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Zenn is a good name for a car company. It's better than Feel Good Cars, which is what Zenn Motor Company used to go by. Zenn might stand for Zero Emissions No Noise, but it speaks to spiritual bliss and tranquillity.

But does it speak to high relative permittivity? Does it say "fill her up" with electricity and drive 400 kilometres on a five-minute charge? Does it signify a justifiable valuation of about $150-million on the back of no revenue and the usual chagrins of the startup?

Maybe, but I don't see it. There's zero doubt in my mind that Zenn has a chance to make lots of money. It's just that the odds are - in my view - very, very small. The company's stock is flying high because of some positive news releases and deft promotion. In the interests of balance, here's the doubter's companion: The most promising thing in the Zenn story is its investment and commercial agreements with a secretive little outfit in Texas called EEStor.

EEStor, founded by a couple of guys with a background in computer hard drive storage, is working on a way to store electricity. It hopes to produce something like a battery, although it doesn't use chemical reactions to create electricity.

Zenn bought a 3.8-per-cent stake in EEStor a few years ago for $2.5-million (U.S.). It has an option to buy as much as 7 per cent more. It also signed an exclusive deal with EEStor that says only Zenn can use its so-called "capacitors" in small and mid-size cars.

Zenn has been helping financing EEStor by making payments based on certain milestones, the latest of which was met last week when EEStor said the material it hopes to use in its storage unit passed an important test regarding its relative permittivity - its ability to store energy.

That was good news, judging from the stock price, which is up 100 per cent in the past two weeks. But what does this news really tell us? Zenn says the results were better than it hoped for. But it says it has to evaluate exactly what it means and report back. So, we are vaguely aware that it's good news, but not how good. Are investors getting ahead of themselves?

I spoke to chief executive officer Ian Clifford to get an idea. He's a good promoter - and that's not a disparaging comment since that's a crucial skill when you're raising money and selling a new concept - but he didn't convince me that Zenn is going to deliver on its promise, not in a timely way.

Mr. Clifford says there's no doubt in his mind that EEStor will succeed in bringing a disruptive or game-changing technology to market. But his reasons, at least those he shares (he might have to be tight-lipped about things) weren't that persuasive.

He pointed out that EEStor has a deal with Lockheed Martin. But Ballard Power had lots of deals with big car makers. These firms spend billions on research and development, and they dole it out to lots of companies. No established car maker appears to have agreements with EEStor. Mr. Clifford did add that Lockheed has been issued two patents that mention EEStor, which may mean something. Or not.

The most attractive feature of a capacitor as opposed to a battery is that it can recharge quickly. Who, after all, will buy a car that takes hours or even an hour to fuel up?

Mr. Clifford said that capacitors are known for charging quickly. Their weakness, which EEStor is trying to fix, is they don't store much power. But when pressed as to whether EEStor's high capacity storage, should it see the light of day, will also charge fast, he said that a capacitor is a capacitor, "that's all I can say."

Most puzzling was that Mr. Clifford didn't want to discuss how close EEStor was getting to commercial viability, saying it's not Zenn's job to predict.

Really? But Zenn told investors it will introduce a car with EEStor technology by the end of this year. Surely management must have some inkling as to when these "batteries" will be ready. The company is standing by that prediction, incidentally, but it looks impossibly far-fetched given what we know from EEStor.

Buying Zenn stock means betting on EEStor, plain and simple. There are billions of dollars competing with them. I hope Zenn pays off, but the story reminds me of Timminco: a promising sounding technology in a sexy sector, well promoted but short of concrete evidence of viability. If you bought it three years ago, you're still up nicely. But if you bought during bouts of promotion and held on, you're still toast.

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