Phoenix books 75 orders for their SUT
Phoenix Motorcars has their first firm orders for their upcoming electric pickup truck. They have received seventy-five firm orders from municipalities and one utility. Phoenix is the first automotive company to commit to using the Altairnano NanoSafe lithium ion battery. According to the Phoenix press release, they also have a three-year US exclusivity agreement and they
The agreement has certain restrictions which could make it difficult for GM to consider these batteries for the Volt. Phoenix has to meet sales levels to keep the exclusivity. The release also says it's exclusive for all-electric vehicles, but since the Volt has an engine, it may depend on the exact wording of the agreement. Phoenix has 16 trucks in progress right now, and wants to have federal safety testing done with these vehicles done in time to sell 500 trucks before the end of the year. Click on the Read link for the Phoenix press release.
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[Source: Phoenix Motorcars via AutoBlog]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Michael Benson 6:58PM (1/15/2007)
I think you got the shares reversed. Altairnano received a 16% share in Phoenix for the exclusivity. great news for both companies.
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Tim 7:35PM (1/15/2007)
“In consideration for a three-year exclusivity agreement within the U.S., Altairnano received a 16.6 percent ownership in the company. The three-year exclusivity agreement provides Phoenix with limited, exclusive use of Altairnano’s NanoSafe battery packs in four-wheel, all-electric vehicles having a gross weight up to 6,000 pounds.” http://www.evworld.com/view.cfm?page=news&newsid=13903 Is the Volt an “all electric” vehicle or a series hybrid? Lawyers will want to know.
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Jeff Sutter 10:28PM (1/17/2007)
It looks like the majors are going Plug-in HEV first. The Phoenix exclusivity agreement doesn't limit Altairnano's participation in that market. And besides, it appears that Nanosafe packs can be warp charged from leftover fleet EV1 chargers and soak up California ZEV credits for the next few years - their plan to get the technology out there and prove it using low hanging fruit sure makes sense to me.
The fact that the ~250 mile range obtainable from overnight charging a 70kwh pack from an electric dryer socket (for pennys on the dollar in so many ways) is all you need just about all of the time won't keep max-range competition from defining the consumer market - just remember how Beta got kneecapped by VHS when they offered 8 hours recording time at rotgut quality.
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Jeff Sutter 10:49PM (1/17/2007)
The Chevy Volt concept is just right. A 16 kwh battery goes 40 miles per day that's the 15,000 mile per year average utilization for cars in the USA.
Seems to me that the main problem will be to stabilize the gas that doesn't get used for months on end - my Honda gererater had to be cleaned once a year if I didn't exercise it once a month - gas doesn't store well. Does anyone know how E85 lasts in the tank if unused for months? Is it better or worse?
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