Do u think manufacturers would prevent a new invention coming into market?

That's one of the problems with the batteries that has failed to be mentioned? The gas created when it's charging is dangerous, harmful to the environment, and no one is bring this up? tdemex

You are talking about Fuel Cells? Fuel Cella are supposed to be giving out either Water, or better still O2?

I stand corrected. I was assuming this based on a recent launch of a petrol model by one of the local companies. In these times, the company still installed a production capacity to manufacture petrol models, when the need of the hour is to move away from fossil fuels. I'd think it would be better to cater to the market that can afford green vehicles rather than try to capture lower segment of the market, just because there is a market. Ok Volt. Yeah I read about that. Buying a patented technology used in it must be very expensive. I dont really know how the profit projections work in such cases. But if it could become lifetime royalty like they have on Michael Jackson's songs, or books that are published, then may be cheaper deals could be worked out and even competitors could collectively usher such technologies in, each of course adding something unique of their own. But please, I am quite ignorant about these things. I accept I am wrong considering ur end of the world. I am sorry if I wrote out of turn. Thanks for correcting me. :-) For the sake of curiosity, may I ask the ratio of expenditure on research and development in any year to the profits of that year. It would give me a standard to compare the local industry.

You don't have to apologize for anything! But songs are different than manufacturing. The patent is good for 20 yrs. and they can under some circumstances renew it! Usually by then others have leap frogged over them! The ratio of profit to R&D is different with each company, and they do give tax breaks for some! These are a key as to how much they spend here in the USA! My patents were owned by the company as I was hired to do this I had to sign a waver at the time I was hired, and I couldn't divulge this information to other companies for 20 years! LOL! My friends are working on these batteries now and it has a long way to go, on longevity, weight and other issues! They give off gases while they are charging! This is an unknown issue to the public! tdemex

Thanks for so much information. :-) On an idealistic level, I was wondering if it would be worthwhile for the entire automotive to pool their research and development resources and have a separate research and development center exclusively for their industry. That way, they could share any new invention, and also reduce repetitive costs investigating same thing. Part of it could be deployed in paying to the patent holder, and part could be passed on to the customer. Just a thought. And I really didnt know about the gases from batteries. Thanks for putting my mind at ease. Frankly, we had a heated discussion on Tata's Nano today. I am from India. Everybody was saying we buy outdated technologies, which are harmful to everybody. So it came up like that. Nice learning so much from u. U know something, even if we were given tax breaks like in ur country, our guys are so smart, they would buy a whole lot of consumables and write them off as used and thrown, while selling them for a cool profit. It would be a great way to siphon moneys under the head research and development expenses, so i guess we are better off spending less on it. :-)