Battery Electric Vehicles Survive - Part 1

June 29, 2003 – Vol.8 No.14

BATTERY ELECTRIC VEHICLES SURVIVE - PART 1.

While most automobile manufacturers have backed away from the development and commercialization of battery electric vehicles in favor of those energized hydrogen fuel cells, Hyundai isn’t putting all its eggs in one basket. The company is continuing the development of plug-in-to-reenergize vehicles, as well as fuel cell vehicles.

As a major component of the Hawaii Electric Vehicle Demonstration Project (HEVDP), a fleet a battery-electric Hyundai Santa Fe SUV’s has been operating since 2001. And now Hyundai, HEVDP and the state of Hawaii have announced they will extend the program another two years for the further refining of the fast charge capability of the vehicles.

The HEVDP partnership, which includes Hyundai, the State of Hawaii, the City of Honolulu, the U.S. Air Force and Enova Systems, operates 15 electric Santa Fe’s, an electric tram, an electric trolley, an electric bus for Hickam Air Force base and a hybrid electric bus.

The Santa Fe’s have been achieving 70 -90 miles per charge and have accumulated a total of 145,000 miles. Enova Systems has supplied the electric drive system for all of the HEVDP vehicles.

Visit the HEVDP at http://www.htdc.org/hevdp , Enova Systems at http://www.enovasystems.com/ .