On 18 Feb 2019 at 1:06, Lee Hart via EV wrote: > Or how fast Nimh EV batteries became "unobtainium" as soon as Texaco > and then Chevron got hold of the patents?
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure it was even before that. I may be remembering with an accent, but I think Ovshinsky sold the NiMH rights to GM, naively thinking they'd use NiMH in EVs. They did fit NiMH to a few limited-production EV-1s, but they also slapped capacity restrictions on them so that no other manufacturer could be licensed to produce EV-size batteries. Texaco then bought the rights from GM and maintained the same restrictions. We could have had good, usable production EVs long before we did. Look at how NiMH performed in the first-generation RAV4-EVs and (especially) the prototype Solectria Sunrise. Also note that Toyota and Panasonic were sued for violating the licensing terms. I don't think it's unfair to say that Ovshinsky's cashing out to GM may have delayed the introduction of viable mass-production EVs for at least 20 years. David Roden - Akron, Ohio, USA EVDL Administrator = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = EVDL Information: http://www.evdl.org/help/ = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Note: mail sent to "evpost" and "etpost" addresses will not reach me. To send a private message, please obtain my email address from the webpage http://www.evdl.org/help/ . = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
