GM Comment Offers Mixed Signals

I spoke to GM-Volt.com's Dr. Lyle Dennis for the first time this past Friday. We compared notes with each other on our latest story leads and talked a great deal about EEStor. Dennis is hooked into GM and from his latest blog post, you can see that he does inquire periodically as to whether or not anything from EEStor is trickling up to GM. It doesn't appear to amount to much yet. But there may be more coming. But that's not my story. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, here's an excerpt from the GM Volt article:

"I often mention EEStor to GM executives when I get the chance. I recently asked Volt vehicle line chief Tony Posawatz what he knows about EEStor.

“I have heard a little bit,” he said. “Certainly the press releases are interesting, it causes you to take note and follow it.”

“The guys involved in it certainly aren’t a fly by night operation,” he noted. “Still some of the claims, knowing what I know, are way out there.”

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Is he referring to EEStor only or including in his assessment Zenn Motor Company?

Image Source: autoblog.com

Zenn Motor Company Wants YOU!

According to alert TheEEStory.com user SmackYYZ, Zenn Motor Company posted some new jobs online. The project management positions would report to VP of Engineering, Michael Bergeron. According to the fine print of the job description, the new hires would be expected to also invent a new 52kWh barium titanate based energy storage solution. I'm kidding.

General Motors & EEStor & Kleiner Perkins

Lyle at gm-volt.com sent me note this weekend with a link to an interview he did with Denise Gray, head of GM's advanced battery division. A little bit later, Hank Green from Ecogeek, sent me what appears to be video of this interview and if you note, it looks like Hank may have been working the camera when the question was asked.




It's good to see GM acknowledging EEStor. Maybe this will cause Kleiner Perkins to stop pretending EEStor doesn't exist....behavior I find in direct contradiction to their self described talent to provide more than "solid financial support." I raise this because in EEStor's case, I can't find any evidence that having Kleiner as an investor has helped EEStor at all beyond the "financial support." Prospective startups should also note Kleiner's policy of investing in competitive companies by simply asking what that policy is. If you are a startup company, how would you feel about one of your major investors funding one of your rivals? Quite frankly, it doesn't make any sense to me. I can understand the generic concept of having a diversified portfolio. That's crystal clear. But when two companies are competing and reporting their progress to a central funding source, how is the proprietary information protected?

Are there any Kleiner Perkins historians out there who can offer more information on Kleiner investing in rival companies? When I asked Kleiner that question via their PR firm, the offer to respond was declined. Additionally, I was told that the stealth mode of it's portfolio companies is dictated by the companies themselves, not Kleiner, even if they often recommend it.