Nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) and the controversy

Battery icon

I was reading through an interesting old story on where the patent of an older version of battery technology called nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) which was used on earlier EVs(Electric Vehicle) like the GM(General Motors) EV1 was owned by an Oil company named Chevron and they even stopped + sued battery manufacturer or car companies from using it. One example was when Chevron sued Panasonic for making the EV-95 NiMH Battery and Toyota for using it in the RAV4 EV.

Chevron didn’t create the nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) battery technology, they got their hands on the patent as a result of acquiring Texaco(which is also another Oil company), which itself got this from GM. The original inventors were the late Stan and Iris Ovshinsky. The patent is now in the hands of Bosch and Samsung through their joint venture.

But still, anyway, Li-ion(Lithium-ion) batteries were built and deemed far better in terms of their high energy density, voltage capacity, lightweight and they have a longer life. Toyota still seems to be using the NiMH battery technology in their hybrid vehicles as it is cheaper and serves best for regenerative energy.

But it’s an interesting story to see how manipulative these oil companies were and even tried to stop the EV industry from progressing further. But thanks to innovations like the Li-ion and future solid-state batteries, the EV industry kept progressing.