Gaining Perspective on Electric Vehicles and the Natural Resource Cliff [View article]
I don't necessarily the idea described in the Next Big Future would be acceptable to most Americans, but it's closer to the future I'd foresee than most proposals I've read about.
Gaining Perspective on Electric Vehicles and the Natural Resource Cliff [View article]
Raw materials have been a problem for years and their prices track oil prices pretty closely. That's why the graph is so important. The idea that oil will increase in price and batteries will somehow become a bargain is nothing more than wishful thinking by people who don't pay attention to metals prices.
Electrification advocates love talking about how much cheaper electricity is per mile of travel compared with fuel. A huge chunk of that advantage disappears when you consider that an electric delivery truck costs twice as much as a comparable conventional vehicle. Trading capital costs for operating costs is not necessarily a bargain.
Currently we're seeing a number of companies ordering fleets of 10 or 20 or even 50 EVs to give the idea a try. It will take five years for anybody to say with certainty that the EVs have a five year life. It will take ten years for anybody to say with certainty that the EVs have a ten year life. Corporate boards are happy to spend a small percentage of their capital budgets on experimental technologies, but they're very slow to make large scale transitions without clear cut proof that they're making a good long-term decision.
EVs may in fact be the opportunity of the decade beginning in 2020, but for the next ten years they will be proving their merit and until that merit is proven, large scale implementation is out of the question.
I like the work Valence is doing with Smith. I've heard nothing but good things about the way their products perform. Their financial statements are a train-wreck and the common stockholders are under water to the tune of $67 million. You may be happy with the idea that Valence's principal lender is a nice guy. That doesn't change the fact that he could throw the company into bankruptcy whenever he wanted and flush the stockholders in an instant.
Battery Recycling Realities for Energy Storage Investors [View article]
I gave you the battery pack weight for the EV1, the patron saint of advocates everywhere. You came back with a fork-lift battery that split the difference between your original estimate and the EV1. As near as I can tell that's pretty conclusive proof that "The 600 pound battery in the Leaf would have to weigh 2400 pounds for a direct lead-acid replacement" was wrong. Why don't you just admit it and get on with life.
Suggestions that you've found a problem with industry statistics are interesting but in the absence of reference materials not terribly informative. I think most investors prefer fact over innuendo. Reliable statistics are, however, available from the USGS.
Battery Recycling Realities for Energy Storage Investors [View article]
There are lots of companies out there that habitually make commercial posts on popular blogs for the sole purpose of advertising products and services. It's generally considered inappropriate and while I agree that there is some relevance to this discussion, I think you've reached the limits of that relevance.
Battery Recycling Realities for Energy Storage Investors [View article]
Those decisions usually boil down to how cautious the lawyer is and how adventurous the client is, which is why some automakers went in one direction while others went the other. It's neither right nor wrong, just different strokes.
Gaining Perspective on Electric Vehicles and the Natural Resource Cliff [View article]
When it costs more to recycle something than the things you recover from recycling are worth, that something invariably ends up in a landfill. The only lithium-ion batteries that have any net recycling value are cobalt based chemistries. The rest are a complete and total loss from a materials management perspective.
Gaining Perspective on Electric Vehicles and the Natural Resource Cliff [View article]
Capturing braking energy is an extraordinarily efficient use for batteries and the Prius boosts mileage by at least 40% doing just that. Using batteries as replacement for a fuel tank at a capital cost of $5,000 per gallon of tank capacity is one of the most wasteful and uneconomic ideas in the history of man. It's like Julia Child's legendary solid gold frying pan – it may work but it will never be an economically sensible trade.
Gaining Perspective on Electric Vehicles and the Natural Resource Cliff [View article]
My agenda is very simple. Identify the risks inherent in the stocks of some current market darlings and identify the opportunities inherent in comparably unloved equities.
Readers who have paid attention over the last couple years would have gained 900% on Active Power, and 400% to 500% on Enersys and Exide. They would also have avoided catastrophic losses on the entire lithium-ion battery sector. The only stock I've liked that was a catastrophic failure is C&D Technologies, which got hit with an unanticipated accounting write-off that eliminated its stockholder's equity in an instant.
The vast majority of my readers like that particular agenda and your snide efforts to make it sound ever so sinister are laughable.
Battery Recycling Realities for Energy Storage Investors [View article]
I'd appreciate any contacts you can provide for the big oil offices that pay people for rational analysis of the facts. I'd love to get on that gravy train.
Battery Recycling Realities for Energy Storage Investors [View article]
I'm willing to accept a solar panel has virtue because it generates electricity without emissions other than those created during it's manufacture. That virtue, however, is not transferable.
Plugging a 54 inch plasma television into a solar panel does not make the television a green innovation. Plugging an EV into a solar panel does not make the EV a green innovation.
The odd assertion that owning a solar panel that puts green electricity into the grid during daylight hours is somehow an offset for plugging an EV into the grid during the night makes no sense at all.
You get one gold star for the solar panel. Once the electricity is generated the way it is used is meaningless.
Gaining Perspective on Electric Vehicles and the Natural Resource Cliff [View article]
That could well be the case. In an uncharacteristic note of optimism, however, I was pleased to read that gasoline consumption peaked in 2006 and seems to be on a steady downward trend in the US.
Battery Recycling Realities for Energy Storage Investors [View article]
Comments from hobbyist's, do-it-yourself fans and shade-tree mechanics only clutter the discussion.
My readers come here to learn about public companies they can invest in and profit from.
All collateral discussion is irrelevant.
Gaining Perspective on Electric Vehicles and the Natural Resource Cliff [View article]
Gaining Perspective on Electric Vehicles and the Natural Resource Cliff [View article]
Electrification advocates love talking about how much cheaper electricity is per mile of travel compared with fuel. A huge chunk of that advantage disappears when you consider that an electric delivery truck costs twice as much as a comparable conventional vehicle. Trading capital costs for operating costs is not necessarily a bargain.
Currently we're seeing a number of companies ordering fleets of 10 or 20 or even 50 EVs to give the idea a try. It will take five years for anybody to say with certainty that the EVs have a five year life. It will take ten years for anybody to say with certainty that the EVs have a ten year life. Corporate boards are happy to spend a small percentage of their capital budgets on experimental technologies, but they're very slow to make large scale transitions without clear cut proof that they're making a good long-term decision.
EVs may in fact be the opportunity of the decade beginning in 2020, but for the next ten years they will be proving their merit and until that merit is proven, large scale implementation is out of the question.
I like the work Valence is doing with Smith. I've heard nothing but good things about the way their products perform. Their financial statements are a train-wreck and the common stockholders are under water to the tune of $67 million. You may be happy with the idea that Valence's principal lender is a nice guy. That doesn't change the fact that he could throw the company into bankruptcy whenever he wanted and flush the stockholders in an instant.
Battery Recycling Realities for Energy Storage Investors [View article]
Suggestions that you've found a problem with industry statistics are interesting but in the absence of reference materials not terribly informative. I think most investors prefer fact over innuendo. Reliable statistics are, however, available from the USGS.
minerals.usgs.gov/mine...
Gaining Perspective on Electric Vehicles and the Natural Resource Cliff [View article]
Battery Recycling Realities for Energy Storage Investors [View article]
Battery Recycling Realities for Energy Storage Investors [View article]
Gaining Perspective on Electric Vehicles and the Natural Resource Cliff [View article]
Gaining Perspective on Electric Vehicles and the Natural Resource Cliff [View article]
Gaining Perspective on Electric Vehicles and the Natural Resource Cliff [View article]
Those recovered metals are not worth enough money to pay for the costs of recycling unless the batteries have a cobalt chemistry.
All other battery chemistries are going to have less value coming out of the Umicore furnaces than the furnaces cost to operate.
Gaining Perspective on Electric Vehicles and the Natural Resource Cliff [View article]
Gaining Perspective on Electric Vehicles and the Natural Resource Cliff [View article]
Readers who have paid attention over the last couple years would have gained 900% on Active Power, and 400% to 500% on Enersys and Exide. They would also have avoided catastrophic losses on the entire lithium-ion battery sector. The only stock I've liked that was a catastrophic failure is C&D Technologies, which got hit with an unanticipated accounting write-off that eliminated its stockholder's equity in an instant.
The vast majority of my readers like that particular agenda and your snide efforts to make it sound ever so sinister are laughable.
Battery Recycling Realities for Energy Storage Investors [View article]
Battery Recycling Realities for Energy Storage Investors [View article]
Plugging a 54 inch plasma television into a solar panel does not make the television a green innovation. Plugging an EV into a solar panel does not make the EV a green innovation.
The odd assertion that owning a solar panel that puts green electricity into the grid during daylight hours is somehow an offset for plugging an EV into the grid during the night makes no sense at all.
You get one gold star for the solar panel. Once the electricity is generated the way it is used is meaningless.
Gaining Perspective on Electric Vehicles and the Natural Resource Cliff [View article]
www.greencarreports.co...
Let's hope we can accelerate the trend with lots of HEVs and CNG passenger cars and heavy hybrid commercial vehicles.