Two completely different companies buddy.

Following your reasoning, people shouldn’t watch NBC if they had a bad GE washer and dryer, since they’re both GE products.

Also, the battery technology developed at US universities has generally been exploited by US companies. Rutgers University probably leads the way. Their technology has been pursued by both Altairnano and Electro Energy. So far, they have reached nothing but dead ends.

MIT scientists started up A123. But their first product was a failure. They recognized that and moved to a different technology.

I’ve seen nothing to support the idea that foreign companies are snapping up US government funded research and commercializing it with subsidies from their own governments. Foreign companies dominate battery production for a variety of reasons. Government subsidies and industrial policy are way down on the list of those reasons.

Compact Power was bought by LG so that they had a North American presence.

A123 was bought by Continental AG (you know, not US based) as Continental wanted to compete in this area.

So – neither is US based.

One other thing that bugs me is that our government has supplied funding to several universities to develop battery technology.

When the time came to commercialize the technology, the government did nothing to prevent that technology from being sold to foreign based companies. They then took this technology and received funding from their government to bring it to production.

THese batteries will not be “green” for the world, just us.

As someone else said – the writings on the wall.

(musing)I wonder what the stock symbol is…

The writing is on the wall…

Phil

You’re missing the point though. The A123 battery was not the better product. It was not the best fit for the Volt program and it did not fulfill GM’s requirements. It would be different if we were talking about two companies with products that were evenly matched and both met the requirements of GM, but we’re not.

Bringing politics into this is attempting to create a controversy where there is none. It’s this kind of us against them blather that led many American companies (including GM) to make poor decisions by choosing domestic parts and products, even though they were clearly inferior.

It is unavoidable when GM is begging for, and getting, taxpayer dollars just to keep the lights on.

For decades now conservatives have decried anything with smacks of a “US Industrial Policy”. Yet all of our fiercest competitor nations have very detailed industrial policies dictated from the government, and industrially they are cleaning the US’ clocks. There is not a single industry in which the US is opening up a capability gap vs. other nations. In fact, in many industries the US is now the laggard or completely out of the game. In others the gap is closing fast.

A123 is based in Watertown, MA. Although it’s in the 7th Congressional District (Frank’s is the 4th), you gotta think Rep Frank has their interests in mind.

Never, because they don’t really care. A123 isn’t UAW so it isn’t in their interest to do so.

All this fuss over a niche vehicle like the Volt.
When the Volt is finally cancelled all this will be forgotton.

Are foreign companies getting money from the US government? The bailout changes all the rules. They better be so american that they have apple pies coming out of their asses.

Keep in mind that one of the stipulations with the bailout was that it would all stay in the US. Not that the government will do a damn thing about it.

The Volt won’t last much longer than the defunct EV1, so maybe it does not even matter.

They chose the better design, plain and simple.

If you want GM to survive, they are not going to be using the United States for any new technical work. The United States cannot compete anymore due to bad management, and bad government.

Simple as that – we are moving down to a second world power.