Hey, Kids, How About A Car That Runs on Water?
Another Black Box
EDITED BY ANDY ZIPSER
The one thing you can say about Joe LaStella is that he tells one helluva story-whatever it is.
His press release announcing this Tuesday's retest of BAT International's "super car" is studded with references to "nationally known certifiers," "pulse charge technology" and the expectation that his car will get more than 100 miles to the gallon. In response to a telephone call made expressly to inquire about this revolutionary breakthrough, he instead went on at length about batteries, cruise missiles and M-1 tanks, implied high-level business
relationships with Daimler-Benz, Volkswagen and Lockheed Martin, alluded to a major distribution network in India and mentioned other media inquiries.
Exciting stuff, every bit of it, but especially the business about 100-mile-to-the-gallon cars at a time when the world's leading auto makers are pouring big bucks into new, more efficient engines. Toyota is already marketing a diesel-electric hybrid in Japan that reportedly gets 66 miles to the gallon -- and Chrysler, General Motors, Nissan Motor and Honda Motor are all hot on its heels. But BAT's technology, LaStella has said, involves relatively
simple changes in crankshaft, piston and manifold design, yet nearly doubles the mileage of all that high-tech gadgetry. Gadzooks!
Well, maybe: Who are we to say a "diversified advanced transportation technology company," as BAT describes itself, hasn't stumbled on to the automotive version of the next-generation microprocessor. But cars aren't PCs, and BAT International is not BAT Industries, the well-known conglomerate. It is instead a penny stock that went public in 1992 through a reverse merger (yellow flag) in Salt Lake City (second yellow flag) and which after all this
time has cumulative revenues of less than $200,000 (red flag).
Profits? Don't ask, because LaStella's response is the observation that "we're an R&D company." Right. It's a good story, and he's sticking to it to the last drop.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
This article is lacking facts on all recents news!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
