Phoenix SUT - too good to be true?

[aviken]

From:
http://ww.autobloggreen.com/2007/02/28/pgande-adds-four-phoenix-suts-to-their-ev-fleet/

"Phoenix's SUT can travel at freeway-speeds while carrying five passengers and a full payload. The SUT exceeds all specifications for a Type III ZEV, having a driving range of over 100 miles, can be recharged in less than 10 minutes and has a battery pack with a lifespan of more than 12 years."


100 mile range and can be charged in 10 minutes? I think they are stretching the truth a little here!

[Stew-2]

It would be interesting to see what the GVWR is. I bet that with 5 passengers you could only carry a few more pounds, giving you a "full" payload before you exceed the GVWR.

Stew.

[Eletruk]

They are using the Altairnano batteries, which apparently don't overheat when you dump a huge amount of energy into them. The energy density is lower than regular Lithium Ion - closer to NiMH, but if they can actually take a 10 minute full charge, I would be cool with that. They sell a special charger to be able to charge that much energy, and also it's why they have only been selling to fleets. The charger is probably as much as a couple of the trucks, and you have to have industrial grade power to run it. On their site they claim vehicle gets 3.714 miles per kilowatt hour, so 100 miles uses 26.925 kilowatt hours. So that would be 56 Amps at 480V for an hour, but this is 10 minutes, so that would be 6 times that or 336 Amps, pretty much a small machine shop would have that kind of service (just don't be running any other equipment). Yep, found it on their site, 480V 3 phase 500 Amp circuit: http://www.phoenixmotorcars.com/why-choose-phoenix/faq.php

Looking at their site they do make a total B.S. claim about NiMH:
"These batteries are intolerant of full-charge and discharge cycles, which make electric vehicle usage inappropriate. Toyota demonstrated this with the RAV4-EV, their NiMH-powered production electric vehicle. Toyota manufactured approximately 800 RAV4 EVs through 2002 and could not demonstrate the NiMH battery was suitable for electric vehicle purposes."
http://www.phoenixmotorcars.com/why-choose-phoenix/battery-comparison.php

They are supposed to be in production and delivering vehicles to fleet customers.

[rjf]

More information about this vehicle can be found here: http://www.seattleeva.org/wiki/Phoenix_Motorcars
Feel free to add news articles to the list on that page or here within the forums.

[aviken]

Thanks Ryan - the Wiki page has a ton of great links to articles & other information on Phoenix!