EVI Launches Electric Delivery and Work-Truck Sales in U.S.
By John O'Dell March 6, 2009
(Note: modified 3/6/09 to add approximate cost of battery lease.)
There's a new player in the mid-duty electric vehicle segment, and even though most of us will never want to park a 10,000- to 26,000-pound truck in our garages, the company's U.S. launch is worth noting.
EVI's Class 3 truck (white) on display at Chicago truck show.
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Plus, electric intra-city delivery trucks such as those Electric Vehicles International hopes to sell here - in competition with several other electric truck makers including Smith Electric Vehicles U.S. - can help reduce noise and air pollution caused by diesel and gasoline trucks that idle in parking lots, streets and alleys for hours a day while cargo is being loaded and unloaded.
Electric Vehicles International isn't new. According to its website, it is a California-based manufacturer of battery-electric and hybrid-electric trucks that was founded in 1989, spent years on development and has been building and selling its vehicles in Mexico for several years now.
A spokesman said the 20-year-old company has delivered more than 1,000 trucks, trams and shuttles, mostly battery-electric models although it also sells hybrid-electric versions and does conventional-to-electric or hybrid conversions for customers.
Although funded as a startup with money from the California state government, EVI, as it is called, began marketing in Mexico because the U.S. market wasn't quite ready for electric trucks, a spokesman said. The the company took the opportunity to perfect its technology and manufacturing systems in a more forgiving Mexican market .
Now EVI believes cash-strapped U.S. businesses that need small- to mid-sized intra-city delivery and work trucks are willing to look beyond conventionally fueled models in hopes that alternative energy models will save fuel and maintenance money in the long-run.
It showed off its wares at the Work Truck Show in Chicago this week, two models that span the range from low-speed, lightweight to large delivery truck.
Part of EVI's market strategy is to sell the truck and lease the batteries, enabling the buyer to order a customized battery configuration ad to have the option of altering it to fit a businesses' changing needs as the years pass.
Pricing for the company's full line of Class 3 (10,000-14,000 pounds) to Class 6 (19,001-26,000 pounds) trucks wasn't available, but a spokesman told us that a Class 3 model would run $50,000 to $55,000 plus the cost of a five-year battery lease.
The trucks can be supplied with lithium phosphate batteries (right) from Valence Technologies , or lead-acid batteries from Trojan .
Costs would depend on the number of batteries needed to meet a customer's needs, the spokesman said.
While each lease is negotiated individually, the approximate lease cost of the lithium polymer batteries displayed on EVI's Class 3 truck displayed at the Chicago show would be $86,000, or $1,400 a month, the company said. The would bring the total 5-year cost for truck and batteries to between $136,000 and $141,000.
Approximate range on a single charge of a rack of lithium phosphate batteries would be 60 miles. Lead-acid batteries would provide less range.
Total costs can be reduced with federal tax credits for electric work trucks that range from $7,500 for Class 3 trucks to as much as $15,000 for a Class 6 truck.
In addition to the highway-legal trucks, EVI said it will be marketing a low-speed truck, primarily for use on closed campuses such as airports, hotel grounds and factory complexes, that will sell for $15,000 to $20,000 including batteries.
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