Questions asked and answered by GHOSTWRITER
- Q:
Jim....Korean newspaper is reporting on front page that Lehman (LEH) deal is
off. They looked at books and passed. Why are there still a trillion news
releases that the deal is on? This looks like a good short opportunity to
me...any feedback. (I admit, I'm weary of this stock but...) Here's the
link...
http://english.chosun.com/ -
Asked by ghostwriter -
1 months ago -
1 answers -
35 views
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A: i would wait before u short here,,give it one more day as i beleive we will see a carry
through too this rally on monday. more - Post your own answer
- Q:
Sorry about previous post. I didn't realize it was THAT long. Mea culpa.
Begging forgiveness of the board and JimBoooyah -
Asked by ghostwriter -
1 months ago -
1 answers -
30 views
Bookmark this User - Bookmark this question - Report Abuse - A: It's ok. I did the same a while back :) more
- Post your own answer
- Q:
Interview with HEV Chairman, Gassey. Easy to see why this is one of Jim's Fav
Five Spec stocks. It will soon be out of spec stock category and into industry
leader. This product is the "new oil" of the next decade and beyond since our
cars are definitely heading towards the technology as the fuel of the future.
Link at bottom.
EnerDel (Amex: HEV ) is a U.S. based lithium-ion battery maker that has recently
delivered a functioning 28 kWh battery pack for automaker Th!nk, for their
upcoming Th!nk City electric vehicle. I had the chance for a follow-up interview
with EnerDel Chairman Charles Gassenheimer.
Its been almost a year since we last spoke, can you give us an update on
EnerDel?
Things are going great. EnerDel has always prided itself on just getting the job
done. There is no hype in our story, our focus is on execution. We never promise
the street more than we can deliver on.
Last time you hadn’t demonstrated an HEV pack yet.
We’ve since demonstrated our HEV pack in a Prius and have sent it up to
Argonne for testing. We announced publicly and without any other changes to the
vehicle, just changing out from NiMh to lithium-ion we got 77.4 mpg. If you were
to optimize the software in the vehicle to let it know it was lithium versus
nickel, we think that there would be substantially further mpg performance.
Argonne gave some theoretical numbers which would be in the triple digits.
The other thing that was very exciting is that because of the superior
technology that we have they did not need to replace the air cooled systems in
the Prius so they did all the tests with no cooling system. This is in stark
contrast to our competitors all of whom require advanced cooling systems.
How does your pack compare to A123’s Hymotion pack?
Their pack was 5 kWh and 110 to 150 mpg. Our pack was just 1 kww. So we we’re
able to get that boost in performance with a much smaller pack.
I have conviction in the standalone efficiency & excellence of EnerDel’s
technology vs. peers. The acid test is in the delivery & testing of actual
product. As we have stated publicly – Th!nk has our packs and has successfully
integrated these into functional vehicles.
What have the packs been put through?
They have been sent for testing in Canada but we’ve also done our own testing.
We’ve gotten cycle life data on the packs now for 3000 cycle which is great.
The packs are showing excellent thermal performance and excellent efficiency.
The pack has been integrated into a Th!nk City, which demonstrated performance
metrics ahead of our expectations.
I think Th!nk has publicly announced that we’ve been able to produce a 28 kWh
pack which is 110+ miles of range which is substantially superior to anything
else that exist in the market today.
Is that by running the pack within a certain percentage of its capable kwh
range?
The key about our technology is what you’re talking about is the available
energy window. One of the great things about our technology is that we can run
the pack with a much much wider available energy window than our competitors. So
that the explanation of why we think our technology is superior to our
competitors’ because we can run the pack in a much much wider energy
availability window which means we can go up to 95.5% without any detrimental
performance to our chemistry (vs. our competitors who are still tied to some of
the older technologies).
You brought up the Compact Power pack which is lithium manganese versus
graphite. And graphite is one of the older chemistries that we think has poor
thermal performance.
That’s their anode, your cathode is lithium-manganese as well isn’t it?
We use lithium manganese versus lithium titanate anode for our HEV or high power
application. And this is the one where you can really push it and open that
available energy window which is why we can do so much with that 1kWh pack.
With the plugin-EV technologies were using lithium manganese versus hard carbon.
And that’s the chemistry we’re using for the Think vehicle.
We have two different chemistries. We have a high-power chemistry and we have a
high energy density chemistry. The high power chemistry is what we’re using
for the HEV products, with the Prius, and we’re in talks with a number of
customers that I can’t disclose today. For high energy density applications
like plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles we’re using hard carbon and a
variation of pure LMO. That’s the packs we’ve delivered to Th!nk already.
And those are the packs that people are very very interested in. And by the way
whether it’s a PHEV or electric vehicle there is zero difference form a pure
battery perspective. Its really on the drivetrain where you have to recharge the
battery on the fly which is where its more complicated. From a pure battery
perspective there’s very little difference. In both cases you’re looking for
a high energy density battery. So we’ve solved that problem with our battery
packs for Th!nk. And remember the Th!nk city vehicle is going to be first to
market. It will be on the road commercially available by the end of this year.
Not in this country though?
Actually its going to be marketed in Europe but Ray Lane who’s managing
partner of Kleiner-Perkins, the large VC firm, has publicly announced that he
believed there will be demand for as many as 50,000 Th!nk City vehicles in the
U.S. That’s a 700 – 800 million dollar number for the batteries. Think has
clearly been a great first choice partner for us, a great partner for us to
scale with. There will be other companies that we partner up with going forward.
But if the Th!nk City and their future Ox vehicle are big winners in both Europe
and the U.S. then my problem is one of capacity and scale. I have to be able to
figure out how to scale my business to meet their demands.
Most lithium-ion battery companies have some relationship with Asia, is EnerDel
purely U.S. based?
Yes. We have a plant in Indianapolis where we do the cell, the module, and the
battery management system and full pack integration. That is the only large
scale lithium-ion automotive battery manufacturing production capacity in the
United States.
Are you actually taking raw materials and producing cells in this country?
Yes we are. That’s why I emphasized the point. Both GM and Ford have been
extremely public in talking about how important it is going to be to have U.S.
domestic production.
The actual lithium salts you use, where are they mined from?
The first thing is the actual amount of pure lithium is quite small. That’s
probably true of our competitors as well. If you look at the bill of raw
materials, the amount of pure lithium is quite small. In our case we also use
manganese and titanium and graphite.
Lithium is mined in parts of South America, Canada, and Tibet. Most of the raw
materials we use come premixed and they come from Asia. The partnership we have
with Itochu is important. Itochu is one of the largest Japanese trading houses.
They’re a $100 billion corporation and the worldwide leader in raw materials
and lithium ion battery manufacturing equipment. Having them be our strategic
partner and 2.5% owner is a critical strategic advantage as we go to scale.
So we can’t actually mine our own lithium in the U.S.?
We cannot today but remember lithium is the 33rd most abundant material on the
planet. So I don’t think there is going to be any lithium shortages any time
soon. I’d think we would just have to go look for it and we really haven’t
spent any time looking for it.
Other people claim there could be lithium shortages, such as the CEO of ZENN
motor cars who points out EEStors potential device uses Barite which he claims
is 100 times more abundant.
Everybody is talking about this being a $150 billion or $200 billion market and
then going up from there. We’re obviously strategically ready to think about
any scenario. We’re ready to scale and we’re ready to meet the needs of our
customers.
My point is that there are some people who are experts who feel there might not
be enough lithium on the planet to sustain extremely widespread use of
automotive batteries.
If this market goes to a trillion dollars a year in revenues, there will be a
bottleneck. One step at a time. Just like oil, until we stared drilling below
the seabed we didn’t know it was there. We don’t know where all the lithium
is. We know its very abundant and its even is the sea. Maybe well have to figure
out how to extract lithium from seawater one day.
Besides Th!nk are you talking with the major OEMs like Ford and GM who are
already building cars in large numbers?
Lyle the obvious answer is as you know there are only four companies today who
are in the USABC phase II process. Those companies are EnerDel, A123, JCI/Saft
and LG Chem/Compact Power. So you should assume that any major automotive
company, and there’s 50 globally, all have some sort of electrification
program started. You should assume that all 50 of those companies are probably
in discussion with all 4 of the companies that are on that list. That’s your
short list. We are in conversation at the highest levels with a number of Tier I
OEMs, all of whom are looking for supply of the lithium ion battery. Its kind of
funny because every single one of them has the same question which is great,
lets assume we love your chemistry, can you get us scale? My obvious answer now
is, no, I can’t get you scale until I build capacity.
While I’ve got probably the most capacity in the industry, I need to go out
and build more capacity. I can’t ask my shareholders today for more money
until I have a volume order. And their response is I can’t give you a volume
order until you’ve got capacity, so we’ve got a chicken and egg problem
which needs to get solved. There’s only two ways to solve that: a) the federal
government gets involved, or b) the car companies kick in some money to build
capacity. Clearly European and Asian companies have better balance sheets today
than Detroit, but I would count any of the Big 3 out at this point. I think the
problem will get solved in 2008.
What is the capacity of your facility to produce cells right know, for example
LG Chem reportedly produces 1 million cells per month?
We have capacity for 300,000 HEV packs per year which would be 12 million cells
per year or 1 million cells per month, though that capacity depends on two
pieces of equipment which will be arriving shortly. We’ve buttressed that
capacity with additional capacity in Asia for cells.
The capacity game is going to be global.
So it seems it is inevitable that battery companies have to have some link with
Asia?
I don’t know if its inevitable but it is very difficult to be in the lithium
ion battery business without having some link to Asia. They are the dominant
players.
Where is the Th!nk City with your pack right now?
Its in Indianapolis.
Is it street legal?
Yes it is. One think we like about Th!nk is that they used to be owned by Ford
so their vehicle is crash tested. It’s the only electric vehicle today
that’s been crash tested so its road ready.
So you actually drive it around?
Yes we are.
Can we see some video?
Well although Think has given us the car and we’re driving it around its still
their vehicle. We provided them with the vehicle footage I can ask if they are
willing to release it, but it’s not our decision alone.
Would you consider this driving a testing process, kind of like the prototype
Chevy Volts?
If you were to compare where we are with Think to where GM is based on what Ive
read I would say we are substantially ahead of the Volt, and we do plant to have
the vehicle on the road by the end of this year.
What type of mass production numbers of these cars do you plan for by the end of
08?
That speaks more to Th!nk than us. We have to be careful about sharing
confidential information. Volume data will be public soon enough. My
understanding is in 09, they want volumes on the road in the thousands.
That’s in the UK in 2008 and 2009?
Yes.
I understand A123 is involved in the loop with Th!nk and GE, is there a
competition between you and A123 for the Think project or do they just plan to
use both of your companies?
Part of this is not my decision. Obviously its Th!nk’s decision as to who they
are going to use for the vehicle. They’ve announced they want to have
batteries from both. A123 has delivered something to Th!nk, although I’m not
aware what it is. I understand Think has tested it and its only 19 kwh, which
gives you a range of less than 70 miles, so in head to head competition our
battery is better.
Other than that I have no other way to access what else will go into the
decision making. I do know they have said publicly they do not want to put a
battery into the vehicle unless it can go 100 miles.
In life everything is a competition. Im guessing that A123 has to deliver a pack
that meets their minimum requirements first. Once they do that its probably
going to be a competition but Im guessing because demand for this product is
going to be so high that both of us are going to be capacity strained and they
may wind up needing to use both.
http://gm-volt.com/2008/07/03/exclusive-interview-with-enerdel-chairman-charles-
gassenheimer/ -
Asked by ghostwriter -
1 months ago -
1 answers -
32 views
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A: hey...if we don't have enough lithium, we can always go back to using lead. i'm sure with
the lead scare, we have an abundance lying around more - Post your own answer
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