Green Tech Automotive To Offer MyCar NEVs At A Discount

GreenTech Automotive (GTA), announced at the 2010 Annual Meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) that the company will be offering the first 100,000 MyCar NEVs to consumers at a discounted price of $10,000.  Production of the MyCar is expected to begin in the US in mid-2011, and eventually plans on employing up to 5,000 workers and produce five different models.  The discounted price is aimed at overcoming the affordability hurdle for electric vehicles.  Learn more:  Finance.yahoo.com

UK’s ePower Trucks Launches New Vehicle

ePower Truck XT320E

ePower Trucks based in the UK recently launched the ePower Truck XT320E, a battery powered vehicle with a 1,000 kg payload.  The vehicle features a 13kw battery pack and an estimated range of 60 miles.  Battery packs can be swapped out using a forklift and an additional battery pack can be added to extend the vehicle’s range. The vehicle costs an estimated $47,000 US.

The company expects to expand the product line in the future with three more electric trucks.  ePower Trucks is a division of LiftSafe, the lifting and handling equipment supplier and specialises in the supply of golf buggies, electric trucks, electric vehicles, electric tugs and a wide range of utility vehicles.  Learn more:  Logisticsmanager.com

Grounds Management turning To Utility Vehicles

A brief story on Facilitiesnet.com describes the grounds management trend of replacing pickup trucks with utility vehicles, particularly electric powered vehicles.  Among the benefits:  reduced fuel costs, quiet operation, improved access to confined work areas, reduced environmental impact, performance on par with gas vehicles and reduced vehicle maintenance.  Learn more:  Facilitiesnet.com

Washing Machines Spin Off EV Advances

An article covering technology developments from Asian household appliance manufacturers noted recent advances in washing machine motors and their applicability for electric vehicles.

A performance requirement for washing machine motors is that they operate at low rpm and high torque for the wash cycle but high rpm and lower torque for the spin cycle. According to washing machine manufacturers, washing requires about six times the torque of spin-dry, but spin-dry has to rotate about 30 times faster than washing.

Manufacturers such as Toshiba, Panasonic and Hitachi are implementing variable magnet, switchable winding and dual rotor technologies to change washing machine motor characteristics between low-speed and high-speed operation. Depending on the technology used, improvements have been realized in one or more of the following areas: washing or spin-dry performance, energy consumption and quiet operation.

For example, Toshiba used variable magnets to improve washing torque by 20%, and boost spin-dry speed 1.4 times to 1700rpm as well as reduce motor power consumption by up to 16%. Toshiba expects the same technology to appear in EVs, electric motorcycles and other applications as well. Meanwhile Yaskawa Electric Corp. of Japan, a major manufacturer of industrial robots, expects to apply winding switch technology to EVs and exhibited a new type of motor at the 1st EV & HEV Drive System Technology Expo held in January 2010.

The article provides an in-depth look at the different technologies. Learn more: Techon.nikkeibp.co.jp

Sevcon To Supply Controls For Polaris Ranger EV

Sevcon, Inc. announced that they will be providing controls for the recently launched Polaris Ranger EV, an electric powered utility vehicle.  The AC motor controllers, branded Gen 4, are the latest version developed by Sevcon specifically for electric vehicles.  The controls will manage the operation of both the motor and regenerative braking system.  Learn more:   Allbusiness.com

Stealth Manufacturing Moving To Georgia

Electric utility vehicle manufacturer Stealth Manufacturing is moving their plant from Louisiana to Georgia.  Stealth currently has about 50 employees at its 82,000-square-foot facility at the Ouachita Industrial Park.  The move is planned for June of this year.  Stealth produces the Apache, Patriot, and Predator electric UTVs.  Current owner, Greg Block, purchased the company in January from Louisiana based Bill Krutzer and Bill Robinson in January.  Learn more:  13WMAZ.com

Hoboken LSV Purchase Revisited

Earlier in a What’s Cooking On The STOV post I had covered the city of Hoboken’s purchase of LSV utility vehicles for their parking department. The city manager behind the purchase has recently blogged about the process and the reasoning behind it. Some of the key factors influencing the decision to switch from pick-up trucks to LSVs included:

• Limited use criteria: restricted operating area in terms of miles driven, flat terrain, low payload requirements, no emergency response requirements
• High mileage pick-ups with increasing maintenance costs
• High fuel costs for pick-ups driven by idling
• Narrow LSVs don’t block traffic
• LSVs have significantly lower fuel and maintenance costs

As an added bonus the vehicles attracted press coverage which highlighted the department’s cost effective and forward thinking purchase. Learn more: Ian Sac’s blog

News Briefs

Strong UTV Sales In Australian Farming Segment – An Australian farming magazine reports about the increasing demand for UTVs and the entry of new manufacturers like Honda, Case IH and New Holland into the market.  Learn more:  FW.farmonline.com.au

Platinum Group Acquires Tiziani Golf Car of Minnesota – The Platinum Group, a private equity fund that focuses on underperforming companies or those in need of turnaround expertise, recently purchased the assets of Tiziani Golf Car of Minnesota.  The company will be renamed Superior Golf Cars and will continue to be the exclusive distributor of Club Car vehicles in eastern Minnesota and western Wisconsin.  Learn more:  peHub.com

Phillips Develops Crosswalk System For Silent Vehicles – Phillips is developing an LED based crosswalk lighting system to warn pedestrians of approaching but silent vehicles such as electric buses, autos and scooters.   The embedded LEDs react to approaching vehicles the same way traffic lights do by changing color from green to amber to red.
Learn more:  Worldcarnews.com

Phillips Develops LED Crosswalk System

What’s Cooking On The STOV

Highlighting some of the many applications for small, task-oriented vehicles

Specialized Agriculture Applications – Oregon based manufacturer Barefoot Motors is selling electric utility vehicles for use in orchards.

Karen Lewis with Washington State University Extension in Ephrata, Wash., said many orchard owners are shifting to a two-dimensional and three-dimensional row setup, enabling human or robotic hands to access the fruit by any type of technology. They are looking for smaller, electric utility vehicles to harvest or apply pesticides, she said.

The electric UTVs are also well suited for the frequent stop and start nature of the work. Learn more: Capitalpress.com

Advertising Based Transportation Service – A pair of Florida State University graduates have launched Green Operated Transit Carrying Humanity Around, or GOTCHA, a free, environmentally friendly transportation service. The company has a fleet of five GEMs to service the FSU campus and plan for similar fleets for the University of Florida and the University of Georgia. The company generates revenue by placing advertisers logos on the vehicles. Learn more: Tallahassee.com

New GEMs for the Hoboken Parking Utillity

City Parking Department Application – Hoboken, NJ has taken delivery of two GEMs for use by the Hoboken Parking Utility. The vehicles will be used to put up signs, place bags over meters and install and remove boots. They replace pickup trucks which frequently needed maintenance. and their compact size are a good fit for the city’s tight streets. Learn more: NJ.com/hobokennow

Mobile Marketing Campaign – L’Oreal Paris is using two GEM vehicles as part of a mobile marketing campaign that will visit ten college campuses this spring. The promotion will…

…provide students with a range of brand engagements creating a motivating product trial platform while generating buzz. Utilizing a branded Airstream trailer and two battery-operated GEM cars, (Global Electric Motorcars) trained product specialists will invite students to use mobile face washing stations featuring Go 360 Clean, enjoy two-minute upper back massages and a professional makeup application.

L'Oreal Paris GEM promo vehicle

Learn more: Drugstorenews.com

GatorMoto Fills Large International Order

GoatorMoto Utility Vehicles reports selling 50 Electro Transport Buddy 15 Passenger LE’s to the Al-Azzouni Group in Saudi Arabia.  The electric powered shuttle vehicles were used in the recent Mecca Festival.

Learn more:  Gatormotoutilityvehicles.com