Thought I would throw this one out there
Appropriate name- They get their SUV body from Pontiac, in the form of their crashed-and-burned Aztec. Rising from the ashes of that ugliness is the Phoenix. Chop the back end open and you get an SUT.
At least it looks like they got rid of the “missing flap” fuel door.
The truck at least is based on a Korean vehicle. I’m 99.999% sure the SUV is too.
They had to go cheap on the vehicle end due to the price of batteries. Otherwise these would be $60,000 trucks instead of $40,000 trucks.
With oil hitting $88, I’m sure you can learn to love them. I know I could.
I would love to see a company purchase a fleet of these. It would be cool to see them drive around…
Phoenix MC, Inc. Announces Change in Governance and Secures Additional Funding
Ontario, Calif. – March 19, 2008 – Phoenix MC, Inc., a Delaware Corporation and a California based electric vehicle company doing business as “Phoenix Motorcars”, recently formed a new Board of Directors to reflect recent changes in the Company’s corporate governance and restructuring. Eqbal Al Yousuf, President of Al Yousuf, LLC and Robert Hemphill, Executive Vice President of The AES Corporation, were named as board members. In addition, Daniel J. Elliott, President and CEO of Phoenix MC, Inc., has assumed the role of Chairman of the Board.
These additions complete changes began in 2007, when the original founders, Dan Riegert and Dana Muscato, resigned from their positions at Phoenix Motorcars, Inc, and from their roles in Phoenix Motorcars board of governance. Terms were not disclosed.
Phoenix MC Inc., also announced today that it has received its next round of funding. The funding comes from Al Yousuf LLC, a Dubai, UAE based diversified commercial company and The AES Corporation, an Arlington, VA based global power company. Merriman Curhan Ford & Co. (NASDAQ: MERR) acted as sole placement agent on the transaction and O’Melveny & Myers LLP (www.omm.com) acted as legal advisor to Phoenix MC, Inc.
“Phoenix is now well capitalized to enter the fleet vehicle market with a full-performance battery electric vehicle,” said Dan Elliott, President and CEO of Phoenix MC, Inc. “We have taken orders for fleet-ready vehicles and will deliver their first round of sport utility trucks (SUT) and sport utility vehicles (SUV) in 2008.” Phoenix MC, Inc. will ramp up production in 2009.
About Al Yousuf, LLC
Founded in Dubai in 1953, Al Yousuf, LLC has steadily grown to become one of the leading commercial groups in the United Arab Emirates. Al Yousuf, LLC, with over 3,000 employees operates across a wide range of industries including automobiles, marine, manufacturing, real estate, information and communication technology, electronics goods and chemicals. In the transportation sector, Al Yousuf, LLC has developed strong value-added relationships with major international brands including Chevrolet, Yamaha, Daihatsu, Daewoo and Suzuki.
“As part of our global clean technology strategy, we are making early-stage investments into companies with new alternative energy technologies. Phoenix MC, Inc.’s market entry strategy into the U.S. fleet vehicle market, with their SUT and SUV platforms, is well positioned to meet the growing demand for clean power technologies from large commercial fleet operators,” said Eqbal Al Yousuf, President of Al Yousuf, LLC.
About The AES Corporation
The AES Corporation (NYSE: AES) is one of the world’s largest global power companies, with operations in 28 countries on five continents, a global workforce of 30,000 employees and revenues of $11.6 billion in 2006. AES’s generation and distribution facilities have the capacity to serve 100 million people worldwide.
“AES is committing significant resources to meet growing market needs for new alternative energy resources and technologies, to help create a secure and sustainable energy future.” said Robert F. Hemphill, Executive Vice President of The AES Corporation. “Our investment into Phoenix MC, Inc. is part of this overall strategy.”
About Phoenix MC, Inc.
Phoenix MC, Inc., a privately-held Delaware corporation, headquartered in Ontario, California and doing business as Phoenix Motorcars has been an industry leader in the development of battery-electric, freeway-speed vehicles since 2001. The mission of Phoenix MC, Inc. is to manufacture zero-emission vehicles including SUTs and SUVs to reduce the toxic emissions from the largest contributor to air pollution, personal automobiles. For more information, visit www.PhoenixMotorcars.com.
I can see how the taking over of an EV company by an investment company based in an oil producing country rattles you. Clearly it’s in the best interest of oil producing countries to kill of initiatives like this if they can, and the use of petro dollar investment companies is an effective way to do it. however in the present information age with many initiatives in the field of green transportation technology they probably can’t avoid any more that some new technology makes it through their flak. So it’s in their best interest to hedge their bets. If EV technology takes off they had better have a stake in it. If not, they want to be in a position to make sure it gets killed of completely. The least they can hope to gain by participating is a chance to slow down developments as long as possible, hopefully until such time that they have run out of oil anyway.
I wonder what kind of electric service you need to have at your home to use the 10 minute charger. By my calculations to run the 250 KW off-board charger you would need something like a 440V 600 amp 3 phase service. Not exactly practical for most users. Even the overnight charger needs a 50 amp 220V service. I don’t know about most people, but personally I don’t need to go 95 mph or 0-60 in less than 10 seconds. I would be more than willing to sacrifice some of that performance to use less electricity. Electricity usage is not without environmental impact, even if it is far less than petroleum.
I think the Phoenix SUV would be perfect for me. I largely drive less than 50 miles a week. I have a hot tub electrical outlet that will accomidate the SUV slow recharger. The range will allow me to visit my daughter 150 miles away. I have solar electrical pannels that will handle the SUV recharging needs. I mailed Phoenix requesting to be put on their (long) waiting list to buy a SUV. It may be 2009 before my number comes up though.
I did the calculator it would pay for itself in 20 years. Thats if I went and bought a new Altima tomorrow. What a deal.