Is their grounds for a class action against Chevron for prohibiting the manufacture of large NiMH batteries?

I recently read (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battery_ele... that Chevron owns the rights to large NiMH battery tech, needed for the manufacture of effective zero-emmission Electric cars, and thought there should be several grounds to sue for this short sited and calous action, whether environmental (http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/... economic, on health grounds (promoting the spread of carcinogenic exhausts purely for profit) or monopolising energy dependancy. Could this also be applied to other potentially benificial technologies which are being supressed through the patent system through too much greed and not enough vision?

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For those tha don't know the story, the NIMH battery was developed by a small research company in Michigan, and was used both in GM's EV-1 electric car, and the Toyota RAV 4 EV electric car. After the recall and crushing of all the EV1s (see the movie 'Who Killed the Electric Car' for this story) GM sold the patents for NIMH batteries to Chevron/Texaco, who have refused to make them available to electric car builders.
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This is what has stopped the development of electric cars the last few years. The NIMH battery is remarkable, and gave the EV-1 a 150-mile driving range. Some of the Toyota EVs are still on the road, and have put over 100,000 miles on these batteries with no sign of failure yet.
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The reason it might be hard to sue Cobasys (the company Chevron/Texaco made to license the batteries) is because the details of legal settlements it made with Panasonic and Toyota have not been made public. The conditions under which those companies are allowed to use the patents is rumored, but not in writing for the public to see. Bottom line, if Cobasys wants badly enough to keep NIMH batteries out of electric cars, all they have to do is keep the price high enough to make it impractical. That's not against the law.
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Eventually (in several more years) the patent rights will expire anyway. Plus there are several even better battery technologies coming, and at least a dozen really interesting electric car projects in the works.
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For example, the Tesla electric sports car:
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http://www.teslamotors.com
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The Tesla accelerates faster than a Ferrari, and gets 250 miles per charge. The batteries last at least 100,000 miles. But the Tesla is very expensive. Here's a cheaper one:
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http://www.milesautomotive.com/products_...
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Here's one from Mitsubishi that may be ready next year - this car can charge in only 20 minutes:
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http://aftermarket.autoblog.com/2006/10/...
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Most of these cars won't be ready until next year, at the earliest. What if you want to buy today? The most economical electric car is a conversion. Conversions look like average cars, and accelerate and handle normally. Cars like this can be had for as little as $5000. More details:
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http://www.squidoo.com/cheap-electric-ca...
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Check out the above link. It also talks about how much money you can save driving an EV.
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