First, preliminary comments: I'm no expert. I have a degree of confidence in the company leadership, so the issues you mention are not of critical concern to me. To the best of my knowledge, the possibility of a reverse split has not been discussed by the company.
I feel more able to address your question about competition. At this point, all I have is a list cribbed from various sources. Here it goes:
Johnson Controls [JCI – NYSE], especially in its joint venture with Saft Advanced Power Systems [a French company with Lithium Ion expertise]. The joint venture is not publicly traded, to the best of my knowledge.
A123 Systems [not publicly traded to the best of my knowledge] Altair Nanotechnologies [ALTI – NASDAQ] Electrovaya [EFLVF – OTC] Electro Energy, Inc. [EEEI – NASDAQ] GS Yuasa [unknown status] Hitachi Vehicle Energy [a joint venture – unknown status] JCI-SAFT Power Solutions [the joint venture mentioned by Brandt] Kokam [unknown status] Matsushita Battery Industrial Co. [“Panasonic” – unknown status] Litcel [a joint venture of Mitsubishi and TDK – unknown status] NEC Lamilion Energy [unknown status] Panasonic EV Energy [jointly owned by Toyota and Matsushita Electric Industrial] Sanyo Electric Co. [unknown status]
A123 Systems [mentioned before], (I) a joint venture between A123 Systems and Cobasys [itself a joint venture of Chevron Technology Ventures and Energy Conversion Devices], and (II) the joint venture of Johnson Controls and Saft Advanced Power Systems. GM has awarded battery development contracts to both (I) and (II).
Also mentioned are:
Valence Technology [VLNC – NASDAQ], Altair Nanotechnologies [mentioned before], a joint venture of Fuji Heavy Industries [Subaru] and Tokyo Electric Power, and Litcel [mentioned before].