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

Golf Car Manufacturers Targeting LSV Market

A local newspaper story in Georgia, home state of the leading golf car manufacturers, recently ran a story about their move into the LSV market.  The story focuses mainly on the leaders in the golf car market, Club Car and E-Z-Go. Club Car introduced their passenger version of the Villager 2+2 late last year and E-Z-Go will be introducing their LSV later this year.

Club Car was able to take advantage of market demand driven by federal tax credits, especially in Oklahoma.  E-Z-Go chose not to rush the development schedule of their LSV to take advantage of the tax credit.  Instead, they are looking to enter the market with a vehicle with distinctive features.  One feature we have learned about for the vehicle is four wheel hydraulic brakes.
Not mentioned in the story is entry of smaller golf car manufacturers into LSV market such as Fairplay.

The move into the LSV market is driven by a number of factors:

  • Golf cars are already being sold into the gated community market where LSVs are also sold
  • There is growing market opportunity as an increasing number of LSVs are sold outside of gated communities
  • The decline in the golf course driven segment of the market is forcing golf car companies to look for new areas of growth

Learn more:  Augusta Chronicle

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 WisconsinLearn 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

Phillips Develops LED Crosswalk System

ZENN Stops Vehicle Production

As anticipated ZENN has stopped producing vehicles and will instead focus on developing electrical vehicle drivetrains based on EEStor’s technology. ZENN has the exclusive rights to use the EEStor technology in vehicles with a curb weight of up to 3000 pounds. There has been little news of late on the progress of EEstor’s ultracapacitor based power systems. – Marc Cesare Learn more: Treehugger.com

Smith Electric Vehicles US Developments

SEV-US recently announced that it made an offer to buy the Smith Electric Vehicles business from the UK based Tanfield Group.  The company has a four month exclusive window to come to agreement on the offer which is  reported to be $55 million.

In other developments the company is looking to establish a 50,000 square foot production and sales facility on the East Coast.  They are considering locations in New York, Atlanta and Washington D.C. as well as other areas.   The new facility  is part of  an overall plan to eventually open up to ten facilities in large urban markets starting with the East Coast.  Cities in other parts of the country being considered include San Diego, San Francisco and Chicago.

Management reports that their Kansas City facility is producing two vehicles per week and ramping up to four per week in the coming months.  They also expect the price of their Newton model to drop from $149,000 currently to $90,000 by 2011 as production increases. – Marc Cesare

Learn more:  Autobloggreen

Learn more:  Washington.bizjournals.com

Flight Systems Industrial Products Acquires Controls Business From GE

Flight Systems Industrial Products (FSIP) recently announced that they were acquiring certain product lines and equity interest related to a joint venture with GE.  The joint venture located in Patillas, Puerto Rico manufactures and distributes controls used in electric vehicles such as forklifts, neighborhood electric vehicles, golf carts, walkies, tuggers, go-carts and personnel carriers.   FSIP remanufactures over 45,000 controls annually for forklifts, aerial lifts, golf carts, scrubbers/sweepers, personnel carriers and mobility controls and has relationships with many OEMs.  Under the twelve year old joint venture arrangement FSIP had provided manufacturing and warranty services for GE.  – Marc Cesare

Learn more:  MHIA.org

CT&T Inks Deal To Supply Spanish Firm With NEVs

South Korean electric vehicle manufacturer CT&T has signed an agreement with the Ficosa Group of Spain to supply 10,000 NEVs.  No other information was provided regarding when deliveries will start, production rates or the value of the deal.  – Marc Cesare

Learn more:  Blogs.edmunds.com

ElecTruckCity To Distribute Trucks For Smith Electric Vehicles In France

UK based Smith Electric Vehicles has named ElecTruckCity as the exclusive distributor in France of the Smith Newton and Smith Edison electric vehicles.  The latter is an all electric version of the Ford Transit van.  ElecTruckCity plans on building out a network of 17 distributors across France including most of the major cities.  The market for these vehicles will get a boost from the French government which provides subsidies of 5,000 Euros for van-like vehicles and 20,000 Euros for Newton sized trucks.  – Marc Cesare Learn more:  Fleetdirector.co.uk

ZAP Lands Order For Electric SUVs

Zap to make electric SUVs for Korean market

Zap to make electric SUVs for Korean market

Zap announced last week that they received an order from Samyang Optics Co. Ltd. for 100 electric SUVs. the vehicles wil be manufactured in partnership with China auto manufacturer Zhejiang Jonway Automobile Co. Ltd. The electric SUV, to be based on Jonway’s A380 5-door SUV, will have a top speed of 70 mph and a range of 100 mph. The target market in Korea is fleet vehicles for intra-campus transportation for large government, military, corporate and university campuses. according to ZAP the vehicles will be assembled in China at ZAP Hangzhou, a joint venture recently formed with Holley Group, a global supplier of electric power meters based in Hangzhou, and Better World International Limited, funded by Cathaya Funds. The contract is reflective of a strong push in the electric vehicle market by the Korean government. – Marc Cesare Learn more: Zapglobal.wordpress.com

Mini-Truck Developments

Sarge mini-truck from Sokon USA Photo by Branimir Kvartuc

Sokon USA – After encountering quality issues with their first attempt several years ago under the Mattruck brand, Hal Ferrell and Michael Lewis of Sokon USA have launched a mini-truck based hunting vehicle.  Selling under the brand Sarge, these mini-trucks feature four wheel drive, a 45 hp engine and a 25 mph top speed.  The company claims the vehicles are classified as LSVs and are street legal depending on state and local regulations.

The vehicle, which seats five, is sourced from China based DFM (Dong Feng Motor), a subsidiary of Chongqing Yuan Group and will retail for about $14,500.  In addition to the hunting market, the vehicle will compete against utility vehicles in the construction, turf, ranching, farming and government markets.  Learn more:  Dealernewsblog.com

DFM Mini-truck (Thailand) –  Driven by rising demand in the Thai market, the company is talking to the parent company DFM of China about  manufacturing vehicles in Thailand rather than importing them from China.  Learn more:  Thailandchat.org