AMP says Icelandic Power Company Wants 1,000 of its EV Conversions

AMP says Icelandic Power Company Wants 1,000 of its EV Conversions

By John O'Dell November 29, 2010

(Updated 11/29/10 pm to include potential  dollar value of agreement.)

Amp Holding says it has reached an agreement to sell 1,000 electric vehicles to Reykjavik, Iceland-based utility

 company Northern Lights Energy between 2011 and 2016 -  a major  marketing win for the three-year-old EV-conversion company.

Amp CEO Steve Burns said the vehicles to be supplied to Northern Lights would run in "the same range" as the $45,000 to $55,000 price tags on Amp's North American vehicles, an indication that the deal could bring in around $50 million in revenue over the next five years.

The two companies  said Monday that they signed a letter of intent calling forAmp will deliver its first EV to the utility early next year. After that, Northern Lights will purchase "a variety" of electric-drive SUVs from Amp. The companies didn't disclose how much Northern Lights will pay for the vehicles.

Amp's EV conversions were attractive to Northern Lights because SUVs account for more than a third of the Icelandic light-vehicle market, the utility company said. Northern Lights will use the vehicles in its fleet operations and will resell some of them in the local market.

"AMP's 100 percent electric vehicle technology makes it an ideal partner to work towards our underlying goal of radically improving the transportation industry in Iceland," Northern Lights CEO Gisli Gislason said in a statement.

Cincinnati-based Amp, which has developed EV versions of General Motors' Chevrolet Equinox and Saturn Vue crossover vehicles as well as an electric-drive version of the Pontiac Solstice convertible, said it is in talks with "several" possible automakers about supplying the base vehicle for the Iceland conversions.

Earlier this month, Amp agreed to make three EVs based on General Motors' now-defunct Saturn Vue crossover platform for DTE Energy's Detroit-based fleet.

Amp plans to start selling the Equinox EVs in the U.S. retail market by early next year for about $45,000.

The powertrain uses a 37 kilowatt-hour battery pack, built from Chinese-made lithium-iron phosphate cells, powering a pair of electric motors that drive the rear wheels. Amp claims a single-charge range of as many as 150 miles.

Danny King, Contributor

John O'Dell:  is an AutoObserver Senior Editor. Follow @AutoObserver on Twitter.