CEO of Altairnano Shown the Door

Alan Gotcher, CEO of Altair Nanotechnologies (ALTI), “agreed to resign” on Friday afternoon. Altairnano has kept relatively silent about Gotcher’s departure, except to say the company’s board “determined that the level of progress made at this point in the development timeline of the company did not keep pace with the expectations that were set.” The company has worked on commercializing its lithium titanate battery for a number of years, but has yet to sign a major distribution contract.

There’s also the $40 million Al Yousuf LLC share deal, which occurred over November and December of 2007. So where did it all go horribly wrong for Gotcher?

Many believed Altairnano was making dubious claims about its battery technology - that its nanotitanate structure allowed for high lithium ion packing, fast charging (under 10 minutes), and nearly 20,000 cycles with little degradation. To date, Altairnano’s super battery has only found one customer - Phoenix Motorcars. With agreements in 2006 and 2007, as well as a 16.6 percent ownership purchase in Phoenix, it seems likely Altairnano is destined to become a one-trick pony.

Al Yousuf LLC, a Dubai-based conglomerate, is the final character in this winding story. Al Yousuf bought nearly 11.5 million Altair Nano shares in a private placement deal over November and December of 2007. A few days later Al Yousuf invested $5 million in Zap (also rumored to have been speaking with Altairnano) and an undisclosed amount in (surprise…) Phoenix Motorcars. Was the plan to sell Altairnano-powered Phoenix vehicles at Zap dealerships? It seems likely. If that’s the case, Gotcher’s failure to put out a solid commercial product - the lynch pin in Al Yousuf’s master plan - may be at the bottom of his agreement to resign. Or maybe he just wanted to spend more time with his family.

Comments

[Evzble:]

Fundamentals remain solid. Execution going forward is key to continued success. Let's hope the new CEO takes Alti to a "Better Place" if you know what I mean.

2008 Mar 03 03:03 PM

[User 159865:]

ALTI's battery is much bigger than Agassi's "better Place". I wrote a letter to Agassi on his blog in January commending him for what he was trying to accomplish but adding that I "would like to see you do it right, the first time." I also pointed out that Maxwell's Boostcaps should also be utilized,( in addition to ALTI's battery). It was posted the next day however the blog's webpage went down and when it came back up my letter never reappeared. I wrote other letters to Jerusalem newspapers, etc. pointing out that the battery swap idea was very poorly conceived and would only cost the Israeli people lots of money, while they could just use ALTI batteries or buy Phoenix vehicles and accomplish everything for a fraction of the cost. Al Yousef is no fool he should see the potential for residential uses in the desert and everywhere with solar cells and wind turbines charging ALTI batteries. From what I discern from the evidence a major auto company is already heavily involved, which just makes this whole thing even more curiouser to me.

2008 Mar 04 04:21 AM

[pttprnc:]

"To date, Altairnano’s super battery has only found one customer - Phoenix Motorcars."

You forgot to mention:
* U.S. Navy Contract for Development of Nano-Lithium Titanate Battery Technology;
biz.yahoo.com/bw/08013...

* Manufacturing of battery packs for two megawatt battery system to delivery to AES Corporation;
biz.yahoo.com/bw/08010...
* ISE Corporation (a manufacturer of electric and hybrid-electric drive systems and components for heavy-duty vehicles) agreement to jointly develop and commercially supply lithium-ion rechargeable battery packs for use in hybrid-electric and all-electric heavy-duty vehicles.
www.greencarcongress.c...

* Lightning car company going to release one of the UK's first electric sports cars for 2008.
www.lightningcarcompan...
* .....

2008 Mar 04 05:12 AM

[streambuilder:]

The outcome of the Navy grant-sponsored work will be a good indication of the viability of the technology. If it is as good as claimed (and I hope it is) Altair should have been in discussions with people like Corning (for ceramics,low-cost mass production, top-notch research and development capabilities) a long time ago, to find the best ways to keep quality up and production costs low. I think there has been too much "pride of authorship" on the battery development, and they need someone with the vision to break out of the "build it in my own garage" syndrome (has been the downfall of a lot of great concepts) and take it to a process-oriented company with R&D and manufacturing expertise. It was definitely time to make a big change - overdue, really. Let's hope there is someone in charge who can see beyond Altair's own back yard.

2008 Mar 05 10:52 AM

[Seth Wu:]

The Lightning GTS car (60 in 4), touted faster than the Tesla, looks fast even standing still. www.pcmag.com/article2...

The earlier WSJ article has been interesting, but not flattering. online.wsj.com/article...

2008 Mar 11 01:33 PM

[grizz:]

The Miles Electric XS500 Sedan is also planning to use the Altair battery pack:
www.milesev.com/index....
www.autobloggreen.com/.../

Grizz

2008 Apr 09 08:26 AM