Kummerow Corp. Intends Large-Scale Production of Record-Setting Zinc-Air Batteries

1 December 1997

    BURBANK, Calif., Dec. 1 -- The unique zinc-air battery that
demolished all electric vehicle range records is heading for Asia to help
fight some of the world's worst urban air pollution.
    Kummerow Corporation of North America (KCNA), citing successful field
tests of its Zoxy-Blitz(R) zinc-air battery technology earlier this year,
announced that it intends to begin large-scale production next year in the
U.S. and Asia.
    The government of Shanghai, China, has invited KCNA to build a battery
plant in that city to provide electric power for the city's vast number of
electric scooters.  "Air pollution in Shanghai is a very big problem -- our
battery technology will help solve it," said Hans W. Kummerow, president and
CEO of the company.
    Last June, the Kummerow battery smashed existing electric vehicle records
for distance run on a single battery charge by propelling a test vehicle more
than 1,000 miles in a carefully monitored test at Alameda, CA.  Earlier, the
same battery propelled a test vehicle more than 500 miles at Provo, UT in sub-
freezing temperatures that would have sucked almost all the energy from
conventional batteries.
    "We're more than satisfied that our batteries meet the needs of the
electric vehicle market in a way that no other batteries have -- or in the
foreseeable future -- will," said Kummerow.  The initial market for these
production batteries will be scooters and mopeds for the Asian market, he
said.
    Kummerow said that he expects his company to have the Shanghai production
plant fully operational by mid-1998.  In addition, a plant to construct the
"air cathode" portion of the battery will be constructed in Alameda, by the
end of 1998.  KCNA's proprietary air cathode design gives the battery much of
its performance advantage over competing products.
    Kummerow said that the company will focus its marketing and R&D activities
in Alameda, where the city's electric utility has become the first to license
KCNA's zinc-air battery technology.  "Alameda intends to become the West Coast
focus of electric transportation.  Siting our R&D efforts there, where we can
work cooperatively with the City, makes sense for both of us," he said.
    KCNA is a Burbank-based California corporation.  It is 60 percent owned by
Kummerow GMBH of Germany.  B.A.T International, the electric vehicle company
that built the world-record setting vehicles for KCNA, owns 20 percent of the
company.  Dr. Hans Pauling, managing director of German-based ChemTEK, who
developed the proprietary air cathode technology on which the Kummerow battery
is based, owns the remaining 20 percent.

SOURCE  Kummerow Corporation