The team at Miles Automotive has just taken a big step toward making their XS500 electric sedan a reality thanks to $15 million in new funding. Los Angeles-based Angeleno Group led the latest funding round for Miles. The XS500 is a highway-speed-capable battery electric sedan that Miles is developing for production in China and sales in the U.S. and Europe. Recently, Miles has been doing a lot of re-engineeriffng of the XS500 which has led to some questions as to whether they can actually deliver a car with the specifications that they have quoted at a $30,000-35,000 price point. Considering that no one else has yet managed to build a car like this, the XS500 could be quite an achievement.

[Source: GreenCarAdvisor]

I was browsing through the website for AllGreenVehicles, Miles Electric's new EU distributer and I found a new picture of Javlon, a highly-anticipated electric car. From the text on the building in the background, it appears to be in China, the last location I caught up with this slippery electric car. The URL in the lower right, tom.com, is also a popular Chinese web portal. I don't speak Chinese, so I don't know how I would find the source of that image at tom.com. Even more frustrating, the image was at the AllGreenVehicles's news page is in another language I don't understand.

The Miles Javlon, along with a hand-full of other vehicles, may be the first normal, looking, electric car available in the U.S. If you can translate AllGreenVehicles or navigate tom.com to find the source of the alluring image, please post anything you can find in comments or tell us directly. We would really appreciate it because news about the Javlon is hard to find.

[Source: Tom.com via AllGreenVehicles]

The video above shows New York mayor Bloomberg speaking in China and saying he will test drive Miles Automotive's Javlon electric car. Recently, we told you early versions of the car had rolled off the production line and the company was checking them out in China.

Below is a video about another highly-anticipated electric car, the Aptera, which Popular Mecahanics test drove recently. Recently, we told you about the video of the PM drive, which includes a good look at the inside of the car and a tour of the outside with a description of many interesting aspects to the Aptera. Now you can watch it for yourself.

Which electric car are you looking forward to most, the Aptera or the Javlon?

Related:

• Video interview: Miles Automotive on Javlon
• Aptera series hybrid will have 1,000-mile range
• Videos: Aptera launch, Nissan concepts, Smart hybrid

[Source: YouTube via Meta Efficient]

According to CNET, the first prototypes of Miles Automotive's Javlon have come off the production line in China and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg got a chance to test drive one of them. CNET also reports the prototypes will come to the states in a few months, the Javlon will cost $35,000 and come out early 2009. Here is Bloomberg talking about Javlon before taking the test drive:

After my remarks, I look forward to going outside and seeing some of the latest-model battery-powered all-electric cars that an American company-Miles Automotive Group-is developing in partnership with the Chinese Automotive Technical and Research Center or 'CAT-ARC,' the Chinese Electronic Technology Group Corporation, Lishen Battery Company, and the city of Tianjin.

I will be joined by the chair of Miles Automotive Group, Miles Rubin, and its chief operating officer, Kevin Kiley. As well as by their Chinese partners: Zhao Hang, director of CATARC; Wang Xi Wen, vice-superintendent of Chinese Electronic Technology Group Corporation; Qin Xing Cai, general manager of Lishen Battery; Liang Rui, deputy general manager at Lishen Battery; and Wu Zhi Qin, general manager of Tianjin Qingyuan Electric Vehicle Company.

Assembled here in China, the cars they are making can be marketed to drivers in both our nations, and in South America and the European Union, too. The result is a marriage of U.S. and Chinese technology that is taking us forward-toward 100 percent electric-powered vehicles that drastically reduce air pollutants, cut carbon emissions, and are less expensive to operate.

Mayors have all the fun.

Related:

• AutoblogGreen videos: Tesla Motors and Miles Automotive at Green the Capitol Office Expo
• Video interview: Miles Automotive on Javlon
• Miles Automotive plugs in an all-new web site
• AFVI Show: Tell me, is the Miles Javlon $30,000 all-electric sedan for real?
• Miles Rubin, eternal optimist, interviewed on NPR
• Miles Automotive appoints initial dealer network

[Source: CNET]

If you're in the market for an electric vehicle and you want to check out specs and see what's available, Miles Automotive has launched an all new site. The new virtual showroom has pics and specs on their current lineup of low-speed neighborhood electric vehicles and their upcoming XS500 full-speed sedan. The XS500 will be a Chinese-built, battery-powered, five-passenger sedan that is supposed to sell for an affordable price. If their manufacturing partner can do a better job of meeting US safety standards than most other Chinese companies have done, this could be an important entrant in the market. If not, what you're looking at here is just more vapor.

[Source: Miles Automotive, thanks to Andrew for the tip]

NPR's Elizabeth Shogren spent a morning with Miles Rubin recently, and has a report on the man and his electric machines. The result is a 5:30 minute piece that succinctly captures the current electric vehicle market and Miles Electric Vehicles' place in it. We also hear from David Cole, Chairman of the Center for Automotive Research, on the extreme difficulty inherent in getting an EV to market. Still, Rubin is positive his company can make a difference.

"I think everybody has to do something. We can't just depend on governments. Yes it will take government action to make a change, but we can't sit back and wait for Congress," Rubin told NPR.

One human touch: The story of how Rubin's wife jokes that her husband doesn't know anything the major automakers don't, so what does that say about his chances? Miles agrees it's tough, but still told Shogren that Miles Electric Vehicles is still planning on a highway speed car in 2009 for $30,000. That's the Javlon xs500. Just two more years until we see how Miles implements this plan.

You can listen to or read the report here.

[Source: NPR, thanks to Beth @ Miles EVs]

We interviewed Miles Automotive about their Javlon electric car in April. They are planning to release a 4-door sedan, highway speed, electric plug-in in just two years. The price? Under $30,000! Below the fold is a video interview with fleet sales manager, I Zion Enos uploaded to Yahoo! videos in May. The interview is 12 minutes and he starts to talk about the Javlon 3 minutes into the interview.

Enos says it's a full-size, four-door sedan, about the size of a Jetta. He thinks it looks like a cross between a BMW and Mercedes with Italian designer Pininfarina behind it (the mock-up we saw in April was by Qingyuan Electric). You could pass this car off as gas until your friends noticed the plug or silent running. The battery will have a warranty like any other vehicle. 10 years or 75,000 miles... or a certain number of cycles. That's like any other vehicle? The engineers are working on a good number of cycles for you.

The battery will be in the back and the front. The model shown was not electric but the look of the car won't change. No bumps to make space for the battery. In a year, year and a half, they will set up their dealership network and start taking pre-orders. Go below the fold to watch the interview.

[Source: Yahoo! Videos]

Miles Automotive has selected thirty dealers to begin selling their electric cars, including the new full-speed EV that's coming in 2008 called the Javlon. Their current lineup includes a range of low-speed, full-bodied neighborhood electric vehicles. The company hopes to have 190 dealers by the time the high-speed EV goes on sale later in 2008. The target price for the new car is $30,000 and the company hopes to build 18,000 units for the 2009 model year. The top speed of the car will be about 80mph with a 120 mile range.

Related:

• Miles Automotive on the $30,000 Javlon XS500 all-electric sedan
• Tell me, is the Miles Javlon $30,000 all-electric sedan for real?

[Source: Miles Automotive]

As we noted back in April, China was due to pass the United States in amount of CO2 emitted earlier than the previously-expected 2010 date. As our sister site travel blog Gadling noted the other day, that unfortunate mark has come to pass. What an unwinnable race.

The main culprit, of course, is China's economy and the masses of factories that produce tons of consumer goods for the rest of the world. Remember, each product on the store shelf - made in China or not - has a carbon footprint. One way to lighten that load is to buy less. Or drive less, as the increasing number of cars on the road in China might make one want to do.

That said, this is a complex issue. With China manufacturing prowess, it's clear there is a lot of green car potential in China. Here's a short list of recent posts we've had:

• Chinese academy develops big electric motors - 50,000 electric cars might come soon
• AFVI Show: Miles Automotive on the $30,000 Javlon XS500 all-electric sedan
• It's Official Chrysler and Chery deal signed in Beijing
• GM working on new small global four cylinders in Korea and China
• ZAP! vehicles on display at International Environmental Conference in China

[Source: Gadling]

We brought you the audio version of this interview yesterday, but if you didn't have time to listen to Miles Automotive's Chris Buehrer talk about the upcoming Javlon XS500, here's our talk written down (with the "ums" and all that edited out). Enjoy

ABG: You know we usually keep up with what Miles is up to, but somehow notice of a Javlon, either I just have forgotten about it or it missed me. What is more likely?

CB: It, it may have missed you. We're not really marketing heavily. Right now we're not, you know, we're not promoting the vehicle too much, but we want to have set up as a dealership network when the car is here.

ABG: Okay.

CB: So at the NADA, National Auto Dealer's Association, in Las Vegas in February, we brought this chassis over to show dealers and say, hey, this is what-this is what we're putting the other few guys. We want to show them that it's a good-looking car. It's not a small little boxy egg crate or something so we wanted to show them the, the styling of the vehicle and we wanted to advertise so that the numbers that we're shooting for, uh, uh, for performance values and then, uh, start signing on some dealership-a dealership network that believed in the car and believed in our mission and, uh, and, and that's the reason that you see the chasse here. We've really only, uh, had it at the NADA show and now here.

ABG: Okay. But, it's okay to put pictures up online of it, right?

CB: Yeah. Sure.



read it all after the jump

Remember the presentation that Miles Rubin gave at the EDTA last November on the semi-secretive car his company, Miles Automotive, would bring to the 2007 LA Auto Show? (If not, read about it here). It's time to update the story.

I certainly didn't expect to find any new alternative fueled vehicles while roaming through the AFVI Expo hall today. This isn't the type of show where new cars are announced. And, technically, the all-new Javlon XS500 I discovered at the Miles booth isn't exactly being announced. It's clear that Miles Automotive is doing a soft roll-out of their WhiteStar challenger: an all-electric, five-seat sedan with an 85 mph top speed and a 150+ mile range. Oh, and the base model starts at $29,500.

I cornered Chris Buehrer of Miles Automotive on the showroom floor. He was forthcoming on some points, less so on others (like who's making the XS500's 320 V, 25 kWh, 80 Ah lithium-ion batteries that take six hours to charge). You can probably tell from the interview that I was much more impressed to see the chassis in the metal - it's an original design by Pininfarina - than I was of Rubin's talk last November. For now, please give Chris a listen for many, many details on the Javlon (MP3). We'll have a transcript of this up shortly. (UPDATE: Here it is).



Related:

• EDTA Conference: Miles Automotive chairman previews 2007 LA Auto Show
• Want to become a Miles Automotive Dealer? You'll need to buy a 45-day supply of EVs