 | ||
 | | |
August 7, 2007 – Vol. 12 No.20 Smith Electric Vehicles Coming to the US. Smith Electric Vehicles of the UK is investing an initial $30m (£15 million) to launch its new range of zero emission, battery powered commercial vehicles in the USA. The investment will fund a factory in North America, to assemble US-specific versions of our urban delivery vehicles, Edison and Newton. The company is in advanced negotiations for a turnkey facility. The first US vehicles will roll off the production lines - and onto the roads of American cities - in early 2008. Darren Kell, CEO of Smith Electric said, “ Despite only launching our Edison and Newton vehicles earlier this year in Europe, we are already receiving an average of 25 enquiries per week from major fleet operators in the USA. We intend to capitalise on this enormous latent interest by establishing an initial facility that can build in excess of 1,000 vehicles per year, followed by a purpose built facility for 2009 with installed capcity of up to 5000 units per year for North America.” “We are confident that this will replicate the success enjoyed by our new technology electric vehicles in Europe. The USA will almost undoubtedly be the single biggest market in the world for urban electric vans and trucks, representing our largest sales opportunity” said Kell. In the UK, Edison is a sub-3,500kg GVW (7,716lbs) van, based on the Ford Transit shell. Newton is a larger truck, which comes in configurations from 7,500kg to 12,000kg GVW (16,535lbs to 26,455lbs). The all-electric commercial vehicle that can achieve top speeds of up to 50mph (80km/hr) and a range on one battery charge of up to 150 miles (240km).
Links: Smith Electric Vehicles http://www.smithelectricvehicles.com
Disclaimer, Forward-Looking or Safe Harbor Statement on original press release: No
| Front Page | Events | Archives / Resources | Publications | About / Contact | Subscriptions / RSS | Products / Services | Requests for Proposals / Funding Opportunities | Copyright 1996 - 2007 Green Energy News Inc | ||||
| | | | |
