I understood Stan's rationale. North America is still the largest
producer of vehicles in the world, with GM being number one and
Ford being number two. Furthermore, think of all the Japanese
vehicles being mfg'd in this country. GM Ovonic has this market.
I had been hopeful all along that we, ECD/Ovonic Battery co., would
negotiate a joint venture in Japan similiar to our GM/Ovonic joint
venture, vs. this "cooperative venture", license/royalty agreement.
But, so be it. We are far from having all of the facts in this
continuing saga. We need mfg'g in Japan and that's a fact. I could
not conceive of the Japanese buying batteries from GM/Ovonic in this
country by any stretch of the imagination. Can anyone?
Furthermore, I am delighted to have Sanyo, the worlds largest NiMH
battery producer over Matsushita. Now the plot will begin to thicken,
in light of the fact that Sanyo has a "non-exclusive" license, which
should squeeze Matshushita and others to sign up. The competition will
begin to heat up to our benefit. This action should also serve to
prod sleepy General Motors along.
The drawback of the limited 9-16 mile range on an all electric basis is not the only drawback to the Prius HEV and not necessarily even the major drawback. The accelleration speed, as an example, for the Toyota RAV EV, a pure electric, is zero to sixty miles an hour in sixteen seconds vs. GM-EV1, with its accelleration speed of 0-60 in eight seconds. Don't get me wrong, I'm not making reference to the significance of speed in drag racing, but every day driving conditions
I have not seen the accelleration speed of the Prius HEV published
yet. Has anybody? The only reference yet made regarding accelleration speed has been in The Automotive News quoting Toyota's top mgm't stating that the performance of the Prius, as it would relate to accelleration, would have to be improved before the car would be ready for export to North America and Europe.
Japanese mgm't continually refers to the fact that the Prius meets
the needs for their market. They are referring to the fact that the
average speed for their rush hour traffic is nine miles per hour, with lots of stop and go driving. This car could never make it up the ramp
leading onto an expressway in LA, without somebody pushing from
behind, unless you want to risk getting run over upon merging into the expressway traffic. So, with that in mind, what are the options the
Japanese auto mfg'rs have to improve the accelleration and range for
the Prius HEV, that was announced to be marketed in the US in 1999?
That's the latest word from the Toyota General Manager for the US.
There are also additional drawbacks, such as charge cycles, among
others. There is a lot more here than meets the eye. As it would
relate to cost, the difference between our NiMH batteries, and as
Stan said, the outdated Toyota NiMH batteries they are currently buying from Matshushita, should be essentially the same. However,
ours is a vastly superior technology that will meet or exceed the
needs of the public.
So, again, where I could not conceive of the Japanese buying our
NiMH batteries from GM/Ovonic in the US, I would have a difficult time
understanding why the Japanese auto mfg'rs would not buy from another
Japanese mfg'r in their own country, as they are fiercely known to do.
So, with all of this in mind, we may finally see volume production
of our NiMH batteries at long last, vs. GM who have finally managed to
"outfit fifteen GM-EV1's to date".
Regards.
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