After having taken a week off to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family back in Tallahassee, I couldn’t muster the strength to make it out to Anaheim for the annual Electric Vehicle Symposium.

And I’m sorry I didn’t . . . not because Baltimore right now is a frigid ice box with all the charm of a meat locker, but because a very promising company called Smith Electric Vehicles laid out its proposal for cornering the delivery truck market in the U.S.

Echoing Roger Slotkins , ex-CEO of Odyne Corporation, Kevin Harkin, Sales Director for Smith Electric Vehicles, said, “Automotive manufacturers are telling us that the technology for mass-produced electric cars is some years away. But the larger sized commercial vehicle--and the truck in particular--is perfectly suited to electric technology that is available today.”

While I think the automotive manufacturers are full of it on that one--as I’m sure my regular readers know--Mr. Harkin is right about electric vehicle technology being a perfect match for delivery fleets.

The greatest problem with electric vehicles is the issue of range.

The average driver only clocks about 30 to 40 miles per day and most electric cars can do double or triple that distance. It’s difficult, though, to convince most drivers that their life won’t turn into some Steven Spielberg production where they have to cross the Rockies to combat invading Russkies.

But delivery fleets, with planned routes and depot-based facilities that allow easy recharging, are a perfect fit, because, quite frankly, they have no grand illusions of a greater purpose.

They need to deliver packages, and cut costs.

Seeing this opportunity, Smith Electric Vehicles has announced that it plans on opening a major U.S. production facility that should churn out 10,000 vehicles a year by 2010. And that’s just the beginning, because according to initial research done by the company, there is an addressable market of around 200,000 units a year, and that’s in the U.S.A. alone.

The Zero Emission Newton

The truck Smith Electric Vehicles was showing at EVS 23 was the Newton, the world’s largest all-electric truck. It is already a household name in Europe, providing mobility for companies like Starbucks, DHL, TK Maxx, Marks & Spencer and government fleets like Britain’s Royal Mail.

Weighing in at a bit over 24,000 lbs., the Newton has a max speed of 50 mph but can get to 30 faster than an equivalent diesel-powered model.

With a full load of juice in an ISE Corporation Zebra battery pack (marketed by a Swiss company called MES-DEA), the Newton can travel routes up to 150 miles with a payload of 15,800 lbs. before needing to be hooked back to the grid.

Further advancing the Newton’s practicality is the adoration it receives from its drivers.

With no noise, no gear shifting and no nauseating fumes, the amount of stress endured by drivers is cut significantly.

And once the trucks are put to rest at the end of the day, routine maintenance becomes a thing of the past.

Compared to a regular diesel driveline that contains over one thousand moving parts, the Newton’s 120-kW Enova drive system has only four.

Because of this, the driveline will last longer then the vehicle and will allow the motors and batteries to be reused once the actual truck has been tapped out.

So keep your eye on Fresno, Ca., because that’s where the first U.S. models are being rolled out right now, while the larger factory is being prepped for its 2010 debut.

Keep your hopes in the future but your sense in the present . . .

Field Palmer