Tom: Well, I'm happy to see that ERC is over $10 rather than under $9, but given that I think that, when compared to the valuations given to the various public battery companies, and of course the one other public fuel cell company, ERC ought to be selling for more like $50 or $75, I am not that excited by the recent move.
I haven't heard anything in particular to account for the move. Corning, Inc. continues to invest heavily in its role as lead licensee for ERC's nickel zinc battery. In addition, ERC has shown the technology to a number of auto companies, who are supposedly quite interested in it, and are exploring the possibilities of using it for hybrid gas/electric vehicles, as well as all electric ones.
In the fuel cell arena, ERC is proceeding with its next generation design, which it feels will be cheap enough and powerful enough to be commercially viable without any subsidies.
The only other thing of note: I was pleased to see a copy of a technical publication by Daimler Benz talking about its efforts in the fuel cell area. Naturally, some of it covered its work with Ballard in vehicles, but a lot of the piece covered its work in stationary power applications using the technology that it has licensed from ERC. Daimler went out of its way to say that PEM cells (Ballard's technology) were unsuitable for utility power applications, and that molten carbonate (ERC's technology) was the way to go. That is what I said on the Ballard thread here - I wonder if the people there will believe me if I quote Daimler Benz? |
