Rashomon, I think that lap tops is where spinel will shine vs manganese. Lev quoted a 30% cost differential between spinel and manganese, but I doubt the differential is that large in small format batteries, but in large format batteries, where the cost of materials becomes more important, that might indeed be the case. Furthermore, lev talked a lot about "events' and how these are not too critical in small formats but very critical (chain reactions) in large format. Thus, breaking into the large format surely will put some rocket fuel into the holy one. My problem with that, of course, is timing. The equipment enabling large format batteries will not be in place until next spring, and probably will take some time to debug. It will probably be this time next year when we can expect to see an impact from this sector.
By the way, I have not heard much discussions of the potential impact on the market for rechargeable energy storage devices from the micro fuel cells sector. I do not know how far these people have progressed, but if they succeed, they surely are going to take a chunk out of the potential $8 B market. Any comment on this?
Zeev |
