Emmo, keep in mind that the type of failures you speak of are asociated with liquid electrotye lithium batteries. Relating this to solid Li-polymer batteries is really an apples to oranges comparison. ULBI tells of having subjected a large-size Li-polymer unit to every conceivable kind of abuse, such as drilling holes through it, and charging/discharging at rates many times higher than the allowable, with no pyrotechnics or other unpleasant results. The battery finally just quit working. Valence has no doubt done similar testing, indeed they do consider these batteries to be rather benign by nature.
I agree that any functional failures of production units would be disastrous to the program (and to our shares), so they definitely need to be certain that the testing program has been adequate. I believe it takes about 3 months to do 300 charge/discharge cycles at the standard charge/discharge rate, so if they were starting now it would be completed by the end of Q1. However, I believe they have identified and corrected the majority, if not all, of the process problems associated with the assembly of the battery cells, and have perhaps done enough testing to verify the results. Although I'm guessing here, the newly installed film-preparation system can likely be checked for proper operation without the need for extensive cycling of the finished product.
Having spent most of the past year testing and improving the lines, they do give the impression of being very serious about insuring that everything is as it should be. They haven't been rushing to get to market, even though their cash reserves are running low by now.
I'm not letting go of any of my shares, either.
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