Hitachi has never been any more than a contract producer of film. Yeah, Joe did a license, blah blah blah. But many of your longish compadres here have complained that Hitachi did not do much (or nothing) to promote or expand the applications of SPD. It has been 10 years with Hitachi, and you have ONE platform at Mercedes for autos (the S Class) and the limited production McClaren. Panasonic and their signs? Even you Longs don’t mention that anymore. Hitachi doesn’t care about the piddling business of producing SPD film.
Gauzy sales people talk far more, and more constructively about their PLDC than they do SPD. People at Gauzy, Polytronics and the little guys in Faribault (Sage) all say the biggest part of the cost of switchable glass is in the glass and laying up the film, and then the controls and wiring.
So how big is the SPD Industry? (Thank you NDixon for that term). Based on the last 4 years recap of REFR revenues that seem to reliably “Cap out” at $1.5 million, it seems a 10% royalty says the finished product Total of SPD is $15 million. How exciting is it to be producing the film, which is the smallest part of the total product? |
