Eestor Ultracapacitor Update

Actually some people do know who he is. Here is some info that lends some creditability to the blogger.

Mystery blogger offers insight into secretive EEStor
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I wonder if Lockheed Martin feels the same way?

 

so who is running out to buy Zenn stock??

being a Zenn owner, i purchased some stock right after they announced in a newletter to current owners about their agreement with eestor.

i am not a stock market kind of guy, but this sounded like a no lose opportunity so i used money i cant afford to lose (not much...only a few thousand...yes chicken i am)...

i have to admit... now i wish i had bought more... i could have dumped 20% of it now and got my initial investment back with major interest...

man i feel so stupid sometimes

 

Ultracapacitors in general do work, I work at Hybrid Buses, Hybrid Trucks, Electric Buses, Electric Trucks by ISE Corporation where they're used for buses.

 

Maxwell makes the Ultracaps used in the 2004-2009 Prius. They are used in the emergency braking system, after the main battery connection has been broken by the airbag deployment system.

 

This is starting to smell bad. I'll bet a quarter that three years from now they still won't have a product on the market; the excuse then will involve pesky delays with that darn patent office and in closing marketing agreements. I would love to be proved wrong.

 

Well, I don't read or understand Japanese, so the link doesn't do much for me. However, a seach for JOEL and ultracapacitor provided the following link.

Nanotube-Enhanced Ultracapacitor - Brightcove

There are supercapacitors and there are ultracapacitors, and I'm not even sure what happens to be the differences between the two types. Perhaps the supercapacitors only rely on high dielectric constant and breakdown field and probably don't use nanotechnology. I don't know the specs on the Japanese ones.

I suspect the caps in the Prius are nothing like the ones claimed by EEStor.
I have some super caps with ratings of 2.2 F at 5.5 V. This is a storage capacity of about 33.3 J or 0.00924 W-h. Their volume is about 10.8 cc, so the volumetric energy density is about 0.858 W-h/L. Li-Ion have an energy density of 90-100 times this. I'm impressed by the current capacitors that I've gotten my hands on. There are probably better ones on the market that I haven't located, but if the ones being worked on by EEStor can actually be produced it would be just marvelous.

However, why couldn't they let some independent testing company (under EEStor's watch so they couldn't be dismantled and reverse engineered) make tests and report on the actual specs that they measure. Without that, it seems to only be theory.

If that were to be done, EEStor would have no trouble getting investors. Then it would be a matter of how inexpensively they could be produced.

I'd feel a lot more confident of the entire "thing", if some such independent testing were done. As it is, it seems too much like a scam (or at best just a good idea with as yet no reality).

Dave M.

 

Good question and unfortunately the answer is a little complicated. The way ZENN set up their purchasing agreement with EEStor is centered around third-party testing. EESotr has completed 2 of the 3 independent third-party test with the permittivity testing being the last. This last test triggers a payment from ZENN and more importantly allows all the existing investors to increase their share in the company. This is why it is not as simple as just run the test.

EEStor has some very high profile investors already so the trick isn't getting money, it is getting good terms for the money. What you are seeing now is billionaires and potential billionaires leaking info to help their negotiating position.

 

Ah, so the dance has begun.

Tom

 

I just picked up$1500 worth this morning on a whim after reading the blog. It would be great to make money on this but what I really want is for Eestor to kick the ICE where it hurts. That would be much more satisfying.

 

Well, I guess that's good news. As long as 3rd party testing substantiates EEStor's claim with respect to energy density, power density, and lifetime. Of course, production and consumer costs remain to be seen. I hope it's not too good to be true.

Dave M.

 

Isn't this the type of stuff they throw billionaires in jail for??

 

Naw. Jail time is reserved for really dangerous billioniars, like drug lords and cooking show host.

But you do have a good point. As far as I understand it, it isn't the telling that gets you in trouble, but the lying. So long as you always tell the truth as you see it, you do not go to jail.

 

I talked with a zenn salesman at hybridfest, he said they are in the last stages of testing, and to expect an announcement towards the end of the year. Following the announcement, 12 months to get production up and the units to market if everything is ok.

They were also promising first dibs to purchasers of current zenn models, said the upgrade would be ~$2-3k.

This sounds like mums the word to me, they don't really need to announce anything, when they will be ready to sell they will sell. If they can't be sold, then theres no reason to tell people.