So, how is the EV-building business going? Just fine, if you ask any of the executives over at the Tanfield Group PLC. Expecting to surpass the £120 million mark in sales this year, the owner of the worlds oldest electric vehicle manufacturer, Smith EV, is "close to signing a deal on a new North-East factory" according to a story in today's edition of The Northern Echo. With this expansion they also expect to hire another 300 people. The company is going to need the extra employees and production capacity if it's going to achieve its goal of building 3,000 trucks in the UK and the U.S. in 2009. It's current facility, located in Washington, can only churn out 1,500 a year and they also need a bit of space to build some of their other products.

You can't build trucks if you don't have the parts, so to that end, an order to Enova for 4,000 of their 90kW and 120kW electric drive components has been announced. The Smith Newton (pictured above) is 7.5 ton vehicle and will be powered by the 120kw drive system while its little brother, the Edison, will be fitted with a 90kw drive train. Delivery of these essential bits has already begun.


Related:

• EVS23: The green machine - Smith Electric Truck comes to America
• Smith EV announces electric truck factory for the US
• Smith Electric Vehicles, Enova partner up for zero-emission van, truck

[Source: The Northern Echo / Enova via Green Car Congress]

England's Tanfield Group has inked a deal with Valence Technology for a supply of lithium phosphate battery packs. The batteries will be used in Smith Electric trucks which the company recently announced would be available in the U.S. The Smith trucks currently use sodium nickel chloride (Zebra) batteries which will be supplanted by the new lithium units. Tanfield becomes the first large-volume customer for Valence's new batteries with an initial order for $70 million worth of packs. The packs are equipped with Valence's third-generation Epoch battery management system. The Epoch system monitors and adjust performance of individual cells in order to maintain consistent and safe performance.

[Source: Valence Technologies]

Right next to the Modec booth at EVS23, Smith Electric Vehicles commanded a swath of floor space with their large Smith Newton electric truck. Mark Aubry, North American sales manager for Smith Electric Vehicles, was available for an interview and told AutoblogGreen about how these trucks could work for American companies. The official launch of these EVs in the U.S. was two days before we spoke.

The Smith Newton is a 26,000 pound GVW truck, a class 7 truck, 16,000 payload. Smaller versions - class 5 or 6 - are also available. Depending on customer need, these trucks can be delivered with between two and six batteries (one battery doesn't have enough power to move the truck). Using four batteries, the truck can go 150 miles with a 50 mph top speed, while two batteries give you a 40-60 mile range and work best with light products (garments, for example). More batteries also reduce the payload capacity. Each battery pack costs $16,000. With four battery packs, a 2007 Smith Newton is $150,000 ($64,000 for the batteries, $86,000 for the truck). While that's a large amount, Aubry said operating costs are a low 11 cents a mile.

Smith Newtons use sodium nickel chloride (Zebra) batteries, the current battery of choice for heavy trucks. Aubry said that Smith is testing lithium ion batteries and expects to sell trucks with that option in the near future. The Zebra-laden trucks are available now, as is my interview with Aubry (7:30 min, 5 MB).