Aside from Tesla, the electric vehicle startup company that has gotten the most attention over the past year is probably Phoenix Motorcars. Phoenix's big claim to fame is the first use of the Altairnano lithium titanate battery pack which is claimed to have over 25,000 charge cycles support for recharging in ten minutes. Phoenix had announced their intentions to begin deliveries of their sport utility truck during the fall of 2007 with plans for 500 vehicles in the first year.

Unfortunately, an ABG reader who was on the waiting list has informed us that Phoenix CEO Daniel J. Elliott has sent out an e-mail stating that the SUT has been delayed until at least early 2008. Like others before it, Phoenix has evidently run head long into the realities of production engineering and certification. Mass-producing a vehicle is a non-trivial task if you want to create something safe and reliable that people will spend a lot of money on.

Another issue that was noted in the message is finalizing their financing package. Apparently selling vehicles at a loss of up to $200,000 per unit in the hopes of selling clean air credits to make up the difference is also posing an issue. The full text of the message from Phoenix is after the jump, and we're double-checking with Phoenix to make sure the email is legit.

[Source: Gregger]