Lutz: GM will beat Toyota to market by 1 year on lithium-ion batteries
Wall Street Journal caught up with GM vice chairman Bob Lutz in Frankfurt before the start of the Frankfurt Auto Show. Bob has some more battery trash talk for Toyota, saying that GM will beat Toyota to market with lithium-ion batteries by several months, maybe even a year! Toyota is having problems with their battery over heating, and Bob says "we are 100% confident we won't have heat issues" with their batteries. Oh, smack! I can't wait to hear what Toyota has to say about that one.However, Bob adds, "Toyota will get this technology, too. ... Everybody will. ... If this stuff is going to work, everybody's going to have it." Couldn't get an exclusive contract, Bob? Anyway, Toyota has tried to downplay being the loser in the lithium-ion battery technology race. The delay of the lithium-ion Prius did not help Toyota's case for being battery technology leaders. Toyota senior vice president Don Esmond bet $100 that they will have the first lithium-ion vehicle on the market. Wow, times sure do change fast.
[Source: Wall Street Journal]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Conspriacy theory 8:30AM (9/11/2007)
Apparently A123 Lithium batteries love heat. With an improved version right around the corner.
http://www.killacycle.com/
Another improvement we made was to build in Kapton heaters into the battery pack. We used these to bring the pack up to optimum temperature, (75 Celsius) and maintain it there for maximum power output. The A123Systems cells are unique in that you can bring them to very high temperatures without damage. (They age a bit more quickly at high temperature, but that is it.)
http://www.evworld.com/article.cfm?storyid=1302
Come December this year, the KillaCycle will receive a second-generation battery pack that will have twice as much juice as its current 374-volt system, giving it close to 1,000 horsepower. Ric Fulop, founder and vice president of business development for A123, the maker of KillaCycle's batteries, said he believes the KillaCycle can break the drag racing motorcycle record within the next year.
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gsolman6 9:17AM (9/11/2007)
All this talk is just that. Whatever happened to just doing your job of making products people want and letting the products speak for themselves, hyperbole and trash-talking not included.
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jcwinnie 9:19AM (9/11/2007)
Maximum Bob needs to get himself a beret and military uniform. Then, we could call him Maximum Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf
"This just in... There are no tanks in Baghdad but there are Chevy Volts in Amerika."
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