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Technology Stocks : Energy Conversion Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ray who wrote (3160)	2/8/1999 11:00:00 AM
From: Don Devlin	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 8393

Gas prices reach new low February 8, 1999 Another day, another cheap tank of gasoline. The average price of a gallon of regular gasoline hit $1.0141 Sunday -- the lowest price in history (when adjusted for inflation). That means that even you aging boomers who remember cruising Ted's, Dunks, Big Boys and Top Hat on four gallons for a dollar can't whine to your kids anymore about cheap gas. It has never been cheaper. Sunday's price reflects a nationwide survey of 10,000 stations by the Lundberg Survey. The price is nearly a penny less than two weeks ago, said survey publisher Trilby Lundberg. "The bigger picture does not suggest higher prices soon. In fact, the price crash may not be over," she said.

To: Ray who wrote (3160)	2/8/1999 11:54:00 PM
From: Michael Latas	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 8393

Ray. Now comes the hard part. Separating facts from fiction. If everything we read about in the advancement of li-on and lithium polymer were true ECD might as well close down their NiMH battery operation and go home. But, that's not the case. Nothing could be further from the truth. My reason for the following explanation is because there are a lot of late comers to this thread who have not had the opportunity to do their due diligence in the various battery mfg'rs in this race. I had hoped that I might soften some of the bodacious claims of battery superiority. Surely, somewhere in the course of your travels you were cautioned to only believe half of what you read or heard. The question now comes down to which half should one believe? I can state very emphatically that the press releases released through various public relations press releases from the competition consistently publish the best case scenario that companies "might" be achieving in the laboratory in the future and not in actual current production. Battery manufacturers consistently lose from 30% to 40% of the peak energy they can achieve in the laboratory by the time they go into actual production. These companies never bother to explain this shortfall, in the hopes that they will elicit some interest from various OEM's. That's why I make the distinction between our "proven" capabilities in our production batteries as compared to the forthcoming "if-come" projections somewhere down the road from the competition. ECD suffers this same comparable loss in battery capabilities from the laboratory stage to the engineering and production stage. We all have to go through the same laborious process. There are no exceptions. And, it's not easy. Far from it. Please understand, no way do I stick my head in the sand of wishful thinking and assume we have no competition. Nothing could be further from the truth. It's just that it gets quite old hearing all of these different battery mfg'rs beating their chests alongside the fuel cell people. They, indeed are all making progress across the board. But, so are we. And our technology is "proven" and not based upon "if-come future potential". That, in a nutshell is the point I am attempting to make. I will also be the first to acknowledge that our technology IS NOT VASTLY SUPERIOR to all battery technology for all applications. Again. I do believe we agree that each mfg'r has their own advantages. In the meantime, this race is far from over. In the end, the truth will prevail with market-proven technologies. If there is such a thing as a true expert in battery technology, familiar with all of the latest state of the art battery technologies throughout the world I would have to say that Ken Baker would be that person. And, he just joined ECD last month after resigning from a very successful career with GM. Ask yourself the question, why would such a world renowned guru be joining ECD? Why not a li-on battery mfg'r? Or, the "next generation lithium polymer" battery mfg'r? Surely he could have done so. I'll rest my case on that statement. I happen to share your belief in ECD. So, we're in this together, not as cheerleaders, but as informed supporters. I'm off to Asia in the morning for the next couple of weeks, so I will not be able to respond until I return. Regards.