Nice pop for ZNN.V today- up 12%.

There are several catalysts: Evidently a Texas congressman visited EEstor's facilities. (EEstor is the company developing game-changing energy storage that Zenn owns 10% of). Zenn also applied for DOE funding to build a facility in Michigan. And, most importantly, based on leaked interviews, EEstor expects to finish component testing in September and deliver production units by the end of the year.

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From ZENN applies for DOE funds:

Canada’s Zenn Motor has its eye on Michigan and funding from the U.S. government to develop electric cars using energy storage startup EEStor’s controversial ultracapacitor technology. According to a letter (dated June 29) from Congressman Mark Schauer, which was posted late yesterday on TheEEStory.com, Zenn’s U.S. division, ZMC America, proposes to create a research and development facility “to enable the rapid commercialization of next generation electric vehicles with extensive on-board power storage,” and is seeking Department of Energy funds to support the project.

Zenn has plenty of company, of course, in the quest for Department of Energy funds. And the proposal described in Schauer’s letter is hardly the first energy storage and electric vehicle development project to win support from a Michigan lawmaker (according to the Barium Titanate blog, other lawmakers are also showing support for EEStor). The state is competing against Kentucky, EEStor’s home state of Texas, and other states in a high stakes battle to become the future hub of U.S. battery manufacturing.

The R&D facility Zenn has in mind for DOE funds would initially create only up to 100 research, administrative, electrical, mechanical and software engineering jobs in Michigan, according to Schauer’s letter, but the Congressman says those jobs are “badly needed.” He also says the project “could provide significant secondary OEM and electric drive component manufacturing job creation opportunities for the future.”

One thing is sure: Securing DOE funds represents only one of many hurdles to commercialization for EEStor and Zenn. It was a risky bet for Zenn to invest in EEStor, which has made bold claims (10 times the energy of lead-acid batteries at one-tenth the weight and half the price, and move a car 400 kilometers after a 5-minute charge) and slipped behind on production timelines, delaying introduction of the Canada automaker’s planned cityZenn model.

Ultimately, Zenn wants to package EEStor’s ultracapacitors into an ubiquitous drive system, Clifford told us at the Fortune Brainstorm Green conference this year. He envisions the company following the “Intel Inside” model, supplying a range of automakers and grid operators with energy storage technology. If the company manages to get all the technology in line to actually pursue that goal, then being in Michigan could certainly help. We’ve contacted Rep. Schauer’s office for comment and will update this post when we hear back.