Partner Article

German deal for Smith

Electric vehicles maker Smith has won a £500,000 contract to help the German government achieve its carbon-cutting goals.

The company - which is a subsidiary of Washington manufacturer Tanfield - has fitted ten Ford Transits with its EV technology and supplied the finished vans, called Smith Edisons, to Ford of Europe.

Ford of Europe is a partner in the colognE-mobil project in Cologne; the first phase of which will examine the potential benefits of electric commercial vehicles in Cologne, then forecast how they could impact on Germany’s plans to reach its 2020 target.

The vans, which are powered by lithium-ion batteries, are designed for urban operations and can deliver a range of up to 100 miles on a full charge and a top speed of 50mph.

Smith will build seven Edison panel vans for delivery service companies, two Edison minibuses for passenger shuttle services and one Edison chassis cab for municipal use in the city of Cologne.

Kevin Harkin, sales director at Smith said: “We are delighted to be supporting Ford of Europe in this project.

“We believe that commercial electric vehicles have a major role to play in low carbon transport and are confident this research project will reach the same conclusions.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .