Miles' EV Sedan Won't Be a Miles, Company Says as It Prepares for 2010 Launch
By John O'Dell May 6, 2009
If Miles Automotive brings its five-passenger, freeway legal electric sedan to market next year as planned, the EV won't carry the Miles brand name.
----------
Miles Automotive's electric sedan will be built off Saibao sedan from China.
----------
The Southern California-based importer and distributor of low-speed electric vehicles says that it would feel better about entering the consumer market clear of the low-speed EV image that it built over the years as a supplier of sub-35-mph neighborhood and work-truck electric vehicles to the commercial and government fleet business.
Miles has 20 prototype models of the electric sedan running in the U.S. and Europe as its tests them from durability and drivability, and plans to start selling in the U.S. -- California only at first -- in mid-2010, marketing director Kara Saltness told Green Car Advisor in a recent interview.
The Miles electric car is based on the Saibao EV built by China's Hafei Auto Group but has been extensively reengineered and moderately redesigned to meet U.S. safety standards and U.S. consumers' expectations, Saltness said.
Miles intends to price it at $45,000 before federal tax credits -- the company hopes to qualify the car for a $7,500 credit for buyers -- and any state or local incentives, and believes it can sell 3,000 next year and 20,000 in 2011 even though sales will be limited to the California market for most of that period.
The company is keeping sales local at first to ensure that initial customers have quick and easy access to Miles' maintenance and repair facilities to ensure quality control," said Saltness.
Miles plans to sell the car directly, through showrooms in which it maintains an ownership stake rather than using franchised dealelrships, as do the major automakers.
The company hopes to contract with local or regional automotive service centers -- or perhaps a national service chain -- to provide maintenance and repairs and will begin expanding sales into other states as sales and service centers are established, Saltness said.
Full specifications haven't been divulged, but we have been able to find out that the car will have a top speed of 80 miles an hour, a range of 100 miles on a single charge, will use a lithium iron-phosphate battery pack supplied by China's Lishen Battery and outfitted for 220-volt charging (with a fast-charging alternative a possibility) and will use a single electric motor that delivers its power through a single-speed transaxle.
About 30 percent of the car's parts, including critical pieces of its electric drive system, are being sourced from outside of China, but all assembly initially will be done in China, Saltness said.
John O'Dell, Senior Editor
LEAVE A COMMENT
Makes the Volt look just that much better.
ADD A COMMENT