The only place we can get them is from GoldPeak. I know and speak with GoldPeak's Chairman and have had an intensive series of meetings with GoldPeak's Chief Battery Engineer (of 30 years). I have also signed an NDA with them, which I believe they would require of anyone before they would give you much information about their batteries, as they don't publish any detailed specs or information about their batteries on their website.
What you asking is something that I have been working on for a year now and am continuing to pursue. It takes a lot of work and deal-making, bringing people together and trying to sell large commercial interests on the advantages of NiMH batteries, which some are largely ignorant of and have no experience with, unlike myself. This all takes time. We would have to piggyback on larger commercial volumes of much bigger players than ourselves. That's the only way we will ever be able to get these batteries. It may be possible by early next year; that's probably at least how long it will take this one particularly large commercial deal to come together. But deep down, my own personal feeling -- knowing the parties involved and some of the other battery options they're pursuing, and having brokered this tentative deal myself -- is that I suspect there's probably only about a 20% chance that this will happen. So I have already started to think about some other ways to try to generate some volume through other channels, and even though it would likely be much smaller volume, it might be just enough to do a deal with GoldPeak, given what I know of their 18-year history with these batteries and what sorts of volumes they've previously done. Getting back to the previous discussion in another, separate thread about for-profit vs. not-for-profit status and motivations, I have already decided that whichever way we can generate sufficient volume with GoldPeak for us to get their batteries, either the former or the latter way I discussed above, I would make such batteries available at one price -- the same price that I would be getting, without any markup or commission for myself -- to anyone who wants them and who, more importantly, has a track record of demonstrated technical capability and experience to be able to competently integrate these batteries into a conversion. (It won't help either GoldPeak or the stellar reputation of NiMH batteries if someone ends up killing or degrading GoldPeak's batteries due to their own lack of experience and competence. GoldPeak has been quite clear about this in my conversations with them.) I'm not going to go into any more specifics about this in a public forum like this, but if you want to meet with me in person, I'd be happy to discuss more details on this up to the limits of what my NDA covers. I will be at the Fort Pierce EV Rally this Saturday, April 26. Yes, Saft does have the battery on their website. Good luck getting it. Many others have tried, including much larger commercial players. But hey, keep trying. I'd be interested to learn whatever you find out. Best regards, Charles Whalen ----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Charles Whalen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "FLEAA Mailing List" <listserv@floridaeaa.org> Sent: Thursday, April 24, 2008 4:48 PM Subject: Re: [FLEAA] NiMH Patents Thanks for the grat info. So where can we get NiMH batteries for a conversion? Is there anything? I tried today all day w/saft and left messages before reading your email. They do have the battery on the site though. Thanks Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile -----Original Message----- From: "Charles Whalen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2008 15:51:27 To:"Florida EAA" <ListServ@Floridaeaa.org> Subject: Re: [FLEAA] NiMH Patents Hi Joseph, Your understanding is not quite correct. GoldPeak has an unrestricted, permissive Ovonics license from 1991 that allows it to sell large-format NiMH batteries (>10Ah) into the US market, which was grandfathered upon Chevron's purchase of the patents around the turn of the century. European battery manufacturers Saft and Varta both *had* (past-tense) grandfathered Ovonics licenses that allowed them to sell large-format NiMH (>10Ah) batteries in Europe only, but both companies voided the terms and conditions of their licenses upon their acquisitions by an American battery manufacturer, Johnson Controls of Milwaukee (in both cases), such that neither of them can produce large-format NiMH batteries any longer, even for the European market. (Note that that pdf you referenced is dated July 2005, which predates Saft's acquisition by Johnson Controls. Try buying new 100Ah NiMH batteries from Saft now and see what answer you get. Hint: I already know the answer to that question, from several entities that have tried.) There are two companies, Electro Energy and Nilar, that have both developed large-format bipolar NiMH batteries, but neither one of them is in commercial production. Both companies are in clear violation of the Chevron patent licensing rights, as the patents relate to the electrochemistry at the cell level (which remains the same), not the modular construction. But Chevron will not bother spending all the money and dedicating all the legal resources that it takes to bring a patent infringement lawsuit (like they did and won against Toyota and Panasonic, to the tune of $30 million) against either one of these companies unless either one of them scores a large-volume commercial OEM contract, ... which neither of them has done and neither is expected to do, for exactly that reason. There is a guy in San Diego operating out of his garage who is doing Prius plug-in hybrid conversions using Nilar's NiMH batteries. As long as this remains a backyard operation of very small volume, only several cars a year, this guy will remain under the radar and Chevron won't waste their time with him and with Nilar. But if it ever reaches large-volume OEM commercial volumes, Chevron will sue for patent infringement and will win. Chevron's top executives have said so, exactly that, in private conversations. Chevron's NiMH patents expire on December 31, 2014. Best regards, Charles Whalen Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2008 23:38:06 -0400 From: "Joseph T. " <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [FLEAA] NiMH Patents To: listserv@floridaeaa.org Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 As I understand, Chevron's patent control over large-format NiMH batteries means that no other company but them can produce such batteries. However, why does Saft sell high-capacity (100 Ah+) NiMH batteries? http://www.saftbatteries.com/130-Catalogue/PDF/NHE_en.pdf The pdf is dated July 2005. I've heard about new NiMH batteries that avoid patent troubles, such as "bi-polar" NiMH batteries. http://www.electroenergyinc.com/products/technicalpapers/BipolarNickel.pdf How long have these been around? _______________________________________________ Florida EAA mailing list listserv@floridaeaa.org http://www.floridaeaa.org -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG. Version: 7.5.524 / Virus Database: 269.23.4/1395 - Release Date: 4/24/2008 7:24 AM _______________________________________________ Florida EAA mailing list listserv@floridaeaa.org http://www.floridaeaa.org
