Miles Automotive Keeps Shuffling the Deck

As easily evidenced here, the indomitable Miles Automotive group continues to rearrange the chairs on the beautiful large ship with which they are masterfully circumnavigating Atlantic icebergs.

The latest helmsman to join the maritime foray is Big Mac Heller, Former Goldman Sachs Executive, and John Bryson, Government Man extraordinaire. More Stanford, Harvard, and Yale, blah, blah, blah: forgive me Kara Saltness, but it appears that Heller is on board to get banker/investment money and Bryson is there to grease the government. It's cool. Finally a strategy that will work! A bit of a departure from free press releases and terrible SEO, but hey, who's gonna blame'em?

I have a friend that is a paid distributor and he is fed up with the waiting game he says is being played by Miles from day one. The battery issues, the Chinese Quality Control issues, the Deliverable issues, the Deadline issues - you get the point. It's been a helluva ride waiting for the XS500, and we may never actually see one...

You know, something just occurred to me: Big Daddy Mac Heller is a former Goldman Sachs Executive. Really - another one? Mr. Rubin: are you worried that Czinger is stacking the deck against you in preparation for a Haitian-style coup? You've got to watch the Yale guys, you never know who might be Skull-and-Bones! I'm just sayin'...

XS500 by Miles Electric Vehicles

XS500 Electric Vehicle by Miles Automotive
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MILES XS500: Electric Vehicle

XS500 Electric Vehicle by Miles Automotive

The XS500 all-electric sedan by Miles

AFVI 2008: Miles, GEM and Phoenix share EV product line-ups

FROM http://www.autobloggreen.com/ :

This week, at the AFVI Expo, I moderated a panel on the roll-out of electric vehicle products from Miles EV, Phoenix Motorcars and GEM. The representatives were Bryon Bliss, vice president of sales and marketing for Phoenix, Jeff Boyd, COO of Miles, and Richard Kaspar, GEM's president and COO. Oh, and our friend Ed Begley, Jr. was there as well, continuing his relationship with Phoenix.

The purpose of the panel was for each company to present their case not only for EVs but for their particular products. Since these companies all offer vehicles with quite different capabilities and styles, they're not really competitors, and it was a congenial event. Since I expect our readers to be pretty familiar with the vehicle line-ups of these three companies, I won't go into details about them. There were a few things said during the 90 minutes that caught my ear, though, that I think you'll want to hear about.

• The Miles EV offices are in Santa Monica, CA. To commute to work, Boyd drives a prototype of the XS500, Miles' upcoming highway-speed battery-powered sedan. The price target is still $35,000 and deliveries should start in the third quarter of 2009. The sedan will be followed by an electric SUV. I told Boyd that the next time I'm in town, I'll be knocking on the office door, begging for a ride. I mean, it worked for the Roadster.
• Phoenix expects deliveries of its all-electric SUT to start at the end of June (yes, in six weeks). Certification should be finished June 1, Bliss said and the company has orders for 600 vehicles to fill as of today.
• GEM's big news is the addition of new options to the back cargo space of its work trucks. Since GEM vehicles have been selling for over a decade, GEM has had plenty of time to listen to customers and find out what they want/need. New covers and door types are now available, and you can see a list of GEM vehicle options here.

Greentech media was also in the room, and wrote up this account of what happened. Both Miles and GEM had vehicles on the show floor, and I've included galleries of their displays below. The Phoenix photos are from the 2007 AFVI Expo. For those of you keeping score, Zap and Dynasty were nowhere to be found at the Expo this year (unlike last year).

Gallery: AFVI 2008: Miles EV booth

Gallery: AFVI 2008: GEM's new cargo options

Gallery: AFVI Ride & Drive Phoenix SUT

Zero Emissions Work Truck

The zero emissions, AC motor MILES ZX40ST work truck is being showcased publicly for the first time at the Green California Summit at the Sacramento Convention Center now.

“We’re pleased to partner with the Green California Summit as a Gold Sponsor and show the production AC motor ZX40ST for the first time publicly,” says Jeff Boyd, Miles Electric Vehicles COO. “We believe that as the only truly affordable, light duty, all electric LSV truck on the market, the ZX40ST fills a product gap and also performs on par with its gas powered counterparts.”

The MILES ZX40ST, which functions especially well in a fleet environment, is already in high demand with many units pre-sold to university and municipal fleet users throughout the country. Even with a production rate of 200 units per month, the ZX40ST is on backorder until June. With a newly structured sales force that spans the country, the ZX40ST and other MILES vehicles are now available for demonstration nationwide upon request. The base MSRP for the MILES ZX40ST is $18,400, and can be seen on the Web at www.milesev.com.

Founded in 2005 by activist/entrepreneur Miles Rubin and headquartered in Santa Monica, Calif., Miles Electric Vehicles is marketing a line of low speed, all electric cars and trucks, which combine the best of U.S. electric motor and controller technology with China’s advanced battery and vehicle manufacturing capabilities.

http://motorage.search-autoparts.com/

City takes a look at electric cars

SARASOTA - Several electric cars and trucks were on display outside Sarasota City Hall Monday afternoon.

Miles Electric Vehicles produces small cars that reach a top speed of 25 miles an hour. Most are sold to businesses, colleges and cities working to go green...like Sarasota.

"I actually had the chance to talk briefly with Mayor Palmer, and this is the way they're headed. They want more information on the ability to go green in different areas, and automotive is an area they're looking at strongly," says Rusty Evans of Miles Electric Vehicles.

Prices for their small electric cars start at about $19,000.