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December 14, 2004
| Hybrid
Vehicles:
Could Chevron end
hybrid vehicle hold up?
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Hybrid battery partnership
and record profits could lead the way
Ford is going to produce 20,000
Escape
hybrids this year, but they would like to produce more, if
only they could get more batteries.
The recently released Honda
Accord hybrid is also set for 20,000 units, which equals the
number of batteries currently guaranteed.
Additionally, the Toyota
Prius hybrid car has been hampered by battery production as
well. While Toyota will produce 100,000 Prius hybrids for
America this year, it has been slowed by battery production and
many owners are waiting several months to pick up their
vehicles.
Earlier this year, it was announced that the Lexus
RX 400h hybrid SUV was going to be late to market, one can
only imagine batteries had something to do with it.
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Toyota Prius
+ Prius
hybrid home
+ Escape
hybrid home
+ Accord
hybrid home
+ Head
to head: Prius and the Escape hybrid match up
+ Prius
test drive
+ Escape
hybrid test drive
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So what's going on?
Currently, there are only three major suppliers of
hybrid batteries, known has NiMH, or Nickel-metal
hydride batteries, Panasonic, Sanyo and Cobasys.
Earlier this year, Ovonics Corporation, the patent
holder on these batteries claimed a $30 million dollar
license infringement suit against the battery makers,
and which has temporarily dampened the hybrid battery
market.
Now Cobasys, a joint venture half owned by
Chevron/Texaco and an Ovonics offshoot, Energy
Conversion Devices, appears to be holding all the cards.
Recently it was announced that the major oil companies,
such as Chevron, are currently amassing record-level
profits. Considering the damage to the environment that
this profit has caused, isn't it Chevron's
responsibility to invest, heavily, in clean
technologies, such as hybrid vehicle batteries?
Currently, any competition will take a year to hit the
market because of the vigorous testing required of
battery packs, and Chevron will lose no ground if
battery production slows.
This conflict of interest possibly allows Chevron to
slow the introduction of the hybrid vehicle into the
American market so as not to disrupt the status quo to
quickly. With Chevron's capital it would be no problem
to flood the market with hybrid vehicle batteries.
Yet, Chevron is barely held accountable for all the
environmental damage, let alone wars, that oil has
caused in the last century. This simply shows how hard
it is to compete with huge, multinational corporations,
even when it comes to doing the right thing. The power
of the corporation usurps the power of the people, in
fact such power is wielded at the expense of the people.
How sad.
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