Miles Javalon

EVM score: 8
Range: 150 mi
Speed: Highway capable
Price: $30,000
Battiery: Li-ion with 10y/75,000 mi warranty
Safe: fully crash tested
Everything of paper looks fantastic about this vehicle. I think the masses could really go big for an EV like this....if it ever exists. Like Zap, this company tends to give some pretty exciting announcements and then 6 months later there's little to show for it. But we are still hopeful that this time it will be different.

BYD F6E Sedan

EVM score: 4
Range: ?
Speed: Highway speeds
Price: ?
Battery: Li-Iron
Safe: ?

I just found out about this car from Auto Blog Green. It looks great. The big questions are safety and quality and range and price and, oh yeah, if it will ever come to America.

Th!nk City Car

EVM score: 5
Range: 111 mi
Speed: 62 mph, 0-50 in 16 sec
Price: $32,000 and battery lease $160/mo
Battery: Li-Titanate from Enerdel (Tesla battery dropped)
Safe: Probably
I have some problems with this vehicle. It's kind of plasticy toyish looking. The performance numbers look abysmal. I think I would be terrified to take this vehicle on the freeway. And seriously, who is gonna pay 32K plus $160/mo to RENT the battery. Not gonna happen. On the other hand, they just made a deal 10/15/07 with Enerdel for some sweet Li-Titanate batteries. This is the same company that said the could make Lithium batteries for like $1500 and got a grant from the US Advanced Battery Consortium. Perhaps with Enerdel's battery the price will be lower and maybe I would think it looked really cool in black with some sick rims. Who am I kidding, it's still ugly.

Phoenix SUT/SUV

EVM score: 7
Range: 100 mi
Speed: 95 mph, 0-60 10m sec.
Price: $40,000
Battery: Li-Titanate from Altair Nanotechnologies.
Safe: Likely
This is a pretty cool concept. Get a Korean slider car, add a UQM motor, throw in a battery that will last 250,000 miles, recharge in 10 minutes, and be perfectly safe. Then put it in a package that is useful for companies for fleet use. Performance, good. Range, good. The only problem is that all that costs somewhere around $80,000 per vehicle. Really, the awesome battery from Altair is most of that. So I heard that their business model depends on them selling carbon offsets to be financially viable. Sounds kind of risky to me. I'd rather start like Tesla and sell it for $100,000. In fact, why doesn't Tesla take the Altair battery? It's so much better. I'm gonna go have a talk with them right now.

News:
The UQM motor is dropped in favor of a more efficient one. The Altair battery pack turns out to be lighter and smaller than thought. 500 fleet orders are in and they are set to deliver in the first quarter 2008.