Executive Ramblings: Phoenix Motors Unveils All-electric, Freeway-ready Sport Utility Truck
Photo by Mike Magda
As a rule, I avoid all things LA. The traffic, the sprawl–it’s an intimidating place, and it certainly doesn’t seem very environmentally conscious. Then again, life thrives in the most inhospitable environments; challenges spur innovation. Where better than the city with more roads and freeways than any other to introduce the next generation in transportation?
Phoenix Motorcars is doing its part. Last night, the company held a major event to celebrate the launch of its first line, an all-electric sport utility truck (SUT)–appropriately enough–at LA’s famed Peterson Automotive Museum.
Company engineers were offering up test drives all evening, and I was lucky enough to be one of the first in line to get behind the wheel. All I can say is: wow. This was my first time driving an electric, so I didn’t push it too hard, but test-drive-mate J. Karen Thomas (of Who Killed the Electric Car?
While all 500 SUTs Phoenix plans to produce this year are already spoken for by high-profile supporters and corporate fleets, the company will introduce an SUV version later this year, and expand its production capabilities to make thousands of these beauties available in 2008.
Phoenix CEO Dan Elliot (who showed off his SUT to President Bush recently) was hell-bent on creating an all-electric vehicle that could meet the daily needs of a wider range of users, “from the grocery store to the hardware store.”
The Phoenix SUTIt’s obvious that the truck was specifically designed to undercut all of the traditional knocks on electric vehicles: it fits 5 easily, has 1,000 lb payload capacity, and cruises at 95 mph on the freeway. It still only has a range of 130 miles per charge (which runs around $3), but the company is aggressively pursuing partnerships to set up high-powered charging stations that can flash-charge the vehicle in 10 minutes or less. Reps from multiple companies who want to make this happen explained to me that these stations could be fed from on-site renewable resources, with grid-connected or fossil backups to ensure reliability.
So, someone remind me again why we’re spending billions in California on developing one “hydrogen highway” when we could be making “electric highways” the new standard in transportation, using technology that exists today? There must be some powerful interests at work here…
Despite the threat that electric vehicle (EV) technology poses to the auto and oil industries, the public holds a trump card. As long as it was GM making and then aborting the EV prematurely, they could control the technology’s public image. But as companies like Phoenix and Tesla prove themselves in the market, the auto giants are going to have to adapt. Now that others are commercializing it, the power to control public perceptions about such new technology (as GM tried to do with the EV1) is quickly fading.
After last night’s event, it was clear that the electric vehicle is back, and this time, it’s here to stay. The technology is mature; all that’s left is to allow mass production to bring costs down. As that happens, the advantages of coupling transportation with our other energy needs is a no-brainer. First, it’s more efficient than internal combustion, meaning less energy gets wasted as heat, and more goes into pushing the vehicle. Also, it’s completely scalable, from the 3-wheel ZAP to performance sports cars that destroy the best muscle cars head to head.
But for me, the major advantage of EVs is that they allow us to decide where our fuel comes from. Even though your new electric SUT will be powered by the same dirty energy that powers the rest of our lives, going electric gives you options to do something about it. You could buy green power for your home with your savings on fuel and still come out ahead, or take the plunge and make your own power with a set of solar panels. As the event’s host and green activist Ed Begley, Jr. put it, “you can’t make gas on your roof.” It might not be right for everyone yet, but moving in this direction is the smart thing to do for families, for our oil-addicted country as a whole, and for the earth. It’s time.
March 3rd, 2007 at 12:08 am
The main problem with the Phoenix is it’s high
rice tag. It costs double what a comparable
gasoline vehicle would. Until the initial price is brought down for the batteries, or asome sort of mortgage type financing isavailable for those long-lived batteries, the vehicle will remain out of reach for a huge portion of the population. There is also not at the moment any infrastructure for recharging the vehicles, which is why, so far they are mostly being bought by electric utility companies who can provide such charging stations.
There is also the matter of standardizing a charge hookup mechanism that is fail-safe. Ed Begley is dead wrong when he claimed that the batteries are the Holy Grail. Not yet, but then Ed’s not known for being particularly truthful anyway - he’s the guy who claimed in “Who Killed the ERelectric Car?” that the EV-1 met the needs of 90% of the population. He might have been able to argue successfully that it met the needs of 2% of the population, if that.
March 3rd, 2007 at 2:14 am
For a look at the launch event from the Ecorazzi perspective, head over here: http://www.ecorazzi.com/?p=1762
-David
Founder and CEO
Green Options, LLC
March 3rd, 2007 at 2:28 am
dear unregistered user: who do you work for?
1. yes, it costs $40-45k per vehicle… at production volumes of 500 to a few thousand. don't pretend that anything but economies of scale are the issue. also, at that volume, it's obviously not going to be targeted at the general population. see Tesla's development strategy of taregeting high end markets first.
2. infrastructure is not a problem for corporate or municipal fleets, since it only takes 5 hours to recharge completely using a standard plug. electric utilities might be able to take advantage of high-powered, 10-minutes charges immediately, but this doesn't stop anyone else from charging it normally. also, i repeat, why spend billions on a hydrogen highway when we have the technology for oil independence already at hand?
3. Ed Begley is not a liar. Although the EV1 might not have been perfect for 98% of the population, it had a dedicated user base which got steamrolled by a frightened GM. New electric vehicles like Phoenix's SUT can actually be effective for a major portion of the population (except people whose commute or errands total more than 130 miles each day).
Your arguments are tired. Electric vehicles are showing more and more promise, and anyone who goes out of their way to bash their usefulness generally has a reason for doing so.
Founder and CEO
Green Options, LLC
March 3rd, 2007 at 12:14 pm
Those curmudgeons dismissing electric vehicles have clearly had their heads in the sand this past year. The argument is over. The calculations have been made, decisions arrived at, and production has begun. It’s game on.
Not just among localised groups of enthusiasts, but in the hard-headed world of fleet management. In the UK, the 7.5 ton all-electric Smith Newton truck has been taken on by several high profile customers, including Marks & Spencers. See the website http://www.smithelectricvehicles.com
Parcels delivery firm TNT Express are poised to order between 200-400 more this year. Another UK firm, Modec http://www.modec.co.uk is also about to confirm fleet orders from two UK supermarket chains.
A 12 ton version of the Smith Newton is being brought in specifically to suit the US market. Within 8 weeks the company is launching a 3.5 ton van range, and later a small artic.
Those who wish to fight this inexorable tide are going to have to move their seats a little higher up the beach if they don’t want to get swept away!
March 3rd, 2007 at 8:03 pm
Financing would be no different than any other high end car.
March 4th, 2007 at 1:19 am
I feel like a 5 year old being told that my birthday is still a whole week away.
2008 can’t come quickly enough.
“In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act!”
– George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair)
March 4th, 2007 at 1:34 pm
i am so happy to see all this electric motor powered vehicles coming to market
i wish the upscaling of production comes full fast
my heart got strongly moved reading
“I feel like a 5 year old being told that my birthday is still a whole week away.
2008 can’t come quickly enough.”
thank you for that, progressivepenguin, what a medicine
i feel like contributing somewhat to the hydrogen topic. there are a number of diy-experimenters in exactly these moments following insightfull explanations and both theoretical and practical advises to build and test hydrogen on board systems, which uses very little input electricity to keep the system running
it might take a while to get an overview, but even for someone with a little technical understanding and no driving licence like me it is an worthfull experience to read the messages at
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/watercar/?yguid=118695857
and
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/JoesCell2/
also, there is this the company
HyPower Fuel
having announced to have successfully installed an onboard “h2 reactor” into a car
with a low energy consumption
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/070228/20070228005089.html?.v=1
“HyPower believes that the H2 Reactor’s electrolysis process is technologically the most efficient to date with an unprecedented ratio of 1 liter of hydrogen production to an electrical input of 1 watt hour. This is approximately 2 to 2.5 times more efficient than the current state of the competing technology.”
onboard production of hydrogen coupled with regenerative braking seems to me a pretty clean sollution.
March 5th, 2007 at 6:09 pm
“onboard production of hydrogen coupled with regenerative braking seems to me a pretty clean sollution.”
I just don’t get it, where are you going to gather that 1W per litre of hydrogen? From a battery? Then why not use the battery directly?
The point is: however you make hydrogen, you need energy to make it. Battery technology is at a point where you can use that energy directly in the first place, which renders hydrogen quite useless.
Why an hydrogen economy doesn’t make sense:
http://www.physorg.com/news85074285.html
March 5th, 2007 at 8:14 pm
In case you were not aware, Phoenix relies on ZEV credits to be able to sell the truck for as low as $45K. There is no way, no how this truck will sell at a price comparable to the gasoline equivalent truck, not with the battery cost. Economies of scale might cheapen the truck but it doesn’t change the fact that this thing uses a battery which costs tens of thousands. How well Altair Nano’s battery tech will scale is yet to be seen.
I myself am not bashing and am thoroughly impressed by the SUT - but this post needed a reality check.
March 8th, 2007 at 6:16 pm
I’m so glad it has a “high rice tag.” Yup, it needs a whole lotta rice to run!
Your comments are soooooo dumb. Go outside and take a deep whiff of the fumes that your internal destruction engines are giving all of us as a gift.
Wake up and smell the smog!