Why Toyota can't sell RAV4-EV: tape 2 Chevron bought technology

At the Huntington Beach, CA Energy Fair, at which solar energy and plug-in cars were center stage, HB Toyota finally admitted, perhaps in frustration, that Chevron is a factor in why they can't sell the RAV4-EV. The RAV4-EV uses Nickel-Metal Hydride batteries specially developed for "large-format" applications by Panasonic-Toyota EV Energy Company. Originally, Toyota licensed the NiMH patents from the inventor, Stan Ovshinsky of Energy Conversion Devices' subsidiary Ovonics. In 1994, GM bought control of the Worldwide Patent Rights to NiMH, vesting them in a Joint-venture called "GM-Ovonics". On Oct. 10, 2000, GM sold control of NiMH to Texaco, which six days later announced it was becoming a part of Chevron (Standard Oil of California). Thus, GM, sensitive to PR, could say that it wasn't GM and Standard Oil that had worked together, exactly. GM-Ovonics was renamed COBASYS (Chevron-Ovonics Battery Systems) and the very next year, Chevron funded a lawsuit against Toyota, alleging patent infringement in that Toyota had improved NiMH batteries so that they lasted longer than the life of the car, even a Toyota car. Toyota then ceased production of the EV-95 NiMH battery and the Toyota RAV4-EV which used it; no plug-in NiMH car was ever again offered for sale to the public by Toyota.

---

Orignal From: Why Toyota can't sell RAV4-EV: tape 2 Chevron bought technology