Smith Electric Vehicles announced that it will be investing an initial US$30 million (€15 million) to launch a new range of zero emission, battery powered commercial vehicles in the United States. The investment will fund a factory in North America, to assemble US-specific versions of our urban delivery vehicles, Edison and Newton.
Despite only launching the Edison and Newton vehicles earlier this year in Europe, the company claims that it is already receiving an average of 25 inquiries per week from major fleet operators in the USA. The company intends to capitalize on what is claimed to be enormous latent interest by establishing an initial facility that can build in excess of 1,000 vehicles per year, followed by a purpose built facility for 2009 with installed capacity of up to 5000 units per annum for North America.
The company is confident that this will replicate the success enjoyed by its new technology electric vehicles in Europe. The company thinks that the USA will almost undoubtedly be the single biggest market in the world for urban electric vans and trucks, representing its largest sales opportunity.
Smith Electric Vehicles claims that it has adopted a successful assembly model for the United Kingdom and Europe, where it sources vehicle shells and chassis’ from major automotive manufacturers. In the UK, Edison is a sub-3,500kg GVW (7,716lbs) van, based on the Ford Transit shell. Newton is a larger truck, which comes in configurations from 7,500 to 12,000kg GVW (16,535 to 26,455lbs).
Smith Electric Vehicles claims that it is in advanced negotiations for a turnkey facility. The first US vehicles are expected to roll off the production lines in early 2008.
