Battery tech needs government..?
General Motor's director of hybrid energy storage systems, Denise Gray, and Mary Ann Wright, vice president and general manager of hybrid battery systems at Johnson Controls Inc., told a congressional panel today (10/3/07) that U.S. auto suppliers need the federal government's help to create the high-tech future-car batteries we're all waiting for. Those lithium ion and nanotech batteries aren't going to create themselves, you know. njection.com
Profit by dreaming up a better mousetrap seems to have evolved into a government hand-out. It's a great concept for shareholders to get taxpayers to supplement R&D and once it has been invented reap the profit.
The only problem with this model is that while "we're all waiting for" this to happen, another company in another country is sacrificing sweat and perhaps a CEO bonus based on last quarter's profit to bite into our automotive industry. Ford is saddled with a portfolio of large trucks and GM is just nudging into the gasoline/hybrid market; both has taken a hit in market share because they are not producing what is selling.
Proactive thinking is key in a competitive market.
KenBob · October 5, 2007 7:02 PM
I hear what you're saying, and it's probably a fine line between encouraging/guiding research and a corporate hand-out, but I personally would rather see my tax dollars going to jump start battery innovation than being flushed down the proverbial toilet in Iraq. At least with a battery you'd be developing something beneficial to all. If I were king for a day, I'd start the equivalent of an Apollo Program for improving batteries, solar cells, wind turbines, etc. With Global Warming we need these technologies sooner than later.
paul kuehnel · October 8, 2007 12:07 AM
I was reading a story today about the 50th anniversary of Sputnik. The Communist government of the time thought the satellite, that had beaten the Americans into the sky, was a joke compared to the one that they had planned but were unable to execute in time.
When they saw the reaction of the American media and the fear that a simple radio beeper in the sky had caused, they fully realized the meaning of positioning themselves as first.
If began the space race and the sharing of U.S. military intelligence with the U.S. space agency to get ahead of our cold war enemy. That fear inspired invention and results.
Too bad we can't harness that fire to take on international competition and global warming in the automotive sector.