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ABG speaks with PowerGenix about NiZn batteries

Tuesday, September 9th, 2008

Filed under: Emerging Technologies, EV/Plug-in, Hybrid, Manufacturing/Plants, On Two Wheels

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We recently got on the phone with Dan Squiller from PowerGenix, a company which hopes to “revolutionize the battery industry” with its new nickel-zinc batteries. The firm’s batteries will soon make an appearance in power tools and in lawn and garden machinery, with ebikes, scooters and consumer AA-sized units shipping shortly thereafter. Of course, the company also sees huge room for expansion in hybrid cars and has plans to sell its technology to a major manufacturing company in the near-term future.

What makes the company think its product is so good? Read on past the break for the story.

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Toyota to build hybrid batteries in North America

Wednesday, December 31st, 1969

Filed under: Economy, Hybrids/Alternative, Green, Plants/Manufacturing, Toyota

Even with the $5,000 difference between the Prius and non-hybrid Toyotas, there was a time when Toyota lost money on the car. Even when the car entered the black, and even though they halved the cost of the hybrid system from one generation to the next, Toyota still didn’t make the margins on it that they did with their go-to sedans. Yet with plans to start making batteries for the Hybrid Synergy Drive in the U.S., Toyota says it should be able to halve costs again, and bring the next-gen Prius profit to near parity with the Corolla.

Toyota doesn’t know where or when it will start building batteries in the States. The company says “it’s difficult to make the main parts of batteries outside of Japan,” but didn’t explain why that was the case. From 2010, the Prius will be manufactured in Toyota’s Mississippi plant, however, that doesn’t mean the battery plant will be nearby.

Toyota moved up the date to offer the plug-in Priuses to government and fleet operators to the end of 2009. Right now, Toyota says the Prius gets 13 miles on battery power alone. If the plug-in Prius does arrive in a year or so, and with a substantially higher range — and that is a ginormous “if” — then it has a chance of upstaging the Chevy Volt, which appears to be what Toyota is aiming for.

[Source: Automotive News, sub req’d]

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