Battery maker A123 Systems declares bankruptcy

Unable to weather the fallout from a major recall, A123 will sell its EV battery division to Johnson Controls Inc.

A123 Systems, builder of batteries for Fisker and other car companies, declared bankruptcy earlier this week. The company will sell its EV battery division to Johnson Controls Inc., so the car brands it supplied shouldn’t be affected.

A123 slid into insolvency after defaulting on a large loan payment. The company had bet its future on a deal with Wanxiang Group Corporation, a Chinese car parts company, that had planned to invest $465 million in A123 before the deal fell through.

The Massachusetts-based company was $376 million in debt and $459.8 million in assets.

Johnson Controls will take over battery production at A123’s three factories (two in Michigan, one in China) and assume ownership of all of its intellectual property. Johnson will pay A123 a total of $125 million, including $72.5 million in post-bankruptcy financing, for the EV battery division.

Johnson may also be paying for a bit of a mess. A123 has been in financial trouble for several months because of a scandalous recall of Fisker Karma batteries.

When a Karma shut down during Consumer Reports testing, the problem was traced back to defective battery packs made at A123’s Livonia, Michigan plant. Production at Livonia was suspended, and the company ended up spending $51.6 million to replace the Karma batteries, and $15.2 million to replace other customers’ batteries.

The Consumer Reports debacle was one of two high profile recalls that involved A123 batteries. In December 2011, Fisker recalled 239 Karmas because of badly placed hose clamps that could have caused coolant leaks and fires. The hose clamps were part of sealed battery packs that Fisker received from A123.

Despite the recalls, A123 still has a few important clients. General Motors will be using A123 batteries in the Chevrolet Spark EV, and BMW uses batteries from A123’s China plant in its ActiveHybrid vehicles. Fisker has not indicated that it will switch battery makers.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Rumor: Fallout 4 heads to Boston and MIT

An alleged MIT employee claims Bethesda's been scouting the school and Boston for Fallout 4.

Bethesda is going to make Fallout 4. It will do this because Bethesda and its owner, publishing umbrella ZeniMax, are businesses and they make creative works likely to make money. People liked Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas. A lot. Yeah, Bethesda will probably sit down and build another irradiated wasteland for people to wander and mess about in. That’s not in question: It’s the locale that will be up in the air. The Elder Scrolls studio let you drift about Las Vegas and the District of Columbia in the past. Next time, it’ll let you act out all your post-apocalyptic Good Will Hunting fan fiction and fight a mutated Bill Belichick. Fallout 4 is headed to Boston.

So says Reddit user “Fallout4boston.” This intrepid tipster hit the aggregator community over the weekend claiming to be an MIT employee. That educational institution will figure prominently in the next Fallout game as Bethesda has reportedly paid a number of scouting visits to the campus lately.

The Boston area is called “The Commonwealth” in Fallout lore, an area as nasty and unforgiving as Pittsburgh remnants “The Pit,” but also home to the “Institute” and the “Railroad.” The Institute, built from the remnants of MIT, is an organization producing technologically advanced weapons and human-like androids that pop up in Fallout 3’s quests. The Railroad is the Institute’s sworn enemies, a group trying to free the androids. Both factions are classic Fallout, cleaver references to familiar 20^th century trappings, slightly warped. Example: The Railroad refers to the Tech Model Railroad Club, an unofficial group formed at MIT in the ‘40s remembered as the first hacker collective.

A perfect set up for a new Fallout adventure. That technological conflict is very different from past entries in the series, and the harsh coastal climate of Boston should make for a familiar but different setting. Not to mention all the hilarious accents wandering muties are bound to have!

All this is speculation though. The only official anything out there for Fallout 4 is the ZeniMax-owned URL Fallout4.com, but its owned that domain since 2004, back when Bethesda’s ownership of the series was hotly contested by Interplay.

That said, Fallout 4 will probably be a reality well before series albatross, the Fallout MMO. ZeniMax Online is hard at work on The Elder Scrolls Online. 

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com