Is A123's Future Really This Bright?

September 24, 2009

Today’s Wall Street Journal says that shares of A123 Systems have jumped dramatically since its initial public offering, despite the fact that the company has never turned a profit. Shares of the company sold at $13.50 initially; they’ve reached $19.70 today.

The newspaper states that A123, which makes lithium-ion batteries for electric cars, is banking on market forecasts from A.T. Kearney Global Management Consultants to divine the future of the electric car battery business. The consultant reportedly has predicted sharp growth: $32 million annually today; $21.8 billion in 2015 and $74 billion in 2020.

If that’s true, a lot of investors should be reaching for the wallets about now.

Still, there’s another piece to the puzzle: A123 has continually lost money during its history, says the Journal. In the first half of 2009, A123 had a net loss of $41 million; last year, it lost $80.4 million.

Posted by Captain Hybrid on September 24, 2009 | Comments (5)

October 1, 2009

In response to: Is A123's Future Really This Bright?
ChrisG commented:

Jul 14 2009 - Chevron sold Cobasys to SB LiMotive Co. Ltd., an electric vehicle battery joint venture between Samsung SDI Co. Ltd. and Robert Bosch GmbH. So Hybrid Guy can be a little happier now that Big Oil is out of the picture.

Search Cobasys on Wikipedia

September 29, 2009

In response to: Is A123's Future Really This Bright?
mjmahon commented:

A fundamental question for the future wide deployment of lithium ion technology: How much readily-available lithium is there?

It’s my understanding that most of the world’s inexpensive lithium is in lithium brines in Chile, and they are known to be quite finite.

September 29, 2009

In response to: Is A123's Future Really This Bright?
SparkyMachGo commented:

“Still, there’s another piece to the puzzle: A123 has continually lost money during its history, says the Journal. In the first half of 2009, A123 had a net loss of $41 million; last year, it lost $80.4 million.”

Is that really a puzzle? Or is it more reflective of their reinvestment back into the company to achieve the manufacturing ramp up (i.e. Detroit) thus high growth predicted? These things should not be mysteries or puzzles.

September 29, 2009

In response to: Is A123's Future Really This Bright?
Hybrid Guy commented:

Truth be told, A123 Got in bed with Cobasys which holds many NiMH battery patents that are currently, yes, even this very day, severely restricting NiMH use in the US & many parts of the world. Cobasys got in bed with Texaco which got merged with a Really big Oil company that now controls & causes all Cobasys NiMH battery technology to be severely restricted.

I won’t be buying any A123 stock until they orphan themselves from Mrs. Cobasys & her Macho-Oil-man husband.

September 29, 2009

In response to: Is A123's Future Really This Bright?
khalsans commented:

Black & Decker used the A123 in their VXP tool line, one of the shortest-lived tool series (even for B&D).

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