Supposedly the reason for the small numbers is: It is interesting that Toyota somehow manages to obtain thousands of hybrid batteries per year. Full story: Lack of Production Hurting U.S. Hybrid-Makers | Hybrid Cars
That's crazy. Saturn is a division of GM. In 2001, GM sold its share of Cobasys (joint venture between GM and Energy Conversion Devices - Ovonics) to Texaco/Chevron. Cobasys developed NiMH batteries for electric vehicles and holds the patents for all NiMH batteries used in hybrid vehicles (they don't make all of the batteries, in my understanding, but with the patents they can take a cut on every NiMH battery no matter who makes or uses it). So if GM didn't negotiate some kind of deal where they could get enough NiMH batteries from their former division, it's from their own stupidity. I've heard Ford say this before, maybe 18 months ago, and there you could at least think it's somehow plausible, since they didn't have the inside track on NiMH battery development. And they make 20K of the FEH, orders of magnitude more than Saturn.
What they are really trying to say: "In addition to our demonstrated and well-proven incompetence in designing, marketing, and assembling automobiles, we have now branched out and have achieved a high level of incompetence in supply chain management."
Blame the battery game for there crapy cars, I say. If Tesla can get more batteries than all of GM combined, it must be really sad.
That's ok. They think they're screwing the entire hybrid market over by telling people "oh we don't have enough batteries" or "Toyota is hogging all the batteries" but really, people would just head over to Ford, Toyota, Honda or Nissan for hybrids. :caked: It's like saying "oh, we're running short in supplies of cars cause we don't have enough engines to put into the body shells"
What GM has no Hybrid Batteries ? Well, GM does everything "half Hearted" They really don't want to be in the business of really sellin' the Hybrid vehicles, or any vehicle requiring hybrid batteries. In another World, Toyota just built another Hybrid Battery plant with its associated supplier Panasonic...
I wonder how accurate the numbers are in GM Hybrid Sales Suck | The Truth About Cars. I'd be curious to hear or get a transcript of the conference call in question.
lame excuse, low battery production. they should know better than to put out a weak reason like that as the cause for not selling more hybrids.
