05.08.2009

Tanfield affiliate wins federal funding

SEV US, Tanfield’s electric vehicle joint venture in the USA, has won Federal funding to speed the development and deployment of its electric vehicles.

The Department of Energy is awarding SEV US Corp $10 million to subsidise private sector procurement of a fleet of up to 100 commercial electric vehicles for a nationwide demonstration programme.

This fleet will include the 'Smith Newton' electric truck and the first Ford Transit Connect BEV electric light vans to be built in North America.

A portion of the DoE grant is also earmarked for the purchase of equipment and workforce training, at the new assembly facility in Kansas City, Missouri.

The first vehicles under this programme will be delivered in the final quarter of 2009, with the balance to be delivered in 2010. The time scale and delivery rate is dependent on receipt of purchase orders from fleet operators.

The funding is part of $2.4 billion in electric vehicle and traction battery grants announced by the Department of Energy yesterday, under the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act.

Last week SEV delivered the first six Smith Newton trucks to Coca Cola, AT&T, FritoLay and Staples, plus utilities Pacific Gas & Electric and Kansas City Power & Light and expects these launch partners will be among the first fleet operators to buy vehicles through the DoE programme.

Darren Kell, chief executive of Tanfield, which also owns UpRight and Snorkel aerial work platforms, said: "Right now, corporate America has tens of thousands of urban commercial vehicles in operation that could be immediately replaced with our electric vehicle technology”.

"This Federal funding incentivises the purchase of seed vehicles for major fleet operators, thereby accelerating the switch from trial phase to volume orders”.