EV World's editor finally gets behind the wheel of Phoenix Motorcars' all-electric sport utility truck.
Open Access Article Originally Published: April 27, 2007
Brian Bliss handed me the keys to the all-white Phoenix Motorcars sports utility truck (SUT) and slipped into the passenger seat, while I slide behind the wheel. We were parked behind the Marriott Hotel along with a handful of other alternative vehicles on hand for ride and drive demonstrations during the Alternative Fuel Vehicles conference + export organized by AFVi.
I had been looking forward to this opportunity for weeks after missing the chance during the company's gala debut at the Peterson Automotive Museum in Los Angeles when a contactor welded shut. It turned out, according the Bliss, the company sales manager, to be a software problem, but on that particular night when I went to drive the vehicle, it was out of commission, though as you'll see from the Stefano Paris' 22-minute video of the event, quite a few people including Who Killed the Electric Car director Chris Paine got to drive it. However, I did get the change to take the eBox Paris had driven to the event out for a late evening romp around the neighborhoods south of Wilshire Blvd.
My first impression of the vehicle is that Phoenix made a good decision partnering with Boshart Engineering and collaborating with them on an SUT-based electric vehicle instead of yet another sexy, but less practical two-seat sports car. Utilizing an attractive, 5-passenger, Korean-built SUT chassis immediately enabled them to market to fleets in California who can much more easily justify a truck to taxpayers than a sports car, clean and efficient though it might be. The short cargo box is completely open for hauling equipment, tools, supplies. Cargo capacity is rated at 1000 pounds, according to company president Dan Elliott. The lithium-ion batteries are nested under the passenger cabin in an enclosure that does protrude several inches below the frame, so you don't want to jump curbs or high center it; it will be a very costly short-cut.
Just how costly? Bliss was candid in telling me right up front before we ever left the hotel parking lot that the first ten custom-built battery packs from Altairnano were expensive. The initial order of ten 35kWh packs cost $750,000, so each one cost $75,000 or $2,142 per kilowatt hour of capacity, a long way from the DOE goal of $250/kWh. He was confident that those costs would come down over time.
The next revelation was the truck's delightful regenerative braking. Like the AC Propulsion eBox, it is powerful and effective. Let off the accelerator and the vehicle immediately begins to slow as the generator converts kinetic energy back to electric power stored in the Altairnano lithium titanate batteries, about which so much has been speculated on the Internet and here on EV World.
As Chris Paine mentions in the Paris video, the vehicle is extraordinarily quiet, a tribute to the UQM electric drive system, the fourth major contributor to the Phoenix program. Automotive engineers have done much to improve the ride of today's trucks, especially their SUVs, to make them more car-like, but for all their efforts, they still don't come close to the joyous, unparalleled silence of an EV. It would have been an interesting comparison to drive the company's gasoline version and their EV model in tandem drive tests. I tried to get out to their Ontario facility, but to no avail; everyone of any import was at the AFVi event that week.
Bliss also noted that Energy CS -- the company that largely started the plug-in hybrid conversion movement -- is developing a new EV-centric instrument cluster to replace the current gasoline model in the development prototypes.
Phoenix also just announced this week that it and UQM, based in Colorado, are going to develop their own plug-in hybrid vehicle. Elliott confirmed for me by telephone last night that it will be, as I suspected, a series/serial configuration in which a gasoline generator recharges the battery pack once it depletes and provides sufficient power to drive the truck down the road. While Elliott wouldn't say much more about the program, he did note that it will be an 18-month project but that at the moment there are no plans to go into production. Certainly, there is plenty of room under the hood of the SUT to reinstall a small IC engine.
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Reader Comments
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10 comments so far...
19-May-2007
56268
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Chris west, no a wind tubine make more drag than power you get out. There is no free energy. Even solar panels should be mounted at the correct fixed angle not on a vehicle.
Better than wind turbines is the regenerative braking on pure electrics and hybrids. they save brake wera, recaputure power and are very efficient . With new lithium and ultra capacitors they get even more lost energy back into the vehicle !
Posted by: jim stack
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16-May-2007
56226
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I know nothing about EVs but am curious: can you mount small turbines on this vehicle to generate electricity while driving?
Posted by: chris west
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27-Apr-2007
55994
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Interesting to note that even the Phoenix has the scoops in the bumper for the fog/running lights just like Detroit iron. Aerodynamics anyone?
Posted by: James Eckman
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28-Apr-2007
56000
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The truck might be tempting for the well heeled buyer. But then, when one considers the battery replacement costs, all but the truly wealthy will shy away from this vehicle. I believe the disparity in purchase price is due to a carbon credit scheme with the auto companies.
This vehicle, while somewhat interesting, just demonstrates that we are not even close to an economically viable EV vehicle. I have yet to see anything which would indicate that we are within a decade of reasonably priced batteries, even with mass production and technological breakthroughs.
Don't get me wrong, I love the idea of EVs and get a taste of it when my Prius is in electric mode at low speeds. The quiet and smug effect is serene.
I fear, though, that economical EVs, somewhat like hydrogen vehicle, are always going to be several years away.
I hope I am wrong and I visit this site daily in the hopes that some breakthrough somewhere will prove me wrong. We are told, however, that the Chinese will deliver a corolla form factor vehicle for around $30,000 within 18 months. So, yes, there is always hope.
Posted by: Tom Street
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28-Apr-2007
56004
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Great EV, the video did not start for me ? apparently the SUT works better than the video
Posted by: jim stack
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28-Apr-2007
56008
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How much electricity does it take to charge this vehicle? How many KWH?
Posted by: Bob Willis
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28-Apr-2007
56010
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Two comments:
First, The RAV4EV is not supposed to haul a trailer... Surprise! It does. Like any hauling, you have to size it to the vehicle, but it certainly has no problem hauling a small trailer, a bike trailer, a load of furniture, etc. A small boat? Why not. A large boat? Not with a "mid size" pickup anyway.
Secondly, I read over and over that you must have a low cost vehicle so the average person can "afford" it. Bull Oney. The average person puts out $40K on a PICKUP, and never counts the gas cost or the maintenance, and then adds chrome wheels and leather and a skylite. Maybe not in your neighborhood, but I don't believe an EV needs to sell for nothing, and I don't believe battery costs will be all that much. No one knows how long the batteries will last. Your respondent is just guessing.
Posted by: Robert Stelling
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30-Apr-2007
56019
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For goodness sake - Phoenix Motors uses Altair Nano batteries - these can handle 10000 cycles - read the website! The batteries are rated to last longer than the rest of the vehicle. You right on one thing - with such negative attitude we will never have EV's....
Posted by: Ruan Jurgens
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30-Apr-2007
56020
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The question is calender life, Altair claims 20 years but you can't really accelerated test that like cycle life can you? I hope they're right, if they are it's over, this is nearly the perfect PHEV battery.
Posted by: Dave Kennington
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20-May-2008
61746
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How many miles can this SUT Drive on one charge?
Posted by: Jacob Johnson
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