Illegal may be too strong a word, but the NiMH patents were purchased by a group including Texaco and Chevron that refused to license the cells in any format large enough to use in a plug-in vehicle. You wouldn't be facing jail time, but you could face huge lawsuits if you manufactured cells without the patent holder's approval.
Quite a few of the sordid details are laid out here: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobasys Mike On June 9, 2015 6:39:09 PM MDT, Michael Ross via EV <[email protected]> wrote: >David, > >NiMH can recover capacity by charging and discharging to a particular >protocol. The electrode gradually grows into a surface that has less >surface area and the "crystalline" structure can be regrown into a >better >configuration. We have a community college in the western part of the >state that teaches mechanics how to operate the equipment and it is >fairly >common to do this with Priuses and Hondas - maybe the RAV4 as well. > >The franchised shops are called The Hybrid Shop and they are affiliated >with this test equipment company: > >Automotive Research & Design >http://www.go2hev.com/home.html > >I have not used them or the equipment but I believe it has merit. > >I certainly never heard about any illegal aspects of this. I think >that is >incorrect. > >On Tue, Jun 9, 2015 at 6:54 PM, David Miller via EV <[email protected]> >wrote: > >> Hi All! >> >> I drive a 2002 Toyota Rav4-EV. Yes, the one with >> 24 NiHM Panasonic EV-95 batteries! Patents by Cobasys, Ovonics, >> Texaco, Chevron, BASF, >> >> The pack has pushed 131 thousand miles over 13 years. It has >> dropped to around 65% original capacity. Power is similarly limited. >> >> Last year I searched extensively for replacements but discovered >> they are illegal. (See 'Who Killed the Electric Car' for details if >> you don't know already.) >> >> * But I also read again and again that **the patents were due to >expire* >> *in 2013 and 2014!* >> >> Can anyone here comment on the current patent status for large >> format NiMH batteries? >> >> Will Gold Peak manufacture GP100EVHs? >> Nilar? >> EVBTech.com? >> Panasonic? >> Sanyo? >> >> Is there any reason to hope? >> >> -David Miller >> -------------- next part -------------- >> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... >> URL: < >> >http://lists.evdl.org/private.cgi/ev-evdl.org/attachments/20150609/bbeb0a57/attachment.htm >> > >> _______________________________________________ >> UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub >> http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org >> For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA ( >> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA) >> >> _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
