EEStor has open house, shows off EV prototypes
Just when you thought you could get all your news from the mainstream press — ha! — a reader of Clean Break was kind enough to forward a PDF of a newsletter put out by the city of Cedar Park, Texas (Note: the city has since de-activated the link). Among the various local news flashes is a bit about Cedar Park startup EEStor Inc., which decided on March 25th to hold a five-hour open house to show off two prototypes of a Feel Good Car that runs off one of its super dooper ultracapacitor-based energy storage systems – which, it bears repeating, claim to have 10 times the energy density of lead acid batteries and none of the negative side effects, such as slow charge time, limited cycling and environmental nastiness.
Richard Weir, co-founder and president of EEStor, wouldn’t speak to me when I wrote an article about the company about a month ago. But here’s what the Cedar Park’s news flash managed to get:
“This is a very sophisticated electric car, with 250 to 300 miles of range,” Richard Weir, CEO, president and co-founder of EEStor said. “It’ll take a full electrical charge in about the time it takes to gas up a regular car. Just plug it up for a few minutes and you’re off.” Many auto manufacturers experimented with electric cars in the 1980s and 1990s but essentially abandoned the technology for hybrid or other alternative fuel systems due to their high cost of manufacture and maintenance. Weir believes EEStor has overcome those hurdles with their product. “This is just a preview of what’s to come. We have another major announcement for May. But seeing is believing!” he said.
May? Major announcement? Oh, the suspense is killing me. If anybody out there in Cedar Park, Texas, managed to drop by for the open house and see these little electric vehicles in action, let me know what you saw — and whether you believe. As mentioned before, Kleiner Perkins is behind them, so even if you find it difficult to believe it’s something you simply can’t ignore.
BTW: EEStor doesn’t have a Web site yet but Weir has registered www.eestor.us — so it’s a matter of time before something appears.
Tyler Hamilton is a business columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to this Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the clean technology and green energy market. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of the newspaper.
April 7th, 2006 at 1:40 pm
Tyler: Feel Good cars is going back down to Texas next week to work with Eestor. Sounds like something is up.
April 14th, 2006 at 6:52 pm
Scooped by GreenCarCongress – of course we are enjoying Easter and not working!
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2006/04/feel_good_cars_.html#more
It might be fun to keep quiet for a day and read the comments to the post – already they are making me smile from ear to ear.
April 14th, 2006 at 7:15 pm
Scooped by GreenCarCongress – of course we are enjoying Easter and not working!
It might be fun to keep quiet for a day and read the comments to the post – already they are making me smile from ear to ear.
And don’t miss the new PHEV Vespa!
April 14th, 2006 at 10:14 pm
Scoop? Not really. It was was from a Feel Good Car press release on Thursday, which didn’t say much new — other than the fact third-party verification of the EEStor tech will be done this summer. The press release was mostly to announce a new hire, backfilled by update on FCG Microcar progress, new plant in Montreal and a quick mention that EEStor is proceeding on schedule.
April 15th, 2006 at 2:56 pm
Sorry about the duplicate – and of course, not really a scoop.
It’s good to keep the coverage live and active though.
Happy Easter all.
April 21st, 2006 at 12:17 am
Eestor and FGC got a mention in the Wall Street on Monday april 17, 2006.
Here it is:
Feel Good Cars Corp., based in Toronto, is co-funding a multimillion-dollar
battery-development project that aims to increase the power of electric cars
to the point where small versions could offer performance and driving range
comparable to a small gasoline-powered car. It estimates the retail and
commercial market for such cars could be as high as $150 billion annually
once the right battery reaches mass production.
The company, which has funding from MCL Capital Inc., Toronto, has an
agreement with EEStor Inc. of Austin, Texas, that gives it exclusive rights
to certain EEStor technology. According to filings by Feel Good Cars with
the Canadian Securities Administrators, EEStor has received $3 million in
funding from the Menlo Park, Calif., venture-capital firm Kleiner Perkins
Caufield & Byers, a founding investor in Google Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and
Palm Inc.
The partners have yet to build a mass-production version of their ultimate
battery, but Feel Good Cars CEO Ian Clifford says that this year his company
will start selling a car designed by French sailboat maker Beneteau Group
with a limited battery, in terms of how far and fast the car will go on one
charge. The Zenn, as the car is named, will be sold at as many as 50 U.S.
dealers, Mr. Clifford says. It has four doors and looks like a standard
automobile.
May 5th, 2006 at 12:13 am
Tyler, you probably have already seen this but check out patent# 7033406
http://patft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=7033406.PN.&OS=PN/7033406&RS=PN/7033406
October 5th, 2006 at 1:33 am
How can a private investor find the NYSE symbol/listing? Have they gone forward with an IPO yet?
September 8th, 2007 at 2:25 am
How can one invest in EEstor????
If their clams are true this could explode into something big…..?/
February 7th, 2008 at 3:27 am
Not sure I would want to invest in a big explosion. Maybe the silicon nano battery will prove safe.
April 7th, 2009 at 1:36 am
Tyler said:
“May? Major announcement? Oh, the suspense is killing me. If anybody out there in Cedar Park, Texas, managed to drop by for the open house and see these little electric vehicles in action, let me know what you saw — and whether you believe.”
I too can’t wait for the announcement in May. The suspense is killing everyone ! If anyone locates the production facility of EESTOR in Cedar Park, please let us know.
.
WAIT A MINUTE, WE’VE BEEN SCAMMED, “This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 29th, 2006 at 10:34 pm”. No major announcement, no ceramic battery, and no production facility.
We should be fair to Dick Weir, he doesn’t say May of which year. It could be May of 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, etc.
January 10th, 2010 at 9:26 pm
Does anyone have an update on how the big unveiling of EEStor’s battery by Dick Weir went in 2009? I am surprised it wasn’t all over the national news.