In a recent conversation with Dynasty Electric Vehicles General Manager Danny Epp about the plug-in electric vehicle tax credit he revealed that Dynasty is looking to have a lithium battery pack option available for mid-2009. The company is currently talking to several China based producers with the expectation that the battery packs will cost around $4,000, about twice as much as their maintenance free battery option. If the vehicles qualify for the recently passed $2,500 plug-in electric vehicle tax credit then vehicles with the lithium battery pack option would be available at the same or slightly lower price that customers are currently paying for vehicles with the maintenance free battery pack option. Mr. Epp stated that the lithium pack will have twice the life of the lead acid battery pack, can charge faster without damage and has more range because it can discharge to a lower level. The size of the pack is also smaller so you can have the same power in a smaller space or add additional cells, although at an additional cost. No changes have to made in regard to where the battery pack fits in the vehicle. Dynasty is trying to create the best value for the customer by balancing the trade-off between more cost for more battery power filling the same space or less cost for the same power at less weight and less volume.

We also started talking about changes in the current market. Epp reported that despite the recession sales had been increasing and attributed the increase to both higher fuel costs and more awareness of the vehicles. He also noted that his customer type had changed from relatively lower income environmentalists to higher income individuals looking to make a statement, especially if they have larger cars. The vehicles can almost be viewed as a “personal offset”. Epp himself views the vehicles as an “appliance for the house” and tries to sell them from that perspective. Most of the companies sales are in the US and they currently have twelve dealers. For more on Dynasty.