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Texaco Intends To Acquire Share of Joint Venture From GM

October 09, 2000 by Jeff Shepard

Texaco (White Plains, NY) and General Motors (Detroit, MI) announced Texaco's intent to acquire GM's share of a joint venture that has developed an advanced battery technology for the automotive market.Under the terms of the memorandum of understanding, Texaco will acquire GM's 60 percent share of an existing joint venture with Energy Conversion Devices (ECD, Troy, MI), a firm in which Texaco already holds a 20 percent share. GM and Ovonic Battery Company, a subsidiary of ECD, formed the joint venture, GM Ovonic, in 1994, to manufacture and then commercialize high-efficiency nickel metal-hydride (NiMH) automobile batteries. The joint venture, which will be renamed Texaco Ovonic, plans to fully commercialize and expand its applications to a broad range of energy markets."GM, ECD and Ovonic led the industry in the initial commercialization and technology development for advanced vehicle batteries," said Harry J. Pearce, vice chairman of GM. "Together, we improved the range of our world-class GM EV1 to more than 150 miles. GM Ovonic's Kettering, Ohio, plant is the first and only facility in the US dedicated exclusively to the production of NiMH batteries for electric vehicles. We are proud of these successes and pleased that Texaco will now join with Ovonic and ECD to take the next step. We anticipate that Texaco Ovonic will be our supplier for NiMH batteries."