Just why would a big company get out of a supposedly profitable business?
1. It will never be profitable
2. Liability for gross pollution caused by the batteries
Here is an interesting read
http://onemansblog.com/2007/03/27/prius-outdoes-hummer-in-environmental-damage/
another interesting read. Note the damage is from a single flashlight battery. Imagine a very powerful, like a box of TNT powerful battery going off in your back seat.
http://forums.groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=132932&st=0&p=2223457&#entry2223457
THe same kind of battery almost burned down an aircraft back in 1974 and severely hurt an engineer at his desk when one exploded. ANY battery with extreme energy density is a potential bomb.
My guess is that a single cell had a microscopic leak, allowing moisture to enter the cell. Li reacts with moisture, very violently, ka boom. Hermetic sealing was a problem 30 years ago, and on a production basis, certainly is today. Even "good" quality batteries do this, in fact poor quality Li batteries would not likely exit the factory without failing, violently.
Bigger problems are practical. First responders do not want to be zapped with 300 to 600 VDC trying to save a person trapped in a car. Technicians cannot recognize the true danger of handling lethal voltages without many being fried. Some already have been, loosing hands, and lives to electric cars. Hydrogen cars can have invisible flames, so hot that they can burn a hole thru steel in a second. First responders are told to wave brooms around to see if it catches on fire before coming close to a car that can incinerate them or electrocute them. Hybrids must have cones placed around them to prevent people from coming withing 5 feet of them when serviced! Special coolants (each has a differen't color) are required for each component of the car. Check out the disposal procedures, the clean up precautions for handling NIMH batteries for first responders. Not exactly like the MDS for computer batteries. The toxic material is so bad that NO contact is permitted for a first responder. If contact happens, extreme measures are required to protect the individual. First responders are well educated, and they know about these hazards. Do you want to be in a car, a toxic waste bomb, electrocution hazard, trapped, waiting for a first responder who wants to run the other way?
Yeh Right, not in this real world.
If GM wanted to kill the competition it would have held the patents and charged very high fees to license it. Leaving GM the sole source for the ultimate EV system. It sold a losing investment for whatever it could get. The oil company's need something to seem green, even if it looses money, so they bought it.
No other reasons make any sense.
Invest wisely-- avoid companys that make over token investments in electric or so called alternate energy cars. Invest in any company that pegs its future on Diesel ICE power plants. Its going to be a winner.