British manufacturer Smith Electric Vehicles has sold 100 electric vehicles to independent dealer Smith Electric Vehicles Ireland, and claims the vehicles will save at least 750,000kg of CO2 per year.
Smith Electric Vehicles Ireland is a partnership between green vehicle retailer Ray Keeley and commercial vehicle importer David Mullen, MD of Avia Trucks Ireland
. Keeley says: "I've been working with Smith Electric Vehicles for over two years now and know that the potential market for zero-emission commercial vehicles in Ireland and Northern Ireland is huge."
A Smith spokesman says: "The vehicles have been sold to the dealership, which has already found customers for quite a few of them. However at this point we are not able to give any names."
The order is made up of both the Newton and Edison vehicles. The Edison is based on the Ford Transit body shell and has a range of 120 miles; the Newton is based on the Avia truck chassis and has a range of 150 miles.
Mullen comments on his new range: "Electric vehicles are still perceived in some quarters as an unknown, but these vehicles are a great deal less complex than the equivalent diesel vans or trucks – there are only a handful of moving parts in an electric driveline, compared
to over 1,000 in the internal combustion engine."
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