GLG News by Scrap Metal Experts

Jack LiftonCo-founder and DirectorTechnology Metals Research, LLC

Toyota's Limited Introduction Of A Lithium-ion Battery Powered 'Urban Commuter' Car Again Highlight's GM's Desperation In Introducing The Volt Too Early

January 12, 2009

Analysis of:Toyota to Sell Tiny U.S. ‘Urban Commuter’ Battery Car by 2012 | www.bloomberg.com

Toyota's engineers believe that at its present state of development the lithium ion battery can only be scaled up from laptop powering size to, at most, a size that will safely power a 2 passenger car for a 50 mile run before needing a recharge. Today the state-of-the-lithium-ion-battery development is such that it is only useful in a limited temperature and load (weight carrying) range. Toyota has therefore decided only for marketing reasons to introduce now a small passenger carrying commuter vehicle powered by the safest most durable and long lived lithium-ion batteries it, itself, Toyota, has so far developed. Toyota's caution highlights GM's desperation.

Jack LiftonCo-founder and DirectorTechnology Metals Research, LLC

Kawasaki Chooses Nickel Metal Hydride Over Lithium Ion Batteries For (Fork) Lift Truck Applications. Why?

January 9, 2009

Analysis of:Battery Makers Target Forklift Market | www.greentechmedia.com

There are necessary steps to scaling up a technology. The passenger car makers either do not know what they are doing or are competing with each other in hypocrisy. In either case it will be years before any lithium ion battery technology is proven to be durable, rugged, safe, and long lived in applications requiring cells larger than those used today for laptop computers. Accelerated testing is notoriously unreliable for battery technology testing, because too many unknown factors and their interactions can only be measured in real time by prototype production units. The scale up of nickel metal hydride batteries with only small variations in their chemistry has now been going on for a decade. Nickel metal hydride batteries have performed very well. No single lithium ion battery chemistry has yet been tested in real time for more than a year in vehicle size prototype. Kawasaki is concerned with known failure modes, and has chosen NiMH batteries to minimize its risk.

Jack LiftonCo-founder and DirectorTechnology Metals Research, LLC

The First Of The Bubbles, Unlimited Growth Of Demand For Automobiles, Bursts. A Mature OEM American Owned And Operated Automotive Industry Unsurprisingly Decines

January 7, 2009

Analysis of:Auto Industry Growth at Dead End | www.thebigmoney.com

It is not at all surprising that the American owned and operated OEM automotive industry has declined domestically nor should it be a surprise that the foreign owned segment of that industry is now also declining. There is no point at all to manufacturing purposely short-lived durable assets in the USA. Ruthless competition for raw materials and energy coupled with a surplus of low cost labor overseas have propelled unit costs of producing durable goods in the USA to an all time high. The OEM American automotive industry has not had an easy let-down; it has had shocks from the withdrawal of easy credit to the foolish consumer class that finally had to be drawn from the totally unqualified just to keep up the fantasy of open ended growth. Now comes the reconciliation of what we can do with the resources we have modified by what should we do. Government can only address the second part of the question. The laws of supply and demand will give the answer to the first part.

Jack LiftonCo-founder and DirectorTechnology Metals Research, LLC

Toyota may Not Ever Complete Its Planned Mississippi Assembly Plant, And It May Close Some Of Its Other American Plants Permanently

December 29, 2008

Analysis of:Toyota delays Mississippi assembly plant | www.msnbc.msn.com

Toyota has both manufacturing and financial flexibility perhaps more so than any other OEM automotive assembler on earth. But even Toyota cannot afford to continue a marketing strategy laid low by external factors it did not foresee. The American credit market has been stopped dead in its tracks by greed, short sightedness, unethical, and illegal behavior. If the American economy is to be brought back to an even keel in a way to insure that it remains there then it will be necessary to reduce both the size and power of cars made in America no matter who owns the companies that make them. Oil is going to be more expensive in dollar terms in the future than it has ever before been in American history. Foreign demand for oil and oil products, such as plastics, will rapidly erode America's per capita domination of oil-use statistics, and the first statistic that will have to change is average miles per gallon for noncommercial use. The age of the small car has arrived.

Jack LiftonCo-founder and DirectorTechnology Metals Research, LLC

For the Global OEM Automotive Industry Today's Platinum Group Metals' Prices Are a Paradise Soon To Be Lost And Never Again Regained.

December 22, 2008

Analysis of:Platinum Falls to Gold's Level | online.wsj.com

The global OEM automotive industry is going to double in size by 2015. The electrification of cars will develop slowly, if at all. Therefore the demand for platinum group metals for exhaust emission catalysis will also double by 2015. The prinicpal power train growth will be in diesel and turbodiesel. Unless there is a game-changing innovation in exhaust emission catalysis this will demand much more platinum that is in use today.

Jack LiftonCo-founder and DirectorTechnology Metals Research, LLC

The Nickel Metal Hydride Battery For Hybrid Vehicles Is An Outstanding Time-Proven Example Of Engineering; There Is No Evidence At All, So Far,That The Lithium-Ion Battery Will Measure Up

December 17, 2008

Analysis of:Long-Lived, but Not Immortal: Fears Fade on Hybrid Batteries | www.nytimes.com

The success of the nickel metal hydride utilizing hybrid power train is one of the truly outstanding successes of Japanese automotive engineering, and it demonstrates clearly the short sightedness of American OEM automotive management. The nickel metal battery was invented in a suburban Detroit laboratory by a company, Energy Conversion Devices, Inc, which was at the time looking for a material to store hydrogen in the solid state. The idea was to create a safe hydrogen 'fuel tank' for vehicles. At that time the nickel cadmium rechargeable battery was being discontinued for reasons of he toxicity of cadmium. ECD decided to try a developmental hydrogen 'alloy' in place of the cadmium, and the rest is history. The new rechargeable battery was offered to GM, but it was not as capable as an electric car traction battery as lead-acid so GM lost interest. Toyota however had another idea, the hybrid battery electric/ internal combustion drive. The rest is also history.

Jack LiftonCo-founder and DirectorTechnology Metals Research, LLC

Why Has Toyota Slowed Down Its Agenda To Build Its Best Selling Prius In North America?

December 16, 2008

Analysis of:Toyota delays Mississippi assembly plant | www.forbes.com

The Prius line of best selling hybrids in the world is due to be expanded next month with the introduction of several new models at the Detroit 'International" Auto Show. Most of the Priuses made are now sold are sold in North America. The Prius is only built in Japan. The nickel metal hydride battery (NiMH), used for the Prius, based on a rare earth metal (lanthanum) alloy with nickel and cobalt, is made only in Japan by Toyota. Has Toyota been looking for an excuse not to build the Prius in North America? Was the genral sales slowdown too good an excuse not to use?

Jack LiftonCo-founder and DirectorTechnology Metals Research, LLC

Ford's Fusion Hybrid With Its Advanced Nickel Metal Hydride Battery May Crush The Chevrolet Volt

December 15, 2008

Analysis of:First Drive: 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid | www.autoblog.com

While GM ignored the success of the Toyota Prius apparently for no other reason than that they wanted the public to believe that it wasn't invented here Ford decided to watch and learn. Ford has now reached the point where it about to challenge Toyota and Honda for a place in the hybrid sun. There is no longer much point to continuing the development of the Chevrolet Volt, or, for that matter, to continuing the existence of GM as an incompetent and bloated bureaucracy with far too much production capacity for making cars that no one wants to buy.

Jack LiftonCo-founder and DirectorTechnology Metals Research, LLC

Are The Capabilities and Capacities, And Thus The General Utility, of Electric And Hybrid Cars Limited?

December 12, 2008

Analysis of:Green Obama’s official limo is a gas guzzler | www.timesonline.co.uk

Battery powered utility vehicles such as industrial forklift trucks and the 'traction' motors that pull 100 ton+ airplanes into and out of their 'parking' slots at airports are very impressive. However, to put forward the idea that there is a comparison between and a possibility of utilizing them to replace any part of the huge fleet of diesel and gasoline engine powered freight carrying trucks that keep the commerce of the USA and the rest of the world flowing is very misleading. It's time to take a deep breath and to look at what electric vehicles and hybrids cannot do in our motorized society.