ECD Ovonics, a pioneer in nickel metal hydride battery technology has agreed to license some of their patents to G4 Synergetics. G4 will pay royalties to Ovonics in order to build NiMH batteries consumer applications and potentially also Chinese scooter and bicycle applications. They won't be allowed to make batteries for any automotive or other transport uses. 
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
TG 7:55PM (4/27/2007)
Interesting to see the name Ovonics because as I recall, they and the valued patents were bought out by Chevron.
Notice the condition:
**They won't be allowed to make batteries for any automotive or other transport uses. **
Understandable as Chevron sells gas, not batteries.
Cobasys has an arrangement with Chevron as well. Patent royalty revenue is welcome, so long as the automotive world is not involved.
Scroll down on my blog http://TonyGuitar.blogspot.com
For more rounding out of this adventure= TG
Reply
Sam Abuelsamid 6:13PM (4/27/2007)
TG, You have made some factual errors. Cobasys was started as joint venture between ECD Ovonics and GM. After the EV1 program, GM sold their stake to Chevron. Cobasys remains jointly owned by Chevron and ECD, although Chevron recently announced their intention to sell their stake. http://www.autobloggreen.com/2007/03/15/anybody-want-to-buy-a-battery-company-cobasys-is-for-sale/
Cobasys has the right to make NiMH hydride batteries for transportation use and supplies all the batteries for the GM mild hybrids like the Saturn Vue and Aura. ECD is not letting G4 make transportation batteries because they are in that business. Nothing is being suppressed by Chevron or anyone else.
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doug korthof 2:01AM (8/23/2009)
Sam, you are FOS. Chevron specifically sued Toyota for making batteries that are big enough to plug in, and only allows batteries for hybrids that can't plug in. Hopefully, now that Chevron has disgorged its control of NiMH (to Bosch-Samsung) the US government will insist on them allowing use of NiMH for plug-in cars.
susan.kraemer 6:43PM (4/27/2007)
"They won't be allowed to make batteries for any automotive or other transport uses."
Whatttttt!!!!!?????
They won't be allowed to make batteries for any automotive or other transport uses.
What????
Who won't allow it? Why not? How can we overcome this outrageous example of yet another death in the "who killed the electric car" saga!
I would like someone to find out whats happening here. Bikes shikes. Cars are what the world needs battery technology for. This battery technology is a public good. We cannot let oil companies' interests continue to come before the common good.
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TG 7:56PM (4/27/2007)
Sam,
Thank you for the emotional response.
I make errors frequently, but what you allude to in this case has no bearing on the logic of the point. I made no claim to know how Cobasys was started.
Susan nailed my point directly.
Correct you are though, that Cobasys supplies packs for GM mild hybrids. I suspect they are looking for something better than NiMH for the Volt however.
On a recent visit to Toyota, the GM boys asking for pointers were turned down flat.= TG
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TG 7:58PM (4/27/2007)
Here is the wording that clearly shows how Chevron has controlling interest of the large format NiMH battery for North America, or is it just the USA?
http://tinyurl.com/3afb23
http://tonyguitar.blogspot.com/2006_12_01_archive.html
= TG
Reply
Nick 12:29AM (11/22/2007)
Good links & leads, thanks Tony.
It's all said here too:
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=6969567.PN.&OS=PN/6969567&RS=PN/6969567
in the Texaco/Chevron patent. May be hard to digest the whole thing, but I beleive patent law is clear that duplicate production can not be made for profit without explicit permission from the patent owner. Currently, 'Big Oil' stands to make billions more off oil, so why would they license or sell batery technology? Just because WE want it? Hope someone perfects cheaper Lithium Ion batteries.
Reply