Filed under: EV/Plug-in
After announcing earlier this year that it would spend over half a billion dollars over the next decade to put 15,000 alternative fuel vehicles into its fleet, AT&T has added its first electric vehicle. The telecommunications giant is one of six big companies adding the Smith Electric Vehicles Newton to their vehicle fleets. This first Newton for AT&T will be put into regular use to evaluate operating costs and performance. Maintenance and repair costs of the electric powertrain (particularly the battery) and the real world range are the biggest areas of interest to AT&T. Maintenance shouldn't be too much of a problem since the EV doesn't need oil changes or other work that conventional vehicles do. Brake pad wear should also be reduced thanks to the regenerative braking.
The Newton is available with either a sodium nickel chloride zebra battery or a lithium iron phosphate battery pack but AT&T has not said which one is being used in its test truck. AT&T has already begun deployment of 8,000 trucks fueled by compressed natural gas along with over 100 hybrid and other alt-fuel vehicles. Over the next decade, over 7,100 gasoline-fueled cars will be replaced by other alternative fuel cars.
[Source: AT&T]
Continue reading Death Star goes electric: AT&T gets first Smith Newton for expanding alt-fuel fleet
Death Star goes electric: AT&T gets first Smith Newton for expanding alt-fuel fleet originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Sat, 01 Aug 2009 13:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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