A123 files for Chapter 11
 

In case you haven't heard yet, A123 filed for Chapter 11 today.

Battery maker A123 Systems files for bankruptcy - Yahoo! News

That's not very good news at all..

Johnson Controls is a technically competent company, so maybe all's not lost (yet).

Another writeup about it.

Battery builder A123 Systems that won $249 million federal grant files for bankruptcy | Motoramic - Yahoo! Autos

I knew giving those solar panel makes 100s of millions of dollars was going to be a waste but I figured A123 would do something a lot more productive than go into bankruptcy.

I guess I better by some 20ah cells incase they close up shop.

I see this as a good thing. Johnson Controls is a competent company that has been around for well over 100 years, and has been into battery technology for quite a long time. They'll be able to invest the money required and move the product forward instead of struggling at every step. A123 has a great product, but sadly they can't seem to handle money better than a 4 year old.

IMO its also great to see the company and technology stay in the US instead of heading to China as it seemed would happen.

This is too bad - didn't A123 just get a big chunk of cash from a Chinese company, about 2-3 weeks ago?

Hope this goes well, since I work for the outfit that just bought A123. We already make half the worlds car batteries under a host of different names. One more won't make much difference.

They also seem to have a problem putting their products to maket.
Over the last week and a half I have been emailing a123 and a123 "authorized dealers" and have not gotten any replys.
I at least wanted to price authentic a123 AMP20 cells and see how much they cost before going straight for the a123 rejects.

Maybe I should try emailing johnson controls.

This has been a frustration for many of us in the DIY EV community. A123 cells are outstanding, technically speaking, but the company refuses to deal with individuals.

There are two places where A123 AMP20 cells can be purchased, Maziven in the UK, and High Tech Systems in the US. Both offer cells in the $60-70 range. The gray market cells are far less expensive, I purchased them for around $25 each (including shipping). Yes, these are probably rejects, as they test below the rated Ah capacity of 19.6, but my average is just below that rating, at around 19.3-19.4 Ah.

Other than slightly lower capacity, the cells I have appear new and have also tested well at high current, sagging about 23% at 372 amps with a resistive load. I have seen no failures yet after testing more than 300 cells.