting edge. It's an increase in field strength of more than 50 percent."
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Nov 11, 2010 Li-ion related news
Daimler CEO: Electric Cars Are Overhyped By CHRISTOPH RAUWALD FRANKFURT
—Daimler AG Chief Executive Dieter Zetsche said Thursday that expectations for the development of electric cars are over-optimistic and predicted returns for companies will be small. View Full Image
Bloomberg News Dieter Zetsche, chief executive officer of Daimler AG."In 10 years' time, the overall market share of electric cars is likely to be still in the single-digit percentage range," Mr. Zetsche said during a Daimler event in Stuttgart, according to a prepared statement. "In principle it's similar to [U.S.] President [Barack] Obama—first, expectations are being raised externally and then people are surprised they don't get fulfilled. From today's perspective it's already clear [that] we won't earn high returns with electric cars in the years to come. And that's the optimistic wording."Mr. Zetsche added, however, that major investments in research and development are needed now to be competitive in 10 years because "in the long run there's no alternative to electric driving." He said Daimler is "fully on track" to produce its first electric cars from 2012 with annual production volumes in "the five-digit" range. Daimler presented an electric version of its Mercedes-Benz A-Class vehicle at the Paris motor show in October. Global auto makers are investing heavily in electric vehicles and zero-emission driving to comply with tightening emission regulations world-wide. But several technical obstacles, mainly relating to the battery, persist and the costs for electric vehicles remain high.
Electric Cars Shift Industry's Marketing LandscapeTOKYO (Nikkei)
--With the domestic car market projected to shrink over time, one trend could significantly change how and where cars are sold: the rise of gasoline-electric-hybrids and all-electric vehicles.
Nissan's all-electric Leaf will transmit data on battery status and other information to a data center, which will enhance the carmaker's service and marketing.Mitsubishi Motors Corp. (7211) announced on Tuesday a partnership with home appliance retailer Bic Camera Inc. (3048) to promote its i-MiEV electric car. Some Bic Camera stores will display the model, which the carmaker hopes will draw a wider range of people to its dealerships.The same day, at Bic Camera's Yurakucho store in central Tokyo, Mitsubishi Motors President Osamu Masuko said more and more electric vehicles will be sold through home appliance retailers.Bic Camera, for its part, hopes to promote electric cars like any other home appliance, said the retailer's president, Hiroyuki Miyajima.Mitsubishi Motors is also exploring tie-ups with two other home appliance retailers, Yamada Denki Co. (9831) and Best Buy Co. of the U.S. For the time being, home appliance stores will not sell cars on their own. Shoppers who like the cars will be pointed in the dealers' direction. But Yamada Denki, which has a subsidiary that sells used cars, is considering selling the i-MiEV on its own.Data nodesElectric cars can be monitored more closely by automakers because they will be connected to the power grid. The growing number of such cars will allow manufacturers to learn more about their customers, and hopefully get them into dealerships more often.Toyota Motor Corp. (7203), which plans to release a plug-in hybrid model in 2012, also aims to put to practical use a "smart home" control system that can manage electricity for electric cars, as well as appliances such as air conditioners.The system, which will gather data on electricity consumption by those devices, is expected to be part of the Toyota group's "smart grid" project that aims to make electricity transmission more efficient.Toyota's nationwide network of about 4,800 dealerships will also offer new services, such as battery recharging, said President Akio Toyoda.Nissan Motor Co. (7201), which will introduce the Leaf electric car in December, will install two 200-volt two-speed chargers at each of its roughly 2,200 dealerships nationwide. The location of the dealers will be displayed on the Leaf's navigation system to help drivers keep their cars juiced up.The carmaker will use battery status and other data collected from Leaf drivers to give it clues about how to market the cars, as well the types of services that are in demand, said Takao Katagiri, Nissan's senior vice president for marketing and sales in Japan.
Solar Cell Shipments Double On FITs, School New DealTOKYO (Nikkei)
--Domestic photovoltaic battery shipments rose 110% on the year to 467,941 kilowatts in terms of power generating capacity in the April-September half, the Japan Photovoltaic Energy Association said Thursday.In November 2009, the government introduced feed-in tariffs, under which utility companies buy, at premium unit prices, excess electricity generated by households using solar cells.That has helped those who installed solar cells halve the period needed to recoup their initial investment costs to about 10 years. As such, the domestic solar cell market has expanded exponentially.In the fiscal 2010 first half, shipments for households, which account for 80% of the overall domestic market, grew 90%.Shipments for the public and industrial sectors surged 520%, due to the "school new deal" policy in which the government subsidizes schools installing solar cells.
Toyota To Introduce All-Electric Car In JapanTOKYO (Nikkei)
--Toyota Motor Corp. (7203) will in 2012 start marketing an all-electric car in Japan based on its iQ subcompact car. Toyota's electric car will be based on iQ.Japan's top carmaker, which had already unveiled a plan to introduce the electric car in 2012 in the U.S. and elsewhere, apparently added Japan to the list to better compete with rivals Mitsubishi Motors Corp. (7211) and Nissan Motor Co. (7201), which are taking the lead in this segment.Toyota aims for the electric vehicle to be capable of traveling 100km or more on a single charge. The new green car will be sold at about 4,800 Toyota dealerships across Japan.Toyota intends to meet customer demand for short distance rides in urban areas where battery charging systems will be well established.
Credit Agricole Cuts A123 (AONE) from Outperform to Underperform
November 10, 2010 11:29 AM EST
Shares of A123 Systems (Nasdaq: AONE) are getting whacked this morning following disappointing Q3 results from the company last night. The stock last traded at $8.86, down 10.9% from yesterday's closing price.
While analysts seem rather-quiet on the quarterly report today, an analyst at Credit Agricole made a convicted Sell call earlier. The analyst downgraded shares of A123 from Outperform to Underperform and also reduced the stock's price target from $12 to $10.
Despite the Underperform rating, Credit Agricole's new price target actually represents potential upside of almost 13% from where the stock is trading today.
UPDATE 1-EnerSys Q2 results beat Street, sees Q3 above viewTue, Nov 9 2010Nov 9 (Reuters)
- EnerSys's (ENS.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) quarterly results beat Wall Street estimates, helped by a jump in sales in the Americas and Europe segments, and the industrial battery maker forecast third quarter earnings above analyst estimates. The company said it sees third-quarter adjusted earnings of 59-63 cents a share, compared with analysts' expectations of 56 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S."Our recent rate of incoming orders continues to show improvement and bodes well for future quarters. In addition, our cost savings programs will continue providing earnings benefits," Chief Executive John Craig said in a statement.For the July-September quarter, the company earned $26.6 million, or 53 cents a share, compared with $12.9 million, or 26 cents a share, a year ago.Excluding restructuring and acquisition-related expenses, the company earned 58 cents a share.Revenue for the company, whose peers include A123 Systems Inc (AONE.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Ener1 Inc (HEV.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Exide Technologies (XIDE.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), jumped 29 percent to $472.8 million.Analysts on average were expecting earnings of 51 cents a share on revenue of $446.9 million.Sales in the company's Americas segment rose 34 percent to $221.1 million, while its European sales rose by 23 percent to $207.4 million.Shares of the Reading, Pennsylvania-based company closed at $27.75 on Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock has gained about 17 percent since August 11, when it reported first-quarter results. (Reporting by Soham Chatterjee in Bangalore; Editing by Prem Udayabhanu)
Dowa Eco-System Commercializes Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Business
Global Round Up - StocksNovember 10, 2010Dowa Eco-System Co., Ltd. (14-1 Sotokanda 4-Chome, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; Capital: YEN1,000 million; President: Yoshito Koga), a subsidiary of Dowa Holdings Co., Ltd. (same location; Capital: YEN36,400 million; President: Masao Yamada), commercializes lithium-ion battery recycling business at its existing facilities. The new business will recycle the scraps produced from the lithium-ion battery manufacturing process as well as used batteries.In addition to their use in mobile phones and home appliances such as personal computers, lithium-ion batteries have rapidly begun to find application in automobiles and other industries. With continued increases in production expected in the future, there is a need to recycle the rare metals contained in lithium-ion batteries, including cobalt, nickel and lithium, even from the perspectives of recycling resources and securing raw materials. Moreover, with the content of expensive metals such as cobalt falling with advancements that have made batteries lighter and cheaper to produce, there is a growing need for appropriate, low-cost recycling solutions. Dowa Eco-System Co., Ltd. recycles metals by collecting the scraps that manufacturers generate in the production process, from the manufacturing of materials for lithium-ion batteries to the production of finished products, as well as by recovering used batteries. High-purity cobalt is recovered from cathode material scrap and recycled as battery cathode raw materials. Utilizing existing facilities such as Dowa's industrial waste intermediate treatment plants, each year over 1,000 tons of used lithium-ion batteries can be received, treated, separated and turned into raw materials for smelting. Further, in the recovery of lithium-ion batteries, Dowa uses the collection and transportation network it has built to enable the efficient collection of shipments. The Dowa Group aims to leverage its strengths in existing businesses, and will respond to rising use of lithium-ion batteries by developing optimum recycling methods that meet the needs of its customers. Dowa Eco-System Co., Ltd. has also developed a technology to refine high-purity lithium from lithium-ion batteries, and is studying the possibility of supplying lithium as a raw material for lithium batteries. Dowa Eco-System will continue to develop its environmental management and recycling business by addressing a wide range of needs of society and its customers, as it aims to become the No. 1 environmental management and recycling company in Japan and across Asia.
Bosch, SDI Venture to Raise South Korea Cell CapacityNovember 10, 2010, 12:43 AM EST(Updates with executive’s comments in fourth paragraph.)Nov. 10 (Bloomberg)
-- SB LiMotive Co., a venture between Samsung SDI Co. and Robert Bosch GmbH, aims to make lithium-ion cells at a plant in Ulsan, South Korea, for use in 180,000 electric cars annually by 2015 to meet demand for the vehicles.Bosch and Samsung SDI today opened the factory in Ulsan, southeast of Seoul, which will start mass production of the cells early next year, SB LiMotive said in an e-mailed statement. The companies said they will jointly invest about $500 million in the venture by 2013.Toyota Motor Corp., Nissan Motor Co. and General Motors Co. are among carmakers spending billions of dollars to speed development of autos that use less or no petroleum to curb greenhouse gases, spurring investment in the electric and hybrid-car battery business. Plug-in cars such as Nissan’s Leaf model and General Motors’ Volt could make up 9 percent of U.S. auto sales by 2020 and 22 percent in 2030, Bloomberg New Energy Finance said last month.SB LiMotive will supply lithium-ion battery packs to Chrysler Group LLC as well as cells to Bayerische Motoren Werke AG from 2012, Lee Jin Gun, the venture’s chief executive officer, said in Ulsan today at the opening of the new plant.Shares AdvanceSamsung SDI, which Information Technology estimates may become the world’s biggest maker of lithium-ion batteries this year, rose 0.9 percent to 160,500 won as of 1:27 p.m. in Seoul trading. The company, based in Yongin, South Korea, has gained 8.1 percent this year.Stuttgart, Germany-based Bosch, the world’s largest auto- parts maker, formed the venture with Samsung SDI in 2008 to produce batteries for hybrid and electric vehicles. The venture was set up in South Korea and began production in 2010.SB LiMotive is currently in talks with other carmakers from Europe, the U.S. and Asia, Samsung SDI CEO Choi Chi Hun said today at the factory opening without elaborating.
Thunder Sky Battery to net MVP RV for e-vehicle plant in HK
Thunder Sky Battery Ltd<0729>, a lithium-ion battery producer, is scheduled to team up with the U.S.-based MVP RV Inc to spend approximate HK$10 billion in total to build an electric-vehicle plant in Hong Kong next year. According to Zhong Xin Jia, vice president of the listed firm, at the 25th World Electric Vehicle Symposium and Exposition Symposium and Exhibition held in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, Thunder Sky Battery will have a rapid business growth in the next ten years, but he did not disclose the details of the new plant. MVP RV's website shows that the firm is located in southern California and mainly manufactures travel trailers, toy haulers and fifth-wheel trailers. Thunder Sky Battery's competitive ability is the huge capacity of up to 10,000 ampere hours in lithium-ion batteries, which need only 20 minutes to be charged up, Zhong added. In addition, the Hong Kong-listed company is in talks with potential partners to enter the public e-vehicle market in Shenzhen, in which the local government hopes to have 4,000 electrical buses and 6,000 electrical taxies by the end of 2011.
Honda, Long Skeptical on Battery EVs, Does an About-Face
Honda (HMC), whose global business is looking robust despite the strong yen, is taking the plunge into electric cars for the U.S. market. Honda has been one of the last holdouts against battery cars, preferring to field hybrids and, for the longer term, fuel-cell electrics.What’s happened, obviously, is a worldwide rollout of EVs that threatens to leave Honda behind. There are very few automakers today without a plug-in strategy. But Honda is in a very good position, even if it is late to the EV market. The company has a long history of delivering almost eerily flawless fuel-sipping cars to American consumers, so it has a considerable amount of goodwill to bank on as it fields an EV. Plus it has dealers and an advertising budget that should move some cars.Former Honda CEO Takeo Fukui was a skeptic about battery EVs, but successor Takanobu Ito, who took office in 2009, is bullish. He told Reuters, “It’s starting to look like there will be a market for electric vehicles. We can’t keep shooting down their potential, and we can’t say there’s no business case for it.”Ito also offered what has become a truism among companies with battery EVs: Despite the fear of “range anxiety,” not everybody needs 300 miles between plug ins or fill-ups. And although Honda is showing both a plug-in hybrid and a battery-only electric commuter car in Los Angeles next week, he seems to have taken a stand on the technology. “Plug-in hybrids are essentially for people who drive short distances, but it has the handicap of having an engine, a motor and a stack of batteries,” he said. “Why wouldn’t you just drive a [battery] EV?”Honda says it will commercialize both a battery car and a plug-in hybrid for the U.S. market in 2012. I expect that it will follow Toyota’s lead and adapt the Civic Hybrid to plug-in status. Further, it’s coalescing around the lithium-ion battery technology basic to EVs, and will use li-ion in the next generation Honda Civic Hybrid, also planned for release in 2011 as a 2012 model. Honda’s has a joint-venture partnership with GS Yuasa in the li-ion company Blue Energy.It’s late 2010, so Honda will have to play catch-up with the rest of the industry, but it’s doing exactly that. According to Honda U.S. spokesman Chris Naughton, the company will bring its first EVs to the U.S. late this year for demonstration programs at Stanford University, Google and the City of Torrance, California. Torrance will get a plug-in hybrid for evaluation by the end of 2010, which is really quick for a car nobody’s actually seen (but will see in Los Angeles next week).“This is consistent with our strategy of the last few decades, considering the whole range of powertrains,” Naughton said. “We have the natural gas Civic, diesels in Europe, and the FCX Clarity hydrogen car, as well as an EV history with the first U.S. hybrid in the 1999 70-mpg Insight and the [EV-1 competitor] Honda EVPlus [pictured at top'].”Naughton pointed out that the FCX Clarity, one of the more sophisticated fuel-cell vehicles with 300-mile range, is actually an electric car with hydrogen replacing a battery pack. “We’re building an ever-growing knowledge base of running cars with electricity, whether fuel cell and doing it in a way that is smooth and seamless to the driver.”And that, of course, speaks to Honda’s natural advantage in the EV space, even as a latecomer with no history of battery cars. I’d buy a Honda plug-in hybrid, wouldn’t you? After all, I already own a Honda Fit, and would love to get my hands on the hybrid version that the company is rolling out everywhere but North America.Honda is also in a strong position to bankroll EV programs, having reported a $2 billion global profit in the third quarter (up 150 percent from the year before). U.S. sales were down because of the strong yen, but Asia is very strong. On balance, the company recently lowered its projections for world sales this year by 25,000 to 3.6 million cars. The cuts are in Europe and North America; Asian forecasts are up.
Mitsui Engineering-Shipbuilding logs first orders for hybrid container cranesby Eric Loveday
Container cranes at the Port of Seattle
Container cranes, like the massive units pictured above, transfer cargo from ships to the docks. The sheer size of such units, at least when viewed in person, negates any thought that one of these behemoths could accomplish such heavy-lifting tasks with power supplied by a lithium-ion battery pack. Well, it's time to strike that thought because Mitsui Engineering and Shipbuilding Co. (MES) has now proven that hybrid container cranes, packing massive li-ion power packs, are more than capable of hauling the heaviest of loads. The Nikkei states that MES' hybrid cranes are:Designed with large lithium-ion battery packs that store electricity generated every time a load is lowered by the crane and supply that electricity to a motor that provides supplemental power to move the crane. This reduces the need to run the engine, which in turn helps reduce the crane's carbon dioxide emissions by 60 percent.MES logged a four-unit order for its newly developed hybrid container cranes and will begin production immediately. Once complete, the cranes will find a resting place at two harbor-operation companies: one located in Tokyo, and the other in the Japanese city of Kobe. The units should be installed by May of 2011 and cost 150 million yen ($1.86 million U.S. at the current exchange rate) a piece.
Altair Nanotechnologies Reports Third Quarter 2010 Financial ResultsRENO, NV, Nov 04, 2010 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX)
-- Altair Nanotechnologies, Inc. (Altairnano) /quotes/comstock/15*!alti/quotes/nls/alti (ALTI 0.64, -0.02, -2.80%) , a provider of advanced lithium-ion battery technologies and systems, today reported financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2010. "In the third quarter we took a major step forward in securing our financial future. In September, we entered into a Share Subscription Agreement with Canon Investment Holdings whereby they will invest $48.9 million into the company in return for a controlling interest. We also signed a concurrent supply and license agreement with Zhuhai Yintong Energy Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of Canon, that provides access to the vast Chinese market," said Dr. Terry Copeland, Altairnano's president and CEO. "We are excited about the potential that the Canon and YTE relationship creates for both of our companies." Recent Highlights
-- On September 20, 2010 we signed a Share Subscription Agreement and related documents with Canon Investment Holdings Ltd. whereby Canon has agreed to purchase newly issued shares of the Company's common stock providing the Company with $48.9M in capital. Upon closing, Canon will have a 51% ownership stake in the Company calculated on a fully diluted basis.
-- On September 20, 2010 we signed a purchase and license agreement with Zhuhai Yintong Energy Co. Ltd. (YTE) pursuant to which YTE has agreed to purchase $6.6 million of product before the end of 2011. On November 1, 2010, YTE placed a purchase order for the first $2.2 million of this contract and accelerated its delivery into the fourth quarter of this year.
-- As a result of the Canon investment the At the Market financing vehicle with Thomas Weisel Partners was suspended.
-- We began delivering battery modules under the long-term Proterra contract announced in our Q2 earnings release.
-- We introduced an Altairnano battery applications kit that will enable prospective customers to experiment with our battery for use and applicability in their specific development efforts.
-- Our Board of Directors made the decision to remain a Canadian corporation and not change our domestication to the State of Nevada.
-- Our Board of Directors made the decision to execute a 4:1 reverse stock split at the close of business on November 15, 2010.
Financial Highlights for third quarter 2010 compared to third quarter 2009
-- Revenue of $2.0 million compared to $1.7 million.
-- Gross margin of $0.5 million compared to $1.1 million.
-- Operating expenses of $5.8 million compared to $5.3 million.
-- Net loss of $5.3 million compared to $3.3 million.
-- Net cash burn of $0.7 million compared to $4.8 million.
SK committed to boosting Korea’s national competitiveness in core industries
SK Group, a leading player in the global energy and telecommunication industry, has contributed to the growth and advancement of Korea by strengthening the nation’s key industries.
Having started its business as a textile factory, SK has come along with the growth of the Korean economy by committing to the national economic development focusing its ability on a variable and wide range. The group’s business encompasses basic industries like energy and textile as well as next generation core business sectors including cutting-edge telecommunication.
SK started exporting fiber in 1958 for the first time as a Korean firm and became the first producer of basic polyester thread in Korea. In 1973, it established Sunkyung Petroleum, making the foundation of the horizontal systemization from petroleum to fiber. In 1980, it formed a full scale of basis by taking over the privatized Korean Petroleum Public Corporation. As a result, in early 1990s, it could complete a specialized horizontal systemization from petroleum to fiber by finishing a large petro-chemistry plan.
Also from 1983, SK started to develop overseas oil fields for a stable domestic crude oil supply. It participated in petroleum development projects in 24 oil fields in 14 countries around the world and to realize the dream of making Korea an oil producing country.
It was in the mid-1980s that SK began pioneering the telecommunication sector, widening its business range. The group formed a basis of general information communications business by breaking into the information communication with the 10-year long-term view.
SK Group made Korea one of the leading countries in information communication in 1996 by succeeding in the commercialization of digital mobile phones using the code division multiple access method for the first time in the world.
After 2000s, SK began leading the digital convergence era by offering a variety of services including wireless internet. In 2004, it succeeded in launching the digital mobile broadcasting satellite, which came to commercialize a multimedia service using satellite.
SK in 2006 devoted itself to revitalizing the local mobile phone market by introducing 3.5 generation mobile phones. It also started providing consumers with a more advance service by constructing a nationwide high-speed downlink packet access network in the first half year of 2007. The HSDPA refers to an enhanced third-generation mobile telephony communications protocol.
SK is still seeking to further increase the national competitiveness of Korea with innovative, new values, despite the accomplishments it has achieved so far in developing the national basic industries such as energy and chemistry and cutting-edge information communication sector.
The group plans to strengthen major capabilities that it already possesses while moving forward with new, related businesses in the energy and chemistry sector which SK has been playing a role as an engine behind national economic growth.
Particularly as an energy industry leader SK plan to accelerate businesses on the development and exploration of oil fields focusing on strategic regions. It will also continue committing to supplying stable and economical energy locally while putting more increasing efforts to developing alternative energy sources.
SK strongly supports “low carbon, green growth,” a vision and goal which is projected to be crucial for building a sustainable future in a post-oil era.
In 2004, SK became Korea’s first and the world’s third developer of lithium-ion batteries, a key component in secondary batteries that power electric cars. Against this backdrop, SK is now gearing up for commercial production of secondary batteries, and the company has been chosen as a lithium-ion battery supplier for Germany’s Daimler-Chrysler and Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group.
Moreover, SK is actively preparing to commercialize green technologies, including green pol (eco-friendly plastic made of industrially emitted carbon dioxide) and green coal (clean energy derived from low-rank coal).
Since the onset of the 2008 financial crisis, SK adopted a global and sustainable approach to three areas of business: new energy sources, smart environments and innovative technology. In order to secure growth engines for the future, the company announced its plans to invest a total of 17.5 trillion won by the year of 2020.
US: Tesla reports Q3 loss
Electric sportscar maker Tesla has reported a third-quarter loss of US$34.9m compared with a loss of US$4.6m in the same period last year when the company was still privately held.Sales totalled US$31.2m, down from US$45.5m in the third quarter a year ago.Chief executive office Elon Musk said, however, that the company is pushing ahead with plans to “spend heavily” over the next nine quarters to get the Model S sedan into production.He told Bloomberg News: “Attaining quarterly profitability isn’t a goal. We’re very focused on long-term profitability.”Tesla, based in Palo Alto, California, intends to become the auto industry’s leader in battery-powered cars, aided by supply agreements with Toyota and Daimler.The company is refurbishing a the former Toyota-General Motors joint-venture factory in Fremont, California, which is scheduled to begin making the US$57,400 Model S by mid-2012.
—Daimler AG Chief Executive Dieter Zetsche said Thursday that expectations for the development of electric cars are over-optimistic and predicted returns for companies will be small. View Full Image
Bloomberg News Dieter Zetsche, chief executive officer of Daimler AG."In 10 years' time, the overall market share of electric cars is likely to be still in the single-digit percentage range," Mr. Zetsche said during a Daimler event in Stuttgart, according to a prepared statement. "In principle it's similar to [U.S.] President [Barack] Obama—first, expectations are being raised externally and then people are surprised they don't get fulfilled. From today's perspective it's already clear [that] we won't earn high returns with electric cars in the years to come. And that's the optimistic wording."Mr. Zetsche added, however, that major investments in research and development are needed now to be competitive in 10 years because "in the long run there's no alternative to electric driving." He said Daimler is "fully on track" to produce its first electric cars from 2012 with annual production volumes in "the five-digit" range. Daimler presented an electric version of its Mercedes-Benz A-Class vehicle at the Paris motor show in October. Global auto makers are investing heavily in electric vehicles and zero-emission driving to comply with tightening emission regulations world-wide. But several technical obstacles, mainly relating to the battery, persist and the costs for electric vehicles remain high.
Electric Cars Shift Industry's Marketing LandscapeTOKYO (Nikkei)
--With the domestic car market projected to shrink over time, one trend could significantly change how and where cars are sold: the rise of gasoline-electric-hybrids and all-electric vehicles.
Nissan's all-electric Leaf will transmit data on battery status and other information to a data center, which will enhance the carmaker's service and marketing.Mitsubishi Motors Corp. (7211) announced on Tuesday a partnership with home appliance retailer Bic Camera Inc. (3048) to promote its i-MiEV electric car. Some Bic Camera stores will display the model, which the carmaker hopes will draw a wider range of people to its dealerships.The same day, at Bic Camera's Yurakucho store in central Tokyo, Mitsubishi Motors President Osamu Masuko said more and more electric vehicles will be sold through home appliance retailers.Bic Camera, for its part, hopes to promote electric cars like any other home appliance, said the retailer's president, Hiroyuki Miyajima.Mitsubishi Motors is also exploring tie-ups with two other home appliance retailers, Yamada Denki Co. (9831) and Best Buy Co. of the U.S. For the time being, home appliance stores will not sell cars on their own. Shoppers who like the cars will be pointed in the dealers' direction. But Yamada Denki, which has a subsidiary that sells used cars, is considering selling the i-MiEV on its own.Data nodesElectric cars can be monitored more closely by automakers because they will be connected to the power grid. The growing number of such cars will allow manufacturers to learn more about their customers, and hopefully get them into dealerships more often.Toyota Motor Corp. (7203), which plans to release a plug-in hybrid model in 2012, also aims to put to practical use a "smart home" control system that can manage electricity for electric cars, as well as appliances such as air conditioners.The system, which will gather data on electricity consumption by those devices, is expected to be part of the Toyota group's "smart grid" project that aims to make electricity transmission more efficient.Toyota's nationwide network of about 4,800 dealerships will also offer new services, such as battery recharging, said President Akio Toyoda.Nissan Motor Co. (7201), which will introduce the Leaf electric car in December, will install two 200-volt two-speed chargers at each of its roughly 2,200 dealerships nationwide. The location of the dealers will be displayed on the Leaf's navigation system to help drivers keep their cars juiced up.The carmaker will use battery status and other data collected from Leaf drivers to give it clues about how to market the cars, as well the types of services that are in demand, said Takao Katagiri, Nissan's senior vice president for marketing and sales in Japan.
Solar Cell Shipments Double On FITs, School New DealTOKYO (Nikkei)
--Domestic photovoltaic battery shipments rose 110% on the year to 467,941 kilowatts in terms of power generating capacity in the April-September half, the Japan Photovoltaic Energy Association said Thursday.In November 2009, the government introduced feed-in tariffs, under which utility companies buy, at premium unit prices, excess electricity generated by households using solar cells.That has helped those who installed solar cells halve the period needed to recoup their initial investment costs to about 10 years. As such, the domestic solar cell market has expanded exponentially.In the fiscal 2010 first half, shipments for households, which account for 80% of the overall domestic market, grew 90%.Shipments for the public and industrial sectors surged 520%, due to the "school new deal" policy in which the government subsidizes schools installing solar cells.
Toyota To Introduce All-Electric Car In JapanTOKYO (Nikkei)
--Toyota Motor Corp. (7203) will in 2012 start marketing an all-electric car in Japan based on its iQ subcompact car. Toyota's electric car will be based on iQ.Japan's top carmaker, which had already unveiled a plan to introduce the electric car in 2012 in the U.S. and elsewhere, apparently added Japan to the list to better compete with rivals Mitsubishi Motors Corp. (7211) and Nissan Motor Co. (7201), which are taking the lead in this segment.Toyota aims for the electric vehicle to be capable of traveling 100km or more on a single charge. The new green car will be sold at about 4,800 Toyota dealerships across Japan.Toyota intends to meet customer demand for short distance rides in urban areas where battery charging systems will be well established.
Credit Agricole Cuts A123 (AONE) from Outperform to Underperform
November 10, 2010 11:29 AM EST
Shares of A123 Systems (Nasdaq: AONE) are getting whacked this morning following disappointing Q3 results from the company last night. The stock last traded at $8.86, down 10.9% from yesterday's closing price.
While analysts seem rather-quiet on the quarterly report today, an analyst at Credit Agricole made a convicted Sell call earlier. The analyst downgraded shares of A123 from Outperform to Underperform and also reduced the stock's price target from $12 to $10.
Despite the Underperform rating, Credit Agricole's new price target actually represents potential upside of almost 13% from where the stock is trading today.
UPDATE 1-EnerSys Q2 results beat Street, sees Q3 above viewTue, Nov 9 2010Nov 9 (Reuters)
- EnerSys's (ENS.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) quarterly results beat Wall Street estimates, helped by a jump in sales in the Americas and Europe segments, and the industrial battery maker forecast third quarter earnings above analyst estimates. The company said it sees third-quarter adjusted earnings of 59-63 cents a share, compared with analysts' expectations of 56 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S."Our recent rate of incoming orders continues to show improvement and bodes well for future quarters. In addition, our cost savings programs will continue providing earnings benefits," Chief Executive John Craig said in a statement.For the July-September quarter, the company earned $26.6 million, or 53 cents a share, compared with $12.9 million, or 26 cents a share, a year ago.Excluding restructuring and acquisition-related expenses, the company earned 58 cents a share.Revenue for the company, whose peers include A123 Systems Inc (AONE.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Ener1 Inc (HEV.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Exide Technologies (XIDE.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), jumped 29 percent to $472.8 million.Analysts on average were expecting earnings of 51 cents a share on revenue of $446.9 million.Sales in the company's Americas segment rose 34 percent to $221.1 million, while its European sales rose by 23 percent to $207.4 million.Shares of the Reading, Pennsylvania-based company closed at $27.75 on Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock has gained about 17 percent since August 11, when it reported first-quarter results. (Reporting by Soham Chatterjee in Bangalore; Editing by Prem Udayabhanu)
Dowa Eco-System Commercializes Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Business
Global Round Up - StocksNovember 10, 2010Dowa Eco-System Co., Ltd. (14-1 Sotokanda 4-Chome, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; Capital: YEN1,000 million; President: Yoshito Koga), a subsidiary of Dowa Holdings Co., Ltd. (same location; Capital: YEN36,400 million; President: Masao Yamada), commercializes lithium-ion battery recycling business at its existing facilities. The new business will recycle the scraps produced from the lithium-ion battery manufacturing process as well as used batteries.In addition to their use in mobile phones and home appliances such as personal computers, lithium-ion batteries have rapidly begun to find application in automobiles and other industries. With continued increases in production expected in the future, there is a need to recycle the rare metals contained in lithium-ion batteries, including cobalt, nickel and lithium, even from the perspectives of recycling resources and securing raw materials. Moreover, with the content of expensive metals such as cobalt falling with advancements that have made batteries lighter and cheaper to produce, there is a growing need for appropriate, low-cost recycling solutions. Dowa Eco-System Co., Ltd. recycles metals by collecting the scraps that manufacturers generate in the production process, from the manufacturing of materials for lithium-ion batteries to the production of finished products, as well as by recovering used batteries. High-purity cobalt is recovered from cathode material scrap and recycled as battery cathode raw materials. Utilizing existing facilities such as Dowa's industrial waste intermediate treatment plants, each year over 1,000 tons of used lithium-ion batteries can be received, treated, separated and turned into raw materials for smelting. Further, in the recovery of lithium-ion batteries, Dowa uses the collection and transportation network it has built to enable the efficient collection of shipments. The Dowa Group aims to leverage its strengths in existing businesses, and will respond to rising use of lithium-ion batteries by developing optimum recycling methods that meet the needs of its customers. Dowa Eco-System Co., Ltd. has also developed a technology to refine high-purity lithium from lithium-ion batteries, and is studying the possibility of supplying lithium as a raw material for lithium batteries. Dowa Eco-System will continue to develop its environmental management and recycling business by addressing a wide range of needs of society and its customers, as it aims to become the No. 1 environmental management and recycling company in Japan and across Asia.
Bosch, SDI Venture to Raise South Korea Cell CapacityNovember 10, 2010, 12:43 AM EST(Updates with executive’s comments in fourth paragraph.)Nov. 10 (Bloomberg)
-- SB LiMotive Co., a venture between Samsung SDI Co. and Robert Bosch GmbH, aims to make lithium-ion cells at a plant in Ulsan, South Korea, for use in 180,000 electric cars annually by 2015 to meet demand for the vehicles.Bosch and Samsung SDI today opened the factory in Ulsan, southeast of Seoul, which will start mass production of the cells early next year, SB LiMotive said in an e-mailed statement. The companies said they will jointly invest about $500 million in the venture by 2013.Toyota Motor Corp., Nissan Motor Co. and General Motors Co. are among carmakers spending billions of dollars to speed development of autos that use less or no petroleum to curb greenhouse gases, spurring investment in the electric and hybrid-car battery business. Plug-in cars such as Nissan’s Leaf model and General Motors’ Volt could make up 9 percent of U.S. auto sales by 2020 and 22 percent in 2030, Bloomberg New Energy Finance said last month.SB LiMotive will supply lithium-ion battery packs to Chrysler Group LLC as well as cells to Bayerische Motoren Werke AG from 2012, Lee Jin Gun, the venture’s chief executive officer, said in Ulsan today at the opening of the new plant.Shares AdvanceSamsung SDI, which Information Technology estimates may become the world’s biggest maker of lithium-ion batteries this year, rose 0.9 percent to 160,500 won as of 1:27 p.m. in Seoul trading. The company, based in Yongin, South Korea, has gained 8.1 percent this year.Stuttgart, Germany-based Bosch, the world’s largest auto- parts maker, formed the venture with Samsung SDI in 2008 to produce batteries for hybrid and electric vehicles. The venture was set up in South Korea and began production in 2010.SB LiMotive is currently in talks with other carmakers from Europe, the U.S. and Asia, Samsung SDI CEO Choi Chi Hun said today at the factory opening without elaborating.
Thunder Sky Battery to net MVP RV for e-vehicle plant in HK
Thunder Sky Battery Ltd<0729>, a lithium-ion battery producer, is scheduled to team up with the U.S.-based MVP RV Inc to spend approximate HK$10 billion in total to build an electric-vehicle plant in Hong Kong next year. According to Zhong Xin Jia, vice president of the listed firm, at the 25th World Electric Vehicle Symposium and Exposition Symposium and Exhibition held in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, Thunder Sky Battery will have a rapid business growth in the next ten years, but he did not disclose the details of the new plant. MVP RV's website shows that the firm is located in southern California and mainly manufactures travel trailers, toy haulers and fifth-wheel trailers. Thunder Sky Battery's competitive ability is the huge capacity of up to 10,000 ampere hours in lithium-ion batteries, which need only 20 minutes to be charged up, Zhong added. In addition, the Hong Kong-listed company is in talks with potential partners to enter the public e-vehicle market in Shenzhen, in which the local government hopes to have 4,000 electrical buses and 6,000 electrical taxies by the end of 2011.
Honda, Long Skeptical on Battery EVs, Does an About-Face
Honda (HMC), whose global business is looking robust despite the strong yen, is taking the plunge into electric cars for the U.S. market. Honda has been one of the last holdouts against battery cars, preferring to field hybrids and, for the longer term, fuel-cell electrics.What’s happened, obviously, is a worldwide rollout of EVs that threatens to leave Honda behind. There are very few automakers today without a plug-in strategy. But Honda is in a very good position, even if it is late to the EV market. The company has a long history of delivering almost eerily flawless fuel-sipping cars to American consumers, so it has a considerable amount of goodwill to bank on as it fields an EV. Plus it has dealers and an advertising budget that should move some cars.Former Honda CEO Takeo Fukui was a skeptic about battery EVs, but successor Takanobu Ito, who took office in 2009, is bullish. He told Reuters, “It’s starting to look like there will be a market for electric vehicles. We can’t keep shooting down their potential, and we can’t say there’s no business case for it.”Ito also offered what has become a truism among companies with battery EVs: Despite the fear of “range anxiety,” not everybody needs 300 miles between plug ins or fill-ups. And although Honda is showing both a plug-in hybrid and a battery-only electric commuter car in Los Angeles next week, he seems to have taken a stand on the technology. “Plug-in hybrids are essentially for people who drive short distances, but it has the handicap of having an engine, a motor and a stack of batteries,” he said. “Why wouldn’t you just drive a [battery] EV?”Honda says it will commercialize both a battery car and a plug-in hybrid for the U.S. market in 2012. I expect that it will follow Toyota’s lead and adapt the Civic Hybrid to plug-in status. Further, it’s coalescing around the lithium-ion battery technology basic to EVs, and will use li-ion in the next generation Honda Civic Hybrid, also planned for release in 2011 as a 2012 model. Honda’s has a joint-venture partnership with GS Yuasa in the li-ion company Blue Energy.It’s late 2010, so Honda will have to play catch-up with the rest of the industry, but it’s doing exactly that. According to Honda U.S. spokesman Chris Naughton, the company will bring its first EVs to the U.S. late this year for demonstration programs at Stanford University, Google and the City of Torrance, California. Torrance will get a plug-in hybrid for evaluation by the end of 2010, which is really quick for a car nobody’s actually seen (but will see in Los Angeles next week).“This is consistent with our strategy of the last few decades, considering the whole range of powertrains,” Naughton said. “We have the natural gas Civic, diesels in Europe, and the FCX Clarity hydrogen car, as well as an EV history with the first U.S. hybrid in the 1999 70-mpg Insight and the [EV-1 competitor] Honda EVPlus [pictured at top'].”Naughton pointed out that the FCX Clarity, one of the more sophisticated fuel-cell vehicles with 300-mile range, is actually an electric car with hydrogen replacing a battery pack. “We’re building an ever-growing knowledge base of running cars with electricity, whether fuel cell and doing it in a way that is smooth and seamless to the driver.”And that, of course, speaks to Honda’s natural advantage in the EV space, even as a latecomer with no history of battery cars. I’d buy a Honda plug-in hybrid, wouldn’t you? After all, I already own a Honda Fit, and would love to get my hands on the hybrid version that the company is rolling out everywhere but North America.Honda is also in a strong position to bankroll EV programs, having reported a $2 billion global profit in the third quarter (up 150 percent from the year before). U.S. sales were down because of the strong yen, but Asia is very strong. On balance, the company recently lowered its projections for world sales this year by 25,000 to 3.6 million cars. The cuts are in Europe and North America; Asian forecasts are up.
Mitsui Engineering-Shipbuilding logs first orders for hybrid container cranesby Eric Loveday
Container cranes at the Port of Seattle
Container cranes, like the massive units pictured above, transfer cargo from ships to the docks. The sheer size of such units, at least when viewed in person, negates any thought that one of these behemoths could accomplish such heavy-lifting tasks with power supplied by a lithium-ion battery pack. Well, it's time to strike that thought because Mitsui Engineering and Shipbuilding Co. (MES) has now proven that hybrid container cranes, packing massive li-ion power packs, are more than capable of hauling the heaviest of loads. The Nikkei states that MES' hybrid cranes are:Designed with large lithium-ion battery packs that store electricity generated every time a load is lowered by the crane and supply that electricity to a motor that provides supplemental power to move the crane. This reduces the need to run the engine, which in turn helps reduce the crane's carbon dioxide emissions by 60 percent.MES logged a four-unit order for its newly developed hybrid container cranes and will begin production immediately. Once complete, the cranes will find a resting place at two harbor-operation companies: one located in Tokyo, and the other in the Japanese city of Kobe. The units should be installed by May of 2011 and cost 150 million yen ($1.86 million U.S. at the current exchange rate) a piece.
Altair Nanotechnologies Reports Third Quarter 2010 Financial ResultsRENO, NV, Nov 04, 2010 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX)
-- Altair Nanotechnologies, Inc. (Altairnano) /quotes/comstock/15*!alti/quotes/nls/alti (ALTI 0.64, -0.02, -2.80%) , a provider of advanced lithium-ion battery technologies and systems, today reported financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2010. "In the third quarter we took a major step forward in securing our financial future. In September, we entered into a Share Subscription Agreement with Canon Investment Holdings whereby they will invest $48.9 million into the company in return for a controlling interest. We also signed a concurrent supply and license agreement with Zhuhai Yintong Energy Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of Canon, that provides access to the vast Chinese market," said Dr. Terry Copeland, Altairnano's president and CEO. "We are excited about the potential that the Canon and YTE relationship creates for both of our companies." Recent Highlights
-- On September 20, 2010 we signed a Share Subscription Agreement and related documents with Canon Investment Holdings Ltd. whereby Canon has agreed to purchase newly issued shares of the Company's common stock providing the Company with $48.9M in capital. Upon closing, Canon will have a 51% ownership stake in the Company calculated on a fully diluted basis.
-- On September 20, 2010 we signed a purchase and license agreement with Zhuhai Yintong Energy Co. Ltd. (YTE) pursuant to which YTE has agreed to purchase $6.6 million of product before the end of 2011. On November 1, 2010, YTE placed a purchase order for the first $2.2 million of this contract and accelerated its delivery into the fourth quarter of this year.
-- As a result of the Canon investment the At the Market financing vehicle with Thomas Weisel Partners was suspended.
-- We began delivering battery modules under the long-term Proterra contract announced in our Q2 earnings release.
-- We introduced an Altairnano battery applications kit that will enable prospective customers to experiment with our battery for use and applicability in their specific development efforts.
-- Our Board of Directors made the decision to remain a Canadian corporation and not change our domestication to the State of Nevada.
-- Our Board of Directors made the decision to execute a 4:1 reverse stock split at the close of business on November 15, 2010.
Financial Highlights for third quarter 2010 compared to third quarter 2009
-- Revenue of $2.0 million compared to $1.7 million.
-- Gross margin of $0.5 million compared to $1.1 million.
-- Operating expenses of $5.8 million compared to $5.3 million.
-- Net loss of $5.3 million compared to $3.3 million.
-- Net cash burn of $0.7 million compared to $4.8 million.
SK committed to boosting Korea’s national competitiveness in core industries
SK Group, a leading player in the global energy and telecommunication industry, has contributed to the growth and advancement of Korea by strengthening the nation’s key industries.
Having started its business as a textile factory, SK has come along with the growth of the Korean economy by committing to the national economic development focusing its ability on a variable and wide range. The group’s business encompasses basic industries like energy and textile as well as next generation core business sectors including cutting-edge telecommunication.
SK started exporting fiber in 1958 for the first time as a Korean firm and became the first producer of basic polyester thread in Korea. In 1973, it established Sunkyung Petroleum, making the foundation of the horizontal systemization from petroleum to fiber. In 1980, it formed a full scale of basis by taking over the privatized Korean Petroleum Public Corporation. As a result, in early 1990s, it could complete a specialized horizontal systemization from petroleum to fiber by finishing a large petro-chemistry plan.
Also from 1983, SK started to develop overseas oil fields for a stable domestic crude oil supply. It participated in petroleum development projects in 24 oil fields in 14 countries around the world and to realize the dream of making Korea an oil producing country.
It was in the mid-1980s that SK began pioneering the telecommunication sector, widening its business range. The group formed a basis of general information communications business by breaking into the information communication with the 10-year long-term view.
SK Group made Korea one of the leading countries in information communication in 1996 by succeeding in the commercialization of digital mobile phones using the code division multiple access method for the first time in the world.
After 2000s, SK began leading the digital convergence era by offering a variety of services including wireless internet. In 2004, it succeeded in launching the digital mobile broadcasting satellite, which came to commercialize a multimedia service using satellite.
SK in 2006 devoted itself to revitalizing the local mobile phone market by introducing 3.5 generation mobile phones. It also started providing consumers with a more advance service by constructing a nationwide high-speed downlink packet access network in the first half year of 2007. The HSDPA refers to an enhanced third-generation mobile telephony communications protocol.
SK is still seeking to further increase the national competitiveness of Korea with innovative, new values, despite the accomplishments it has achieved so far in developing the national basic industries such as energy and chemistry and cutting-edge information communication sector.
The group plans to strengthen major capabilities that it already possesses while moving forward with new, related businesses in the energy and chemistry sector which SK has been playing a role as an engine behind national economic growth.
Particularly as an energy industry leader SK plan to accelerate businesses on the development and exploration of oil fields focusing on strategic regions. It will also continue committing to supplying stable and economical energy locally while putting more increasing efforts to developing alternative energy sources.
SK strongly supports “low carbon, green growth,” a vision and goal which is projected to be crucial for building a sustainable future in a post-oil era.
In 2004, SK became Korea’s first and the world’s third developer of lithium-ion batteries, a key component in secondary batteries that power electric cars. Against this backdrop, SK is now gearing up for commercial production of secondary batteries, and the company has been chosen as a lithium-ion battery supplier for Germany’s Daimler-Chrysler and Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group.
Moreover, SK is actively preparing to commercialize green technologies, including green pol (eco-friendly plastic made of industrially emitted carbon dioxide) and green coal (clean energy derived from low-rank coal).
Since the onset of the 2008 financial crisis, SK adopted a global and sustainable approach to three areas of business: new energy sources, smart environments and innovative technology. In order to secure growth engines for the future, the company announced its plans to invest a total of 17.5 trillion won by the year of 2020.
US: Tesla reports Q3 loss
Electric sportscar maker Tesla has reported a third-quarter loss of US$34.9m compared with a loss of US$4.6m in the same period last year when the company was still privately held.Sales totalled US$31.2m, down from US$45.5m in the third quarter a year ago.Chief executive office Elon Musk said, however, that the company is pushing ahead with plans to “spend heavily” over the next nine quarters to get the Model S sedan into production.He told Bloomberg News: “Attaining quarterly profitability isn’t a goal. We’re very focused on long-term profitability.”Tesla, based in Palo Alto, California, intends to become the auto industry’s leader in battery-powered cars, aided by supply agreements with Toyota and Daimler.The company is refurbishing a the former Toyota-General Motors joint-venture factory in Fremont, California, which is scheduled to begin making the US$57,400 Model S by mid-2012.
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