GM communicating with EEStor, tracking progress
Over at the GM-Volt blog there’s a report that General Motors, according to the headline, “Admits to a Working Relationship with EEStor.”
Well, not exactly if you go on to read the post. Unless, of course, having EEStor send information in the mail counts as “working relationship.” That said, the admission by Denise Gray, GM’s director of advanced batteries, that the auto giant has been in touch with EEStor is interesting enough.
Asked whether she’s seen an EESU prototype, Gray backed off a bit. “I probably shouldn’t say if I’ve received parts or not, that’s kind of confidential. But we are in touch with them and we are continuing to encourage them to develop the technology. Because we need as much help as we can possibly get to get the costs down of our battery solution and get the reliability up.”
Man, I can only imagine the kind of non-disclosure agreements these people have to sign. Obviously, EEStor is in discussions with a number of potential partners and customers, yet information about the company still dangles in the territory of rumour and speculation.
My personal prediction: a major announcement from EEStor in March.
Tyler Hamilton is editor-in-chief of Corporate Knights magazine and 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.
February 3rd, 2009 at 12:17 am
LOL! The EESTOR saga continues! As much as I am optimistic about EESTOR, I think too much was read into Ms Gray’s statement- in fact, she seemed to pull back after she said they have received paper- not prototypes- more to follow protocol that dictates not commenting on receiving anything. Still, while it would not surprise me to see this type of difficult technology endure a couple more years of delays, it seems like EESTOR is even more reticent then usual lately- perhaps the calm before the storm? I hope so- this type of product, if it comes close to their claimed specs and price, would present such a dynamic solution to many issues- EV energy storage, Renewable Energy storage, UPS’s- but I am not detailing anything new here that has not been hashed, re-hashed and speculated before. Still- very tantalizing to speculate about! Seems so close, yet so far away- and I mean this literally as well as figuratively- I live 8.7 miles down the road from EESTOR- but it might as well be a parsec away;-)
February 3rd, 2009 at 9:11 pm
Major announcement in March? “we’re broke”.
February 4th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
If there isn’t a major announcement prior to the Zenn AGM in March, Ian Clifford will have a lot of “spainin to do”! (and I’ll set up a rotten tomato stand just outside)
February 6th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
I don’t blame them for being so cautious. In my own experience, I’ve caught so called “customers” at my place of business going through my trash looking for intellectual property. As small as my company is, one would think they would not even bother with me….that was my mistake.
February 8th, 2009 at 2:54 am
Upcoming announcement revealed! EEStor merges with Steorn Ltd.! Sources knowledgeable of the impending announcement commented that this “… synthesis of empowered synergistically coupled companies will allow them to dynamically exceed their own potentials.” It is thought that the merged companies could quickly start to reduce expenses by consolidating their PR departments as they operated with uncanny similarity. “By merging over-unity magnetically coupled perpetual harmonic motion with super permittivity barium titanate super capacitors storage we will achieve something, well… something really super.”, a spokesperson stated. Steorn was already considering changing it’s name, “As anyone that reads the Economist knows we are Steorn Ltd. but considering our amazing technology we thought Steorn Unlimited sounded better. Being completely open and transparent we thought it best to invite a panel of 300 secretly selected engineers who will have 9 months to scientifically choose a new name. Some had though this announcement would be made in March but it appears that April, very early April, is the target date.” In another major announcement it was leaded that the new company is in unspecified talks with somebody.
February 14th, 2009 at 8:14 am
Rainer G Says:
February 8th, 2009 at 2:54 am
Upcoming announcement revealed! EEStor merges with Steorn Ltd.! Sources knowledgeable of the impending announcement commented that this “… synthesis of empowered synergistically coupled companies will allow them to dynamically exceed their own potentials.” It is thought that the merged companies could quickly start to reduce expenses by consolidating their PR departments as they operated with uncanny similarity. “By merging over-unity magnetically coupled perpetual harmonic motion with super permittivity barium titanate super capacitors storage we will achieve something, well… something really super.”, a spokesperson stated. Steorn was already considering changing it’s name, “As anyone that reads the Economist knows we are Steorn Ltd. but considering our amazing technology we thought Steorn Unlimited sounded better. Being completely open and transparent we thought it best to invite a panel of 300 secretly selected engineers who will have 9 months to scientifically choose a new name. Some had though this announcement would be made in March but it appears that April, very early April, is the target date.” In another major announcement it was leaded that the new company is in unspecified talks with somebody.
Funny, albeit a tad cynical…
February 14th, 2009 at 10:43 pm
Tyler said, “My personal prediction: a major announcement from EEStor in March.”
Hey! I called March 2009 first!
Let’s hope Dick cell phone has got an early EESU as I imagine he’ll be on the phone quite a lot next month.
February 14th, 2009 at 11:53 pm
I call EEStor have nothing
February 15th, 2009 at 4:27 pm
EEStor fuels hope and speculation with nothing more than vagaries, unspecified talks, anonymous sources of information…Sounds fishy, sounds like they’re running on empty…nothing of substance left in the tank to feed the investment frenzy?
The future of high capacity batteries is in lively nanofibers…biomass and metals carbonized together in high pressure soups….coming soon.
March 27th, 2009 at 4:35 pm
I know about Zenn and EEStor’s big announcement in March …
“The end of next year”
March 31st, 2009 at 4:09 am
If Eestor is a scam, they are amazingly inept at scamming – not accepting outside investors is hardly the way to make it into the Scammer’s Hall of Fame.
On the other hand, if they’re NOT a scam, they are astoundingly inept, since they apparently ran out of money and had to sign a worldwide exclusive perpetual license with a barely-existing tricycle company called LightEVs. If they had a working prototype they would have to beat VCs away from the door, and they surely could have gotten tons of money for quite a bit less rights than they gave to Light EVs.
April 3rd, 2009 at 10:22 am
“Tyler said, “My personal prediction: a major announcement from EEStor in March.”
Hey! I called March 2009 first!
Let’s hope Dick cell phone has got an early EESU as I imagine he’ll be on the phone quite a lot next month.”
What happened to your prediction TV??? No one can take Dick Weir, Ian Clifford, and Mort Topfer seriously. They all lied to the public and you. Keep believing in their BS. You will be here next year and still they will be telling you wait till next year for EESTOR.
Quote from Dick Weir, “”Prototypes have been built and prototypes have been tested” and that’s no “Bullshit”.
April 6th, 2009 at 1:02 pm
I see EESTOR is in one of two scenarios.
(1) They are holding out for perfecting their technology OR
(2) They are hoping the major Auto companies stay on fossil fuels because
EESTOR’s competition could never match what they claim and by pretending to be
holding back information they are preventing the competition from investing in
R&D thus delaying progress using fear as a tactic
This line of reasoning is similar to the nuclear industry in that the direction that
Nuclear Power took back in the 1960′s was Pressurized Water Reactors rather than
Molten Salt Reactors. Thorium MSR’s are still being ignored as a solution because of
an already heavily invested infrastructure in LWR’s and CANDU reactors
April 7th, 2009 at 8:54 pm
I’m probably totally wrong about this, but in all the positive and negative comments about EESTOR, nobody has mentioned that maybe the people at EESTOR are smart enough that they are timing the release of their product to be more or less coincident with peak oil. Until we reach peak oil, they might as well spend their time perfecting their product (assuming sufficient funding can be raised). As long as there is enough oil at a low enough price, 99.99% of the world’s population will never even know how to spell EESTOR, let alone care whether or not they have an EESU in their car or basement. How many people even know the difference between a battery and a supercapacitor? Nobody in my family does other than me.
If EESTOR started shipping parts tomorrow, the demand would be tiny compared to what it will be after peak oil hits for real. If EESTOR wants to make any real money, they want the demand to be high and the supply to be low when they start producing parts. Until peak oil hits good and hard, the demand for their EESU will not be very high. There aren’t as many geekers like us in the world as you may think.
April 9th, 2009 at 5:54 pm
The reason why there is no EESU delivered to ZENN in 2008 is Santa Claus got lost, and was hijacked by Martians who are holding him and the EESU’s for ransom.
November 13th, 2009 at 1:32 am
I really enjoyed Brandon B’s comment. Great article yet again very interesting reads on this site