Chevron drains battery planned for Mercedes ML 450 hybrid, Mercedes sues
Plans for Mercedes to release the ML 450 hybrid in 2009 may very well be canceled. The maker of the nickel metal hydride (NiMH) batteries that was to provide the energy storage component for the SUV, Cobasys, seems to be refusing to begin production of the essential part. It appears the company's parent firms, Chevron (who just posted a $5.98 billion 2nd quarter profit) and Energy Conversion Devices (ECD) have "pulled funding" from the battery supplier, preventing it from meeting manufacturing commitments agreed upon last year.
No stranger to accusations of conspiracy when it comes squelching green-tech batteries, Chevron is again facing the charge in a lawsuit filed last week by Mercedes that claims the company colluded with ECD and Cobasys to keep the imminent sale of the distressed battery maker a secret to prevent the German firm from canceling the battery deal. The suit also alleges that Cobasys refused to begin production in case the terms of the contract were not seen as favorable to the new owners. This situation should make for interesting reading in the months to come and, we suspect, give folks yet another reason to dislike oil companies.
[Source: Information Week]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
GoodCheer 6:42PM (8/03/2008)
Wow, it's a conspiracy theorist's wet dream!
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axiom 8:41AM (8/04/2008)
More like a coincidence theorists worst nightmare.
sam 12:20PM (8/04/2008)
from what i have read from chevron, translating from the techno/lawyer writing, they seem to think nimh batteries on a large scale are now a "dead" technology...."l-ion" batteries (which have taken over cell phones, computers) are lighter (huge plus) and are already easier to recycle. so Chevron did this with bad timing, and i seriously doubt MB didn't know it was coming. l-ion batteries will prob show up in the new prius fighting "civic"..and whenever the next prius sees the light of day. kinda surprised given MB market "leadership" they weren't looking into l-ion batteries anyway
Mark 7:00PM (8/03/2008)
Wow, what a f***ing shock. Chevron 'pulled funding' on a product that would have allowed people to use less oil.
What a f***ing shock...
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Luke 8:34PM (8/03/2008)
If only we could harness the energy from histrionics......
axiom 9:13AM (8/04/2008)
.....or the key strokes of trolls.
Jay 7:05PM (8/03/2008)
Please stay on top of this one. The watchful eye of the blogosphere is one of the few tools we have to keep big oil from continuing to buy any technology that threatens their monopoly/profits and quietly sabotaging it. Not all conspiracies are imaginary, especially when billions of dollars are at stake.
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Joce03 7:14PM (8/03/2008)
What I don't get is that hybrids (and eventually EVs) are the future of automobiles. So, if an oil company funds an up-and-coming battery producer, they are setting themselves up for the future without oil - which will come sooner than later. So, why would Chevron do this?
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Mike!!ekiM 7:50PM (8/03/2008)
Why would Chevron fund battery tech? To not become irrelevant? To make money?
Boxman 7:50PM (8/03/2008)
All the trolls and naive idiots defending Chevron should be feeling pretty embarrassed right now. This completely vindicates what many of us have been saying all along.
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meme 9:42PM (8/03/2008)
Huh? So, to recap, Cobasys provides batteries for all kinds of hybrids and licenses the tech to all of the rest in this country, but because they gyp one company as they're going bankrupt, that means that they're trying to sabotage hybrid tech itself?
Wow, the conspiracy theories know no bounds around here.
axiom 8:59AM (8/04/2008)
@Boxman, apparently you only read the first paragraph and blocked out the second. Lets recap:
"Chevron is again facing the charge in a lawsuit filed last week by Mercedes that claims the company colluded with ECD and Cobasys to keep the imminent sale of the distressed battery maker a secret to prevent the German firm from canceling the battery deal. The suit also alleges that Cobasys refused to begin production in case the terms of the contract were not seen as favorable to the new owners."
What you have here is literally conspiracy and collision. Only a coincidence theorist would see otherwise.
Luke 7:58PM (8/03/2008)
Too bad. This means the end of hybrid technology as we know it. Not!
Get real, folks. Batteries can be aquired from dozens of sources. This is only a temporary setback for Mercedes. One oil company and one battery company are not going to affect the future reduction of oil consumption, and they aren't suffering from the delusion that they have the power to do so. Most likely what happened is that promises made could not be kept because of all sorts of production-related issues that aren't worth looking into.
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Mark 8:14PM (8/03/2008)
I call B.S on that. If a company makes a commitment, then their clients have every reason to expect it to be done.
Chevron can not be trusted with any technology that can potentially replace oil, as we've seen here.
Luke 8:34PM (8/03/2008)
Your argument is circular, and it doesn't address what I said.
axiom 9:04AM (8/04/2008)
So what? Batteries can be acquired from other companies. That doesn't mean its the same quality battery, that can be produced at the same price.
IN THIS CASE, Chevron apparently was involved in *shock* a conspiracy where they "defunded" this battery maker to the point of bankruptcy, then colluded with ECD and Cobasys to ensure Mercedes (who would've been a major supplier of higher mpg SUVs) would have no knowledge of whats going on and so wouldn't search for another supplier - thus stalling production of said higher mpg SUVs. Chevron is in the oil business, and SUVs are the worst gas guzzlers around, givgn clear motivation why they would not welcome higher mpg SUVs if they could help it.
Everything pointed out is fact. In what world does that fact other battery makers exist refute any of this?? Luke your argument is circular, naive, and utterly ridiculous; so stop spamming the board with that nonsense.
Serge 9:52AM (8/04/2008)
Luke, statement "Batteries can be aquired from dozens of sources." applies to alkaline batteries. Chevron (via Cobasys) controls all critical large-scale NiMh battery patents; they are pretty much a sole provider on the market. Mercedes will probably have to look in Li-ion tech now.
Noz 8:56PM (8/03/2008)
Only idiots who don't believe it conspiracies would call it a conspiracy...the latest and greatest "fashion" word from the right wing idiots, oh other that the other great phrase "islamo-facist."
Some of you people are so freaking blind that if Chevron came and shoved up a pipe up your a**, you'd say it was justified and they are A-OK.
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Ben 9:22PM (8/03/2008)
I worked with a Peace Corps volunteer who happened to know the researchers Stan Ovshinsky and his wife who developed the NiMH battery. They gave the controlling interest to GM in good faith it would be used in the EV-1. It improved the performance of the electric car over the lead batteries previously used allowing the car to get 90-120 miles between charges. GM sold ovonics battery development to Chevron who now has the global controlling interest and patents to this technology. It follows pretty closely to the movie, "Who Killed the Electric Car?" at least as far as the battery technology goes.
Seeing how our (oil affliated) president has broken legal tradition in the interest of national security, it would indeed be in our national interest to suspend the patent rights of a record breaking oil company's control of a technology that could free us from the danger of Middle East oil/conflict.
That battery technology can be used with the wind power America has enough of to ship overseas, let alone power battery electric cars...
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Luke 9:48PM (8/03/2008)
"I worked with a Peace Corps volunteer who happened to know the researchers Stan Ovshinsky and his wife who developed the NiMH battery. They gave the controlling interest to GM in good faith it would be used in the EV-1. It improved the performance of the electric car over the lead batteries previously used allowing the car to get 90-120 miles between charges. GM sold ovonics battery development to Chevron who now has the global controlling interest and patents to this technology. It follows pretty closely to the movie, "Who Killed the Electric Car?" at least as far as the battery technology goes."
First of all, they are ALREADY making batteries for GM's hybrid cars.
Secondly, the battery was invented by Masahiko Oshitani at Yuasa Company, and further refinded by Philips Labs and French CNRS Labs, just to name a few. The patents Chevron holds only to certain types of batteries and certain types on manufacturing processes.