Ian Clifford, CEO of ZENN Motor Company, is always fun to listen to, and since ZENN-watching seems to be one of Canada's favourite sports, at least since Rick Mercer did his famous spot on the ZENN car on The Rick Mercer Report (you have seen that, haven't you?), we thought we'd point you at a particularly informative recent interview with Clifford on the new podcast EVcast. In it, Clifford details his company's long-standing relationship with EEStor.
Of perennial interest is the reason for the lack of substantive product information from EEStor, the ultracapacitor company that is supposed to be developing a new energy storage technology that could allow electric vehicles to go longer distances without recharging batteries. When asked about this in the interview, Clifford had this to say:
Ian Clifford: I would suggest a couple of things. First of all, they [EEStor] are a private company, so they're not in a position where they need to disclose anything. ... The breakthrough that they are developing is so significant on so many different levels, energy-related levels, that, you know, if I were them, I wouldn't bother talking to anybody either. I know what's going on internally there, and I've seen what's going on internally there, and it is so significant that, you know, they just have to keep their nose down and keep focussed on the end-game, and that's what they've been doing. I mean they could spend every moment of every waking day talking to people about the technology, and the only thing that matters at this point is the commercialization of it. And they've got the money that they need--so they're not out there, you know, pounding the pavement, looking for lots of funding. They've got adequate funding to do what they need to do at this stage.
