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.