While automakers and suppliers vie for position in the sector, Chevron Corp. (NYSE:CVX) is exiting a hybrid car battery business. Cobasys LLC is
being sold to SB LiMotive Co. Ltd., an electric vehicle battery joint venture between Samsung SDI Co. Ltd. and Robert Bosch GmbH.
With the deal, Chevron ends an eight-year relationship with the company. Through Chevron Technology Ventures LLC, it co-owned Cobasys with Ovonic Battery Co., a unit of Energy Conversion Devices Inc. (NASDAQ:ENER).
The sale also coincides with an end to
arbitration between Cobasys' former parents -- and with Mercedes Benz U.S. International Inc., which claimed it didn't receive product it paid for. Chevron and OBC tried to sell the company to General Motors Corp. last year since GM's Saturn brand was being supplied with Cobasys batteries, but obviously GM wasn't in shape to be buying companies. Although Saturn was sold to Penske Automotive Group Inc. (NYSE:PAG), GM previously said it would transfer certain hybrid technologies elsewhere.
What's interesting about this deal is that Cobasys manufactures nickel metal hydride batteries, now considered second tier to lithium-ion batteries, which
most companies are opting to use because they are lighter weight and provide more power in less space. And SB LiMotive is a $520 million JV set up to
market li-ion batteries worldwide by 2011. Perhaps it's just covering all the bases.
There could be more battery breakthroughs, but it looks like lithium is the way to go for now. I'm sure Cobasys CEO Thomas Neslage would beg to differ. In an
interview with an auto blog last year, he pointed to Toyota Motor Corp.'s efforts in NiMH as it had plans for a new plant to make the batteries. Fast forward to 2009, though, Toyota announced in June a plug-in hybrid lease program where it would use li-ion batteries for the first time
as opposed to NiMH. -
Baz Hiralal
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