One Reason Why I Am Not Always Optimistic

People sometimes ask why I don't see a shiny future for EVs. It's simple. There are lots of people out there who will go to enormous lengths to keep EVs a hobbyist phenomenon . . . and away from regular drivers who want them.

Don't believe me?


Stanley and his late wife Iris

Consider the NiMH, the Nickle Metal Hydride battery. It was developed by Stanley Ovshinski in 1994. It held real promise:

Ovshinsky's nickel metal-hydride (NiMH) model, when compared with its nickel-cadmium and lead-acid competitors, is twice as powerful, with none of their fatigue and discharge problems.

The battery powered GM's Gen 2 EV-1, Toyota's Rav-EV, Honda's EV Plus and others. The batteries worked well.

Too well.

Go to their website. Ovonics (Stanley's Company) touts its batteries are ". . . now used in . . . electric vehicles and hybrid electric vehicles. . . ."

Technically, it is true. What they fail to mention in that press blurb is that the larger batteries built for EVs were discontinued after Chevron bought a controlling interest in Stanley's company in 2000.

It gets better.

Chevron also decided to end license agreements Ovonics had made that allowed the NiMH batteries to be built elsewhere, going so far as to sue Toyota and others to prevent them from manufacturing the batteries:

Under the terms of the settlement, ECD, Ovonic Battery, Cobasys and MEI, PEVE, Toyota have entered into an agreement pursuant to which the parties have cross-licensed current and future patents related to NiMH batteries filed through December 31, 2014, effective upon the date of settlement. The licenses granted by ECD, Ovonic Battery and Cobasys do not grant rights to MEI, PEVE or Toyota to use the licensed patents to (i) offer for sale certain NiMH batteries for certain transportation applications in North America until after June 30, 2007 or (ii) sell commercial quantities of certain transportation and certain stationary power NiMH batteries in North America until after June 30, 2010. (Emphasis mine)

Meaning the batteries that currently power the few remaining RAV-EVs are not available, and may never again be available.

While everyone is rightly touting the energy density of the various lithium batteries emerging from the lab, we may never know how many EVs could have been powered with Stanley's battery. While NiMH has less energy density than Li, it was simpler to build, had fewer toxic main ingredients, and could have therefore been a contender in the EV market.

Thanks, Chevron.

Thanks for making me just a little less optimistic about the future.