It's been a month since we last wrote about Miles Automotive. Most of our recent coverage of the electric car company has revolved around the sounds-too-good-too-be-true XS500, a highway speed all-electric sedan that is - supposedly - about a year away. Now we have something new from Miles to write about. The 2008 Production Model MILES ZX40ST Work Truck, which was introduced today at the Green California Summit in Sacramento.

The ZX40ST (boy, that rolls off the tongue, doesn't it?) is a low speed electric vehicle (25 mph top speed) that uses six lead acid batteries (rated for 25,000 miles) and a brushless AC motor to go 50-60 miles per charge. It takes 4-6 hours to charge from 50 percent to full from a standard home outlet (so, I'll assume it takes about double that to charge from near empty?). Watch out, pedestrians, as this little guy can scoot from 0-20 mph in five seconds. These may not be spectacular numbers, but for what a vehicle like this is supposed to do, I'd say they're quite sufficient. Miles has announced that it is making 200 ZX40STs a month and is sold out through June. The truck costs $18,400.
The truck will be on display at the Sacramento Convention Center through tomorrow. See more after the break.

In an interview by Industry Standard, Miles Automotive CEO Jeff Boyd said the all-electric X500 is "a little over a year" from release. Industry Standard asked what Boyd thought about competition from plug-in hybrids and he replied that he was not aware of any plug-in close to production. Boyd then added that, "We're a little over a year away, so we think we're maybe two or three years ahead of most plug-in hybrid vehicles." Someone should tell Boyd about the Saturn PHEV is scheduled for a release in 2010 late 2009. Miles Automotive has a variety of models in mind like a XS500-based crossover. Electric cars are no longer a fad, Boyd said, but a revolution.


[Source: Industry Standard]

C-NET's Michael Kanellos did a little thinking out loud this week when he tried to list all of the electric car start-up companies (not major automakers working on EVs). He counted 16 small companies. The names on this list will be familiar to just about anyone who reads AutoblogGreen, but I thought it was interesting to see them all gathered in one place:

Tesla Motors (sports cars), Wrightspeed (sports cars and plug-in drivetrains for trucks), Fisker Automotive (electric sedans), Zap (low-speed and sports cars), Miles Automotive (low speed), Zenn Motors (low speed), AC Propulsion (retrofitting Scions for electric), Phoenix Motorcars (SUVs), Aptera (three-wheelers), Porteon (low speed electrics), Lightning (sports cars in England), Reva (economy cars), Ultramotor (electric trishaws), Myers Motors (freakish three-wheelers featured in Goldmember), Think (electric economy cars) and Venture Vehicles (three-wheeled electric cars.).

I'd say the only "major" player that Kanellos missed is GEM, which has been making glorified golf carts for ages. Other contenders not on his list include Universal Electric Vehicle, American Electric Vehicle, G-Wiz and Hybrid Technologies. I'm sure there's at least a couple more we're missing, but we're already got over 20 small EV companies. Pretty soon, he figures, this list will be much easier to calculate: "History shows that most of these companies will be wiped out." So it goes, as my favorite author would write.

[Source: C-NET]

Sunday's New York Times has an article about the complete lack of a normal electric car the average person can afford. There are smaller vehicles you can buy and you can search Ebay for a good conversion or a RAV4 but the New York Times is essentially correct. If you are a middle class guy with 2.5 kids and you want a four-door sedan, electric car for about $30,000 you are SOL. Here are some quotes from the article;

"Strip away the promises and the offerings are virtually nonexistent. Not a single purely electric vehicle with four seats and the ability to reach highway speeds is being mass-produced anywhere in the world. ... There is still not a single E.V. or plug-in hybrid available that can approach the driving range, interior room and performance of a typical gas-powered family sedan, at anywhere near the price that an average consumer would pay."

Below the fold is a video of the Exar-1, a failed normal looking electric car. Lots of electric cars have failed not just in the '70s,'80s and '90s as the New York Times mentions, but from the '20s to '60s as well. Will history repeat itself with the new promising batch of fully electric car and/or battery companies like Miles, Tesla, Phoenix, A123, Altair and EEstor? Maybe the fully electric car will never play a large role?

Editor's Update: I think we should point out these ten electric cars, which are perhaps not normal or affordable, but they are (mostly) available.

[Source: New York Times and tipster Phil]

A new Neighborhood Electric Vehicle (NEV) store is now open in Salt Lake City selling two-seater and four-seater models. You can pick up a two-seater for about $7,000 and a four-seater for $10,000. The vehicles have a range of about 40 miles and incredibly low running costs. Ideal for planned communities and warm weather, NEVs make great second cars or main cars for people who don't need to travel far.

Analysis: No word as to what brands are to be sold in the dealership, but I'd expect the Miles ZX40 and the ZENN models would be likely. All-electric vehicle dealerships are likely to be niche businesses for a while yet, but they're bound to start popping up as more EV start-ups enter the market.

Related:

• AutoblogGreen visits the American Electric Vehicle factory and we drive a Kurrent
• The Top Ten electric vehicles you can buy right now (for the most part)
• Wisconsin pro-NEV law actually makes it harder to drive electric vehicles there

[Source: KCPW News]