Hybrids

[Alex Kowalski]

Brett wrote:

>One principle reason you haven't seen hybrid+EV cars as "nice" as
>they could be is thanks to the company that owns the patents on NiMH
>(Cobasys) absolutely STRANGLING the NiMH battery industry.
>Basically, Panasonic can't make NiMH battery packs over (it is
>guessed) 10A/hr and sell them in the US for transportation purposes.
>It is likely all the other worldwide manufacturers are similarly
>restricted.  Cobasys, which is linked to Chevron/Texaco, has
>aggressively sued NiMH battery makers and aggressively secured
>patents world-wide.

For some extra background on the Cobasys/Matsushita lawsuit and NiMH
technology in general, people might like a little more depth than Brett
provides.

Here's one link for your further reading:

http://www.evworld.com/blogs/index.cfm?page=blogentry&authorid=51&blogid=104

Cheers,
Alex Kowalski
'87 5KCSTQ
'86 5KCSTQ
Thinking of buying some Cobasys stock.