Although they have yet to show off a prototype of their electrical energy storage unit (EESU) to a very curious public, the mysterious EEStor company has inked yet another deal. This time the future beneficiary of the super-duper capacitor is the Light Electric Vehicles Company (LightEVs) headed by Carl Watkins, former president of the Neighborhood Electric Vehicle Company (NEVCO), the company which brought the world the Gizmo EV. The world-wide "Exclusive Technology Agreement" grants LightEVs the rights to build and/or license two and three-wheeled electric vehicles powered by EEStor's EESU. Of the agreement Mr. Watkins says, "We are extremely happy to reach an agreement with EEStor to provide its new battery technology to the bicycle, scooter and motorcycle markets of the world. We have watched EEStor continue to make progress in proving their ability to produce ultra-high performance multilayered barium titanate ceramic capacitors in production quantities. They have met or exceeded each of their technology milestones, as verified by outside laboratories, and the remaining steps all utilize well established industry techniques."

In spite of their previously announced deals with Zenn Motor Company and Lockheed Martin, skepticism about the device seems to abound amongst those who frequent the website dedicated to eeverything EEStor, TheEEStory.com. The site, headed by an equally mysterious un-named blogger who answers only to the name of "B.", still has some true believers but a contractual agreement with a company with no existing product is not likely to gain any new conversions. Still, it all makes for interesting reading and "B" even lands interviews with the head of EEStor, Dick Weir, as well as other key players in this slowly unfolding techno-drama.

[Source: TheEEStory.com]

.

Fictive Atlantean confused charge

Following months of silence about the progress of its potentially world-changing energy storage device, the secretive Cedar Park, Texas-based firm, EEStor, has issued a press release announcing that it has reached key production milestones. One such marker for example is, " the certification of the completeness of the powder crystallization of the constituents utilized in producing its [composition modified barium titanate] CMBT powders." For those of you lacking a degree in advanced materials science, we believe what they are trying to say is that some of the materials which they will use to create their electrical energy storage unit (EESU) are within the specifications necessary for production. No, they haven't actually produced a working prototype or anything they could point to to prove they have the answer to life, the universe and everything but they have indeed created the most complicated sounding press release of all time.

They also say they have shown Dr. Edward Golla of the Texas Research Institute their test and measurement equipment and that Golla has certified that the equipment is capable of measuring what EEStor says it will. None of this however gives any indication of whether EEStors ultra capacitors will ever actually work as claimed. For that we must still wait. It does seem as though the company has opened the lines of communication to the outside world with the publishing of an email address. However, we are sure you are more likely to gain insight into their progress by keeping tabs on the blog that thoroughly follows everything EEStor. Hit the jump to decipher the press release for yourselves.

[Source: EEStor]

At ZENN annual shareholder meeting in Toronto yesterday, company officials made a big announcement about their plans to move beyond mere neighborhood electric vehicles. They plan to launch a model called the cityZENN which will be a fully certified electric car with 80 mph top speed and 250-mile range. The most important element of the cityZENN is the use of EEStor ultra-capacitors to store electrical energy. ZENN is claiming five minute recharge capability for the EEStor energy storage system. However, don't expect to do five minute recharges at home. Just as with fast charging batteries from the likes of Altairnano, putting that much energy in the capacitors so quickly requires very high current and voltage, much more than is available from any regular outlet. It will also take a very thick cable to provide sufficiently low resistance.

In other news, the existing NEV range will get new four passenger and utility versions added. ZENN also plans to work with some OEMs to produce vehicles with a ZENNergy drive-train (electric drive with EEStor storage) and branded as ZENN vehicles for sale. No word on exactly when that will happen. There's also a recording of the meeting available at the ZENNcars.com web site. You'll need to register and have RealPlayer installed to listen.

[Source: ZENN thanks to Mark for the tip]

The EESTOR ultracapacitor is a technology we really, really want to know more about. The huge potential of these devices that we do know about certainly keeps our ears open for news - or rumors or anything, really - about the technology. We don't know much more about the actual ultracaps (aka Electrical Energy Storage Units or EESU), but Lockheed Martin must like them. The not-exactly-risk-friendly company - I mean, they work the bountiful government system with aplomb - has "signed an exclusive international rights agreement to integrate and market Electrical Energy Storage Units (EESU) from EEStor, Inc., for military and homeland security applications." It sounds like the EESU's will be used in LM's BattPack. Want more details? Sorry. "Specific terms of the agreement were not disclosed."

So, about those promises. The EESUs are a ceramic battery "that could provide 10 times the energy density of lead acid batteries at 1/10th the weight and volume" and will supposedly cost half as much as traditional batteries on a price per stored watt-hour basis. So, until we get a better idea what EESTOR is actually working on, we can triangulate that they're not totally full of smoke and mirrors. Perhaps ZENN is in good hands after all.

Related:

• Is production of EEStor ultracapacitors being pushed back into 2008?
• Problems at ZENN and EEStor?
• Zenn buys into ultra capacitor company EEStor
• More on EEstor's ultracapacitor - can we believe the hype?

[Source: Press Media Wire]

After having earlier proclaimed that they would have their remarkable new ultra-capacitors in production this year, it now looks like EESTor is delaying production for as much as six months. CNET actually managed to talk to EEStor CEO Richard Weir on the phone and he said that production would start sometime before the middle of 2008. EEStor was supposed to deliver 15 kWh energy storage systems for installation into a new EV made by ZENN.

ZENN invested several million dollars into EEStor. To date no one outside of ZENN or EEStor has actually seen or tested the new capacitors. If they work and are affordable (two VERY big IFS) it could be a breakthrough for electric vehicles. Caps can absorb energy much more quickly than batteries but they traditionally have had limited capacity and big ones were very expensive.

Related:

• Problems at ZENN and EEStor?
• New capacitor research could increase capacities by seven times

[Source: CNET, thanks to Domenick for the tip]

As Toyota hesitates on lithium ion battery technology and General Motors races ahead, Canadian startup Zenn is trying to leapfrog them. We've talked about ZENN before and also their deal with EEStor to use their ultra-capacitor technology. EEStor has made some pretty amazing claims as has ZENN. ZENN is claiming that drivers will be able to charge up their cars in five minutes and get a five-hundred-mile range.

While this may indeed be possible it's still very much unproven. Capacitors are able to absorb energy much faster than batteries, which makes them desirable for EV applications where they can absorb the kinetic energy recovered during regenerative braking. However, their capacity is also much more limited. The current generation Honda FCX fuel cell car uses ultra-capacitors but only has a range of about one third of mile on the capacitors. High capacity ultra-capacitors are also very expensive.

Whether EEStor will be able to actually build an ultra-capacitor with a 500-mile range at an affordable price is still very much an open question. Another issue is the five minute charge time. Capacitors don't magically reduce the amount of energy it takes to move a car 500 miles. They just reduce the amount of time it takes to absorb that energy. Just like the Altairnano batteries that can reportedly be charged in ten minutes, you won't be able to get that five minute charge at home. You will need a very thick cable to transfer that much electricity in such a short time and a huge amount of stored energy. Special charging stations will be needed that will be very expensive at first. Charging at home on your 60-200A circuits will take almost as much time as a battery.

[Source: ABC News]

Recently, I've noticed that we've had a few comments regarding the lack of announcements coming from ZENN Motors and EEStor regarding when we might see an actual product using their new energy storage technology. In fact, it was even mentioned by one person who visited a ZENN dealership that he was told that there were problems regarding the technology. It was said that if the product ever does become available, it would not have nearly the specifications that were originally quoted. So, I decided to contact ZENN regarding these rumors. Here is the reply that I got:

Dear Mr. Korzeniewski,

Thank you for your interest.

We continue to say that we are expecting to receive the technology at the end of the year. EEStor has reached all their benchmarks so far. That is about all I can say.

Again, thank you for your interest and if I can be of further assistance, do not hesitate to get in touch with me.

So, what does all of this mean? Either the aforementioned dealer was given misinformation, or ZENN isn't being completely forthcoming. Let's just keep on the lookout for any information about EEStor and ZENN for now, and hope that all is on track. I'll follow up with ZENN shortly. Stay tuned.

Related:

• Zenn buys into ultra capacitor company EEStor
• More on EEstor's ultracapacitor - can we believe the hype?
• Quick update on EEStor and ZENN Motors

Researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a new type of capacitor which allows up to seven times the electrical storage potential as standard capacitors available today. The breakthrough apparently is a polymer called PVDF which can act as a high-performance dielectric, which is an insulating material between two metal surfaces. Electricians are used to using a dielectric grease on electrical connections, so this may be a familiar concept to some of our readers.

This is good news for the electric and hybrid car industry, as capacitors are a possible alternative to batteries. Unlike batteries, which use a chemical reaction to release their stored energy, capacitors use no chemicals and are capable of storing and releasing a given amount of energy quickly. The problem is that capacitors generally store less energy than batteries. This potential, but untested breakthrough could alleviate some of that deficiency, allowing the capacitor to store more energy while still enabling that energy to be charged and discharged rapidly. EEStor is a name that has been thrown around on our blogs, as they claim to have a capacitor based system which rivals expensive batteries in power output, and possibly at less cost. We'll keep our ears and eyes open for more capacitor news, and we'll be sure to pass it along.

[Source: Science Daily, thanks to Matt for the tip]

There's been lots of speculation about the EESTOR ultracapacitor and just what kind of impact - if any - it will have on the hybrid and all-electric vehicle market. Just look below at the list of stories we've run in the past on the EESTOR and ZENN, which is the vehicle company the EESTORs are destined for. With so much already unknown, why don't we introduce another ultracapacitor into the mix, this one made by the Canadian company EPOD. EPOD's ultracapacitor "can be manufactured for small scale applications like cellular phones or larger scale applications such as batteries for Hybrid Motor Vehicles and Wind Mills," according to EV World.

Recently, EPOD "received approval for a $300,000 grant from the government of Canada for further development on the revolutionary new battery that it has been developing for the last two years in conjunction with the Molecular Mechatronics Lab in the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering at the University of British Columbia," EV World writes. The predicted capabilities are astounding: charge it in less than a minutes and a lifetime of full cycles in excess of 100,000 times. We'll see how much of this is real sometime down the road.

Related:

• Zenn buys into ultra capacitor company EEStor
• More on EEstor's ultracapacitor - can we believe the hype?
• Quick update on EEStor and ZENN Motors
• EDTA Conference: Secret effects of EESTOR ultracapacitor info from ZENN Motor CEO
• Feel Good Cars wants EEStor technology by 2008

[Source: EPOD via EV World]

ZENN Motor Company has paid $2.5 million for a 3.8 percent equity stake in ultra capacitor developer EEStor. The deal means that ZENN gets an exclusive deal for EEStor's batteries for small and medium sized vehicles. EEStor is going to use the money to fund the next stage of testing of their capacitors by an independent third party lab. If the capacitors meet the requirements laid out in the equity agreement, then ZENN will have the option to invest another $5 million dollars under the same terms as the initial investment.

Related:

• More on EEstor's ultracapacitor - can we believe the hype?
• Quick update on EEStor and ZENN Motors

[Source: ZENN Motor Company]

NEVs, or neighborhood electric vehicles, don't seem to work out for everybody, but for those who can make them work despite the driving range and speed limitations, they are a good choice, as they can be fully electric and require no petroleum fuel at all. Here is a video from Lang Motors, apparently a dealership which sells fully electric vehicles. This is your standard commercial type ad which extols the virtues of the vehicle in question: the ZENN.

This is the second video that I have found for ZENN motorcars on Youtube, the first had much more technical information about the car, so if you are interested in knowing more about the ZENN in particular, I would suggest giving that video a look see. Also, why not check out the rest of our coverage of ZENN, and pay particular attention to their possible future vehicles using the EEStor power source.

[Source: Youtube via Hugg]

Readers who are familiar with hybrid and electric vehicle drivetrains will already know what a capacitor is, but here is a brief explanation. A battery is a chemical means of storing electricity, while a capacitor is a mechanical means of storing electricity. Both can be recharged, and both can be discharged. One reason to choose a capacitor over a battery is that the mechanical capacitor can generally charge and discharge its electrical energy much more quickly than the chemical battery can. Alternatively, one reason to choose a chemical battery is that they generally store a longer lasting charge of electricity at lower voltages than the mechanical capacitor can. A quick high charge of current (capacitor), or a slower, longer lasting charge of current (battery). Hope that makes sense.

Carmakers have already realized the benefits of a hybrid battery\capacitor energy storage system. Aftermarket and automotive supplier companies have been working on capacitor technology as well; EEStor springs right to mind as one to watch. Researchers at the University of Arizona have used nanotechnology to create a new type of capacitor called Digitized Energy Storage Devices. or DESD's. According to them, "DESDs have a very high capacitance-to-volume ratio that's more than 10,000 times larger than a conventional parallel-plate capacitor of the same size. This makes for a device with large capacitance in a small package."

This is a rather exciting technology to watch, and if you are interested in more of the science behind their work, click here and read the whole article.

EDIT: Added the link to the source article above.

Related:

• More on EEstor's ultracapacitor - can we believe the hype?
• Quick update on EEStor and ZENN Motors
• EDTA Conference: Secret effects of EESTOR ultracapacitor info from ZENN Motor CEO

[Source: University of Arizona]

ZENN Motors vehicle at the EDTA Conference last November

More details have emerged about EEStor's ambitious ultracapacitor electrochemical battery replacement technology. EEStor sees applications for their Electrical Energy Storage Units (EESU) in everything from hybrid-electric and pure-electric vehicles, to laptop computers, to utility-scale electricity storage. Based on barium-titanate powders, the units are supposed to dramatically outperform the best lithium-ion batteries on the market in terms of energy density, price, charge time, and safety. And since capacitors don't require chemical processes to store power, EEStor said in its patent, the materials the company uses are safer and more environmentally friendly.

Ultracapacitors store energy in an electrical field between two closely spaced conductors, or plates, upon which an electric charge builds when voltage is applied. Unlike traditional electrochemical batteries, ultracapacitors can completely store and release a charge quickly and indefinitely over many cycles. Where they don't compete though is energy storage; here lithium-ion batteries can store 25 times more specific energy - the amount of energy in a given unit of mass.

Most research into increasing the charge that can be stored by the plates has focused on ways to increase the surface area. Last year, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said it was working on hugely increasing the plate surface area by researching plates made of microscopic nanotubes.

Up until now, ultracapacitors, have been used in conjunction with traditional batteries to more fully harness the regenerative energy created in sudden bursts by braking activity with their ability to release quick jolts of electricity. Their characteristics are ideal for maximising efficiency in stop-start city driving. Ultracapacitor manufacturer Maxwell Technologies has been able to capitalise on this strategy in their 125-volt BoostCap ultracapacitor module.

EEStor's EESU, a ceramic ultracapacitor with a barium-titanate dielectric, or insulator, is claimed to break free of the traditional limitations of small energy storage found in other ultracapacitors. Apparently they have achieved an exceptionally high specific energy and permittivity - the ability of an substance to store electrical energy in an electric field. Normally an ultracapacitor has a permittivity rating of 20 to 30, compared to the claimed EESU rating of 18,500 plus. As you can imagine, such claims have raised questions amongst experts who hold concerns that such ceramic materials can survive and function properly in vehicle applications.

In an interview with Technology Review, Jim Miller, vice president of advanced transportation technologies at Maxwell Technologies said, "We're skeptical, number one, because of leakage. Meaning, if you leave it parked overnight it will discharge, and you'll have to charge it back up in the morning."

In the same article, Andrew Burke, an expert on energy systems for transportation at University of California at Davis said, "I have no doubt you can develop that kind of [ceramic] material, and the mechanism that gives you the energy storage is clear, but the first question is whether it's truly applicable to vehicle applications."

ZENN Motor Company is reported to be getting first access to EEStor's EESU technology for use in their Low Speed Vehicles.

Maxwell Technologies meanwhile has just announced that they are forging ahead with their technology and have received a purchase order for 100,000 square meters / 1,076,400 square feet of proprietary ultracapacitor electrode material from a licensee, Shanghai Sanjiu Electric Equipment Co. This will allow Sanjiu Electric to launch a new ultracapacitor product line based on Maxwell's Cell Architecture for transportation, utility and industrial markets in mainland China.

Mr. Hong Yuan Shuai, Chairman and CEO of Sanjiu Electric parent company, the Ruihua Group, said that Sanjiu Electric has already produced and delivered a variety of prototype electric and hybrid buses, trucks and other vehicles powered by drive systems combining batteries and Maxwell BoostCap ultracapacitors for energy storage and regenerative braking.

Analysis: The EESU prospects are exciting, but I think Maxwell's use of ultracapacitors in regenerative breaking applications is probably a better choice for vehicular applications at this point. Where EEStor's products could open up a sizeable lead over the opposition though is in the area of military, direct-energy "ray-gun" weapons. Personally, I'll just stick with better fuel economy in stop-start traffic.

Related:

• Quick update on EEStor and ZENN Motors
• EDTA Conference: Secret effects of EESTOR ultracapacitor info from ZENN Motor CEO

[Source: Technology Review]

If you have been following AutoblogGreen for a while, you are familiar with EEstor, Inc., a company that has been working on an ultracapacitor power source that has gotten a lot of press in green circles. ZENN Motor Company is reported to be getting first access to the technology, and as we reported in November, this new power source will allow ZENN to quadruple their range, add high-speed charging to their Low Speed Vehicles (LSVs), look at a high-speed platform and make a highway-ready vehicle.

Not a lot has been said since then, but I found a new announcement over on Treehugger.

Here are some highlights from president and CEO Richard Weir:

• EEStor has been awarded a critical patent related to their technology
• 12 additional patents are pending
• They have built a state-of-the-art facility and added new talent
• They remain on track to begin shipping production 15 kilowatt-hour Electrical Energy Storage Units to ZENN Motor Company in 2007

"The production EESU for ZENN Motor Company will function to specification in operating environments as severe as negative 20 to plus 65 degrees Celsius, will weigh less than 100 pounds, and will have ability to be recharged in a matter of minutes."

They hype continues. Let's see what they deliver.

Related:

• EDTA Conference: Secret effects of EESTOR ultracapacitor info from ZENN Motor CEO
• Feel Good Cars wants EEStor technology by 2008
• Zenn EV coming to America in late July

[Source: Marketwire via Treehugger}

At the end of the day yesterday, I snagged a few minutes with ZENN Motor Company CEO Ian Clifford by the EDTA Conference refreshments table and posed the question that Darin left in the comments when I asked what readers wanted to know more about: what's up with this secretive EESTOR ultracapacitor?

Clifford didn't spill all the beans to AutoblogGreen (not enough truth serum on that table), but he did tell us some things that really whets our appetites for more information. The EESTOR technology is something totally new, it "just doesn't exist" right now. It's not lithium-ion or a chemical based battery (it's a solid state ultracapacitor). It is "a significant breakthrough." These tidbits we already knew (see these posts on The Fraser Domain and TreeHugger), but what's less known is how the EESTOR technology will change ZENN.

For one thing, Clifford said, this new power source will allow ZENN to quadruple the range and introduce high-speed charging to their Low Speed Vehicles (LSVs). ZENN will also be able to seriously look at a high-speed platform and make a highway-ready vehicle if the technology is as good as the hushed rumors suggest. Clifford said using EESTOR's tech would add less $1,000 to the cost of a ZENN car and return performance that rivals an ICE. ZENN also has dibs on the technology.

"We have exclusivity in the technology as well up to a 1,400 kilo curb weight, so that's a five-passenger mid-size vehicle and smaller," Clifford said, adding that ZENN has worldwide exclusivity to convert ICE cars to EESTOR electric vehicles.

But why take my word for it? You can hear Clifford yourself in this five-minute MP3 (about 1MB).

And Devin, I've got more information on another all-electric vehicle at the show, the Silverado EV conversion. That'll be up later today. In the meantime, what do you all think of the EESTOR tech? Is it another Segway, or a possible reinvention of the wheel?