Oil Company in Plug-in Hybrids Business

December 31, 2006 – Vol. 11 No. 41

OIL COMPANY IN PLUG-IN HYBRID BUSINESS.

Slowly, the evolution continues: Big Oil is becoming Big Energy. It began with BP with Beyond Petroleum. Then Shell with investments in wind, solar and hydrogen. And finally Chevron with a variety of ventures including battery technology, fuel cell technology and biofuels.

Chevron, unlike its Big Energy competition, is quite forthcoming about its concern about the direction energy - and thus itself - will take in the future. With global warming, an insecure oil supply, and booming economies, the company has been seeking insight into the energy future in its Will You Join Us advertising and Internet campaign that’s been running since the summer of 2005.

Now Chevron’s Cobasys venture, along with partner A123 Systems, is in a position to help make giant leaps in fuel efficiency. The pair have become Tier 1 suppliers of lithium-ion battery systems for General Motor’s new plug-in hybrid vehicle (PHEV) program.

As GM’s battery system supplier Cobasys will provide a plug-and-play battery system that will integrate A123’s proprietary lithium nanophosphate batteries along with packaging, thermal management, battery management electronics and control algorithms.

The Cobasys and A123 partnership won’t end with GM. The two will also be working on other joint projects to create packaged battery solutions for other hybrid builders. Cobasys by itself will also be supplying nickel metal hydride (NiMH) battery packs and electronics for GM’s Saturn Aura Green Line, due in US showrooms in the spring of 2007.

Cobasys itself is a joint venture of Chevron’s Chevron Technology Ventures and Energy Conversion Devices (ECD).

Gaining a foothold in the door of what could be a booming market for vehicles with extraordinary high fuel economy ratings could mean good things for Cobasys, thus Chevron, in the coming years. Given the recent news about GM’s Chevrolet Volt mostly-electric concept vehicle, the supplier relationship could last years.

Visit Cobasys at http://www.cobasys.com/ , Will You Join Us at http://www.willyoujoinus.com/ and A123 systems at http://www.a123systems.com/