1000 electric Nissan Sentras (sort of) coming to Mexico from Azure
Azure Dynamics announced yesterday that the company will supply 1,000 drive systems for electric cars (including motors, controllers, gearboxes and DC-DC converters) to Electro Autos Eficaces of Mexico ("EAE"). These components will be integrated into Nissan Tsurus (i.e., Sentras) that are being converted from petrol to EV, and used by the municipal fleet of Mexico City. Where the batteries will come from was not declared. The deal is valued at more than CDN$7.0 million. Azure is based in Toronto.The first converted Tsuru should be by May 8, when Mexico City's Mayor, Marcelo Ebrard will drive one to the International Electric Vehicle Forum his city. The rest will be converted over a year and a half.
To give an idea of how big this conversion program might get, EAE's Luis Perez Quintana said that Mexico City currently operates over 25,000 Nissan Tsurus for city business. Sounds like Zap!'s Gary Starr should be keeping an eye on this.
Related:
[Source: Azure Dynamics via EV World]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1985 Gripen 9:09PM (4/10/2007)
As everyone knows Mexico City has some of the worst air pollution in the world. I remember reading a few years back about how the British Embassy in Mexico City bought a BMW Mini EV conversion from Hybrid Technologies:
http://www.hybridtechnologies.com/products.php?sec=1&id=8
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Rob Mathies 2:09AM (5/22/2007)
Congrats, Mayor Ebard, for choosing electric trucks, but..
The fly in the ointment is that lead acid batteries could cost 2X-4X or more than gasoline, because of the cost of battery replacement (unless you have our Revived Battery technology.)
Here's one example of high battery-costs: More than one Vancouver EV owner was shocked by the very short life of flooded lead acid batteries: Around 1,000 kms., in one case. That's $1,300 in new batteries for a tiny car.
In contrast, on our GMC electric pickup, had we bought new batteries, the cost would have been $3,500. However, since we are using Revived Batteries, the cost was practically nothing. (Works on our electric pickup well, because of two other breakthroughs, not just battery revival.)
Cheers, Rob Matthies
Vancouver, BC, Canada
JOKE: "President Bush has a plan. He says that if we need to, we can lower the temperature dramatically just by switching from Fahrenheit to Celsius" --Jimmy Kimmel, on fighting global warming
(Photo link below) Using the world's first licensed
Revived Battery electric pickup truck
for everyday errands:
http://my-ev-diary.blogspot.com/
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Santiago Plascencia 6:41PM (5/23/2007)
Does anybody has the webpage for EAE?
Thanks,
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