EV startup set to churn out trucks on U.S. assembly line

Boulder, Colo.-based Boulder Electric Vehicle envisions a future where FedEx and UPS would deliver packages using the manufacturing company’s delivery trucks. One critical difference between Boulder EV’s trucks and typical delivery vans is that Boulder EV’s come minus the tailpipe.

Founder and CEO Carter Brown told the Cleantech Group that his company’s all-electric white vehicle, which looks similar to an ice cream truck, can get up to 120 miles on a six-hour full electric charge from small cell lithium-ion batteries. And that’s when the vehicle is loaded to about 90 percent capacity.

Rather than steel rails down the middle of the vehicle used in the status quo, Boulder EV's vehicle has a proprietary aluminum composite uni-body chassis design. Its lightweight composite makes it more energy efficient, aerodynamic and simple to manufacture, according to the company. The truck can carry 6,000 pounds of cargo, and when empty weighs about 5,000 pounds. The company has five U.S. provisional patents.

“It’s the closest we can get to an airplane and still be a delivery truck,” he said, describing the truck’s design.

See a photograph of the electric delivery truck here »

The company’s team of eight employees built a working prototype in nine months. They were able to use computer engineering to fine tune the vehicle’s aerodynamics, which saved months of testing in wind tunnels, he said. It features parts from about 30 Tier 1 suppliers, although Brown wouldn’t disclose which ones.

The company is now seeking $21 million for in growth capital to get an assembly line built in Colorado and to start turning out trucks in the next year. The company has been funded to date through an undisclosed amount of private investment.

Within five to 10 years, Brown thinks the company can add another plant to manufacture the company’s second vehicle, an all-electric work utility vehicle, going after 15 percent to 20 percent of the market share.

“That would make us a $5 billion company in terms of annual sales,” he said.

The company wants to build a nationwide customer base in the short term and is also exploring building a third assembly plant in northern Europe, Brown said.

The secondary vehicle, which the company hopes to have in production by mid-2011, would have a smaller profile and greater driving range than the delivery truck, which is expected to be in production by mid-2010, Brown said.

The electric delivery truck has a price point of about $100,000, pre-rebate, Brown said, compared to a diesel truck which retails for about $60,000. He said Boulder EV’s trucks pay for themselves at the end of year three, but adoption of the new technology could be slower to take hold.

“I don’t think the market has gotten there yet to understand there is a demand,” he said.

Potential customers could include delivery fleets like UPS and Frito-Lay and smaller delivery or plumbing companies, Brown said.

“We’re speaking to several of the major delivery companies,” said Brown, without naming which ones.

The company’s main competition comes from two British companies, Coventry, UK-based Modec and Smith Electric Vehicles, with offices in the Netherlands, Ireland, the UK and Arizona. Both companies are already manufacturing and selling their vehicles.

Brown said Boulder EV uses more than 7,000 small cell lithium-ion batteries, while Modec and Smith use large format batteries. With large format batteries, Brown said if one battery fails, the whole pack can become out of balance. Large format batteries are also harder to keep at ideal temperatures.

“We have proprietary battery design so each one is heated and cooled equally, which extends the lifetime and the performance of them,” he said, adding that its packs have a lifetime of about 12 years. He wouldn’t name the supplier.

Other companies making smaller electric trucks include Miles Electric Vehicles, which in 2007 debuted its ZX40ST open-air truck, a low-speed vehicle powered by a 72-volt battery system, providing 60 to 70 miles per charge and more than 500 pounds of cargo capacity. The company manufactures its vehicles in China (see Miles Electric debuts small truck).

Santa Rosa, Calif.-based electric vehicle maker ZAP also makes its Xebra cars and pickups, manufactured in Shandong, China (see ZAP: Low price, not top speed, drives electric vehicle market, First ZAP Xebras roll off the line in China, Electric vehicle maker ZAP inks deal with Chinese carmaker).

In 2007, Hauppauge, N.Y.-based Odyne and Waukesha, Wis.'s Dueco announced the first plug-in hybrid aerial lift truck, also known as a cherry picker or bucket truck (see Odyne, Dueco make first plug-in hybrid aerial lift truck).

Boulder Electric Vehicle is one of 25 potential new investment opportunities the Cleantech Group added to its innovation pipeline this week, available exclusively to members of the Cleantech Network. Members can click here to search the database.

Interested in emerging cleantech innovations? Here are two new international companies added to the Cleantech Group's database this week also looking for funding:

• Kalamazoo, Mich.-based Venomix is seeking $10.2 million in a Series B round of financing. The startup is developing environmentally friendly insecticides based on spider venom for public health, animal health and agricultural markets. Venomix plans on using the round of funding to continue its research and development efforts with three spider-venom peptides. Last week, the company raised $1.8 million in convertible financing to tide it over until raising its Series B round (see BRIC’s eyes on hydro as sector draws $600M).
• Boulder, Colo.-based Cool Energy is seeking $5 million in a Series A round. The company is developing a combined heat and solar thermal power system expected to allow commercial and residential energy users to reduce their energy bills by up to 60 percent. Cool Energy plans on using the current round of funding to assemble and test several pilot systems, and increase marketing efforts.

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