According to a press release on Altairnano's web site, Dr. Alan Gotcher has agreed to resign "as an officer of the company." Dr. Gotcher was appointed CEO back in August 2004 and President in March 2005. No reason was given in the release but the language makes it sound like it wasn't his decision. Dr. Terry Copela
One company we haven't been hearing too much from of late is Phoenix Motorcars. They made a pretty big splash in 2006 around the same time that Tesla launched and they've turned up at all the usual conferences and events with prototypes of their electric pickup truck. They grabbed a lot of attention for their plans to use Altairnano's lithium titanate batteries with their potential for 10-minute quick charges.
There's some interesting financial activity going these days in the electric vehicle realm and it wouldn't be surprising to see some consolidation happen soon. In the past year Phoenix Motorcars and Zap have trailed only the Tesla Roadster and Chevy Volt in attention for battery-propelled vehicles. Unfortunately for both companies (and Tesla) revenues have not been in proportion to press coverage and as we all know building a complete vehicle is not a trivial challenge.
An online Mexican newspaper has announced that Phoenix MotorCars is building a manufacturing plant in the state of Puebla in México. The plant, which is made jointly with Pristine International, will create 1,500 jobs in the area. The plant will be built in a new industrial development area near Huejotzingo's airport. The companies are investing an initial $90 million, but a total of $250 million will be invested in the near future.
We heard yesterday that Phoenix MotorCars had canceled their order for motors from UQM Technologies. Now Phoenix has issued their own press release revealing that they are adopting new motor technology. The new motors are apparently lighter and more compact than the UQM units although Phoenix is not saying where they are coming from. The motors now have a peak power output of 200 kW and sho
A friend who spends more time than I do perusing the financial statements of various companies alerted me to the latest release from UQM Technologies. UQM you might recall makes electric motors that have appeared in a variety of prototype and production intent electric vehicles. Perhaps most notable on their list to readers of this site is Phoenix Motorcars. Phoenix is the purveyor of a battery powered version of a Korean Sssangyong pickup truck.
C-NET's Michael Kanellos did a little thinking out loud this week when he tried to list all of the electric car start-up companies (not major automakers working on EVs). He counted 16 small companies. The names on this list will be familiar to just about anyone who reads AutoblogGreen, but I thought it was interesting to see them all gathered in one place:
The Boshart Tersus may look like the Phoenix SUT, but it certainly doesn't quack like a Phoenix SUT. Both of these unusual electric trucks are built from the same Ssanyong body, but are totally different under the hood. Well, not completely. Boshart Engineering actually did some engineering work for Phoenix, and decided that there was room in the market for another, um, can't-miss-the-styling electric truck. The difference? This one is an NEV.
Last week Phoenix Motorcars revealed that they are delaying production of their sport utility truck until at least the early part of 2008. One of the reasons mentioned for the delay was due to finalizing their financing package. Apparently they have been trying to raise some venture capital funding. There were some reports that they had a deal for a $15 million investment from Kle
Aside from Tesla, the electric vehicle startup company that has gotten the most attention over the past year is probably Phoenix Motorcars. Phoenix's big claim to fame is the first use of the Altairnano lithium titanate battery pack which is claimed to have over 25,000 charge cycles support for recharging in ten minutes. Phoenix had announced their intentions t
Tesla Motors has just updated their blog, this time with a post from Greg Solberg, who is Tesla Motors Firmware Engineer. The post is all about regenerative braking. Just like most of the other posts at the Tesla Motors blog, this one is quite informative and offers us all a glimpse into just what it takes to get a vehicle from the drawing board to customer hands on the road.
About a month ago, I was a guest on the New York-based radio show The Lazy Environmentalist. While this show is broadcast on the Sirius satellite radio network (that means you've gotta pay for it), Josh Dorfman, the host, and his staff were kind enough to send me MP3 copies of the show, maybe because I forgave them for saying I write for GreenAutoBlog. They also gave us permission to share them with you. How do you like that, I get to share my
Last week at their annual shareholders meeting battery developer Altairnano Technologies showed off the SUV version of the Phoenix Motor Cars truck. The fully enclosed version of the vehicle was available for meeting attendees to drive and most came away fairly impressed. In the Reno Gazette-Journal article, Phoenix's Bryon Bliss acknowledges that the vehicle itself is made by an Korean company he won't name.
AeroVironment, a company that helps build drones (unpiloted flying machines) for the U.S. military as well as earlier work on vehicles like the Sunraycer and the GM Impact, announced today that its ten-minute recharge demonstration of an Altair Nanotechnologies 35kWh battery pack was successful, and restored enough power to drive the car for two hours at 60 mph. The demo was performed for folks from California Air Resources Board (CARB) at AeroVironment's Monrovia, California Energy Technology C
Last December, Altair Nanotechnologies Inc. shipped the first ten 35 KWh battery packs of a large order from Phoenix Motorcars, and those ten batteries cost Phoenix $750,000, and Phoenix must have been happy with the packs, because today it was announced that a $2.21 million extension of the order was placed. The total battery order now stands at $4,075,000 and Altairnano has so f
In AutoblogGreen Podcast #4, ABG talked to Dr. Alan Gotcher of Altairnano Technologies about the battery technology that makes the Phoenix SUT go. You can now read the interview transcript below.
In episode four of our AutoblogGreen podcast, Sam and Sebastian get the goods on nanotech batteries from Alan Gotcher, President and Chief Executive Officer of Altairnano, the battery company behind Phoenix's SUT (and upcoming SUV and PHEV). We also celebrate AutoblogGreen's one-year anniversary and look forward to year two.
