Stop Snickering: ExxonMobil Lends Tech to Launch Electric Car

The world's largest publicly traded oil company is supporting an urban electric car-sharing program. Let the jokes commence

By Mike Spinelli Posted 06.25.2009 at 9:43 am 6 Comments

Electrovaya's New EV: The Maya 300 ExxonMobil and Toronto battery company Electrovaya this week announced a car-share and rental program in Baltimore. Dubbed Altcar, the pilot program will let visitors to Baltimore's Maryland Science Center test-drive the low-speed electric cars, which are expected to go on sale in 2011 for around $20,000. Electrovaya

An oil company helping launch an electric car? The jokes write themselves. (Launch it where, into space?) But it's true: low-speed electric carmaker Electrovaya launched its Maya-300 car this week with help from ExxonMobil. The oil giant's "SuperPolymer" separator film is used in production of Electrovaya's lithium-ion battery. But wait, there's more.

This week, the two companies announced a car-share and rental program in Baltimore that'll take the name Altcar. The pilot program will let visitors to Baltimore's Maryland Science Center test-drive the low-speed electric cars, which are expected to go on sale in 2011. ExxonMobil has reportedly backed the project to the tune of $500,000.

A Toronto-based company, Electrovaya plans to sell the Maya-300 for $20,000 to $25,000, though don't expect it to compete with six-figure electrics like the Tesla Roadster. With a range of 60 miles, a top speed of 35 mph, and eight to 10 hours for a charge, the Maya 300 is strictly a grocery getter for short-distance neighborhood or campus travel. The company says An extended-range battery option will double the range while adding $10,000 to the price.

But Electrovaya, primarily a battery company, says it's aiming also at the market for full-strength electric cars, which is expected to get a boost from $8 billion in US Department of Energy aid announced today. The company's got a $45,000 version in the works that'll keep up with highway traffic.

[via Greentech Media]

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6 Comments

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hollycow

06/25/09 at 11:51 am

Nice try but this is not something I would buy.

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billdale

from Los Angeles, CA

06/25/09 at 1:55 pm

Good for you, Exxon-- now, let's hope this spurs Chevron to finally stop sitting on the nickel metal hydride battery patents they control and refuse to use. They seem to think that by preventing the markinging of those batteries-- the same ones used in the EV-1s-- they'll be able to impede the adoption of EVs and therefore be able to sell more gasoline at wildly inflated prices.

That game plan could work except that there are many good, solid battery chemistries that are capable of powering not only new EVs such as the Teslas, Currents, Zenns and others, but such batteries will also be able to power the gasoline cars that are being converted to EVs...I hope such conversions will be commonplace soon.

There are many entrepreneurs all over the US and Canada that have been developing the hardware and software to do such conversions, and working to drive down the prices and increase their performance and practicality.

Chevron would be wise to finally start selling their batteries. If they had not intended to use those patents, they should not have bought the rights in the first place-- Chevron could soon end up in bankruptcy like GM, Ford, and Chrysler, and if they do, they will get no sympathy from me.

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Alan Jeffers

06/25/09 at 2:43 pm

If you've finished snickering and want to read more about ExxonMobil's development of lithium ion battery seperator film, visit our website and click on the car. www.exxonmobil.com

No joking

Alan Jeffers, ExxonMobil Media Relations.

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CommonSense

06/25/09 at 10:51 pm

billdale, that battery technology is old anyhow. Relax. Corporations the size of Chevron have thousands of patents.
If a company can make money on a product they will market it. The Evil Oil Company routine is a bit dated, let it go. If they held the "magic battery" they'd make billions marketing it to game, cell phone, laptop, PDA outlets to name a few. The Chevy Volt isn't going to scare oil companies so why would a battery?

It's just common sense, even when it's uncommon...

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hljmesa

06/26/09 at 5:00 pm

Foul ! ! ! !
The gov is again giving money to a corporation that does not need it ! ! !
Government welfare for the rich ! ! !
This aid is slanted against companies like Tesla.

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Pokester

06/30/09 at 8:33 pm

Aaagh!

I don't understand why we're wasting billions of dollars re-inventing the wheel... These are NO DIFFERENT than a "community EV"... (glorified golf carts).

Why not simply create a new class of vehicle called an LV or "city car" that can only go 40 mph and therefore not need the same crash resistance as a 6,000 lb SUV intended for the freeway?

Make them affordable (even if this means using old technology) so people are willing to give up some of today's luxuries for tomorrow's economy...

(Has no one else figured out this is why detroit failed? The cost of their product tripled while incomes remained stagnant).

When enough of the first cars get crushed by SUVs and liability premiums for SUVs soar... these oversized dinosaurs will become relics of our wasteful past.