1. The battery was invented in 1966 by the founder of the Company, Robert Raymond Aronsson, and has been under continuous development from that date to the present time. Mr. Aronsson has been granted 16 patents on this battery (second, third and fourth generations) in 15 countries.

This battery has also been referred to as a Tri-Polar Lead Cobalt Battery and is described in several technical reports in this Web Site which the reader can find under Laboratory and Road Tests: (Shilstone Lab Report, SAE MARS II Report, Detroit Testing Lab Report 007020-I, Detroit Testing Lab Report 207210-I (A), Detroit Testing Lab Report 207210-I (B), and General Motors/Cornell Report).

"Tri-Polar" refers to the fact that inside the cell each group of plates, negative and positive, is connected by three bus bars, one at the top (as in ordinary batteries), and two at the bottom of the cell. Thus, internally, there are six current collecting bus bars (rather than two as in ordinary batteries). Externally, these top and bottom current collectors are connected, in series, to current collectors (bus bars) in adjacent cells. Thus, each cell is connected to the next cell in three places (rather than in one place as in ordinary batteries). "Lead Cobalt" refers to the fact the a proprietary cobalt additive is added to the electrolyte of the battery. This cobalt forms a coating on the positive plate, protecting its grids from overcharge.

A number of significant improvements have been made to this battery which are covered by a new patent application with 119 claims, assigned to the Company.

2. In 1966, Mr. Aronsson founded Electric Fuel Propulsion Corporation (EFP) in New Orleans, Louisiana and subsequently built over 100 electric vehicles in Detroit, Michigan utilizing this battery. Most of these vehicles were sold to and successfully operated by electric utility companies. (The Company is the exclusive, worldwide licensee of EFP technology).
    

3. The only two cross-country electric car races ever held in the U.S.A. (1968 and 1970), between the campus of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California (Caltech) and the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts (MIT), were won by vehicles equipped with Lead Cobalt Batteries. These vehicles were operating continuously, under high discharge and recharge currents, 24-hours a day, for 3,400 miles on Interstate Freeways, through deserts and over mountains.
    

4. The first electric car produced by Mr. Aronsson’s battery factory in New Orleans, Louisiana, BATTERY POWER INCORPORATED, had a "Maximum Useful Cruising Range of 120.3 miles" according to Shilstone Testing Laboratory, Inc., Laboratory Report Number 4107-CL dated August 15, l966. This was a 2-door, 2-passenger car, the MARS I, weighing 2,800-pounds (curb weight).
    

5. EFP produced 45 MARS II Electric Cars in l967 and l968. One of them was purchased by General Motors and sent to Cornell Aeronautical Laboratories for six months of testing. The MARS II had a maximum range of 146.8 miles according to Cornell’s report, CAL Report No. VJ-2623-K-l prepared for General Motors Corporation and dated February l969. This was a 4-door, 4-passenger car weighing 4160-pounds (curb weight).
    

6. EFP produced 14 SILVER VOLT I Electric Cars, all equipped with Lead Cobalt Batteries. Some of these cars were built as Hybrid Electric Cars equipped with small rotary engines for range extension. According to tests performed by Detroit Testing Laboratory, Inc., a SILVER VOLT I Hybrid traveled 301.55 miles from Detroit, Michigan to Skokie, Illinois in 6 hours and 22-minutes. (Detroit Testing Laboratory Report Number 207210-I[A] dated July 21, l982). (The Company has an option to purchase five of these Silver Volt I Electric Cars from a former EFP licensee and plans to update them with improved Lead Cobalt Batteries and Apollo Fuel Cells).
    

7. The Lead Cobalt Batteries could be rapidly recharged. According to a test by Detroit Testing Laboratory, Inc., a SILVER VOLT was driven 318.6 miles in 12.07 hours with an averaging charging time of 46.66 minutes. (Detroit Testing Laboratory Report Number 007020 I dated September 5, l980).

1. In 1969, EFP developed and tested a fuel cell for electric propulsion of vehicles. It proved to be too expensive to build and was put on the back burner. In 1997, the Company engaged the Technical University of Graz, Austria, to further develop its fuel cell under the direction of Dr. Karl Kordesch.
    

2. In 1965, Dr. Karl Kordesch, a world renowned fuel cell scientist, and now a Director and Vice President of the Company, developed a thin composite carbon-metal electrode for a new type of fuel cell while working as a scientist for Union Carbide. He then developed an Alkaline Fuel Cell based on this new electrode. That first Fuel Cell was supplied by Union Carbide in 1967 to General Motors for its "Electrovan". This Fuel Cell operated on tanks of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen (when hydrogen and oxygen are fed into a fuel cell, electricity is produced which can charge the batteries in an electric vehicle and/or drive an electric motor in an electric vehicle).
    

3. Dr. Kordesch then developed an improved Alkaline Fuel Cell that extracted oxygen from the air (instead of using oxygen from a tank), and which greatly improved efficiency. This fuel cell has been under continuous development since that time by Dr. Kordesch who has been granted 80 patents on the fuel cell and its components. Most of this work has been done at the Technical University of Graz in Austria where Dr. Kordesch has been a Full Professor and Director of the University’s Institute for Chemical Technology.
    

4. In 1970, Dr. Kordesch, while still working as a scientist for Union Carbide, built an electric car powered by an Alkaline Fuel Cell and a Lead Acid Battery which were installed in an Austin A-40, 4-door, 4-passenger sedan. Dr. Kordesch drove this car on city streets and highways for three and a half years. The curb weight of the car was 2,090-pounds. The fuel cell extracted oxygen from the air and hydrogen from gaseous hydrogen in tanks mounted on the roof. This is described in several books written by Dr. Kordesch, the latest being "Fuel Cells and Their Applications" by Karl Kordesch and Gunter Simader, published VCH Publishers, Inc., New York, New York (1996).
    

5. Since then, the Company has developed a method of delivering hydrogen to the fuel cell by feeding the fuel cell hydrogen produced in a low temperature Cracker from ammonia, water and a blend of other inexpensive mass-produced chemicals called Propulsion Fuel. This Propulsion Fuel can be stored as a liquid in low-pressure storage tanks in refueling stations, and pumped into the car’s fuel tank (using a robot arm and special gas-tight safety-lock procedures, such as those used for delivering liquid hydrogen to cars and trucks recently developed by Ford and BMW Motor Works in Germany). Also Propulsion Fuel can be stored in special tanks for use in homes, farms, commercial and industrial establishments. The Propulsion Fuel is less toxic and less dangerous than other proposed fuels such as methanol, ethanol, gasoline, natural gas or hydrogen (the Apollo^™ Fuel Cell can operate on any of these fuels, as well as on the Company’s proprietary Propulsion Fuel).  (The Company is also working on a Direct Alkaline-Methanol Fuel Cell, with circulating electrolyte, in which  a mixture of methanol and potassium hydroxide is injected directly into the Fuel cell without a cracker or reformer).