Energetique first 100% electric light commercial vehicle, maxEV, has been successfully launched together with RLE International at the 2010 Cenex Low Carbon Vehicle Show (LCVS) at Millbrook UK.

The Cenex LCVS has become a popular industry event since its inauguration three years ago in 2008, showcasing the innovative R&D of world leading automotive OEM’s, technology companies, supply chain, research organisations and universities.

The event gave attendees the opportunity to get behind the wheel of maxEV and experience first hand the latest and greatest in low carbon vehicle technology on a number of tracks within Millbrook Proving Ground.

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This year’s event set out to prove that despite the economic turmoil of the past year, development and deployment of Low Carbon Vehicles is continuing to gather pace.

According to Energetique’s Chief Technical officer Norman Boessler who attended the event, maxEV was extremely well received, with the overall response being ‘I can’t believe it’s an electric vehicle!’

He also felt that the maxEV was well and truly up to the standard of the much larger car companies exhibiting at the event. “It’s fantastic to see Australian technology holding its own on an international stage like this,” he said.

Press Release
15th September 2010

Delivering the Future – 100% Electric

RLE International and Energetique are launching the maxEV, their 100% Electric Light Commercial Vehicle at the Cenex Low Carbon Vehicle Show and Conference on 15th September, at Millbrook Proving Ground.

Since the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding in December 2009, this partnership has set its goals on generating Electric Vehicles for a broad range of mobility applications.

Dr Phil Coop, Managing Director, of Energetique said “We believe our partnership sets us apart from the competition in combining our experience with integrating power-train, battery and grid technology with RLE’s proven track record in vehicle design and development”. He continued “maxEV is a vehicle which can deliver the future for fleet operators, parcel, post and delivery services which need to reduce their carbon footprint and transition away from fossil fuels”.

Proven Technology

The latest offering from this exciting partnership is the maxEV which utilises the robust VW Caddy Maxi as the donor vehicle and applies a derivative of Energetique’s evMe proven power-train technology to deliver a high performance light commercial vehicle with an effective range of 150km (extended up to 200km).

The maxEV platform provides UK and EU fleet operators with a real choice in electrification for their chosen fleet vehicle, with an effective 600kg payload. A customised version of the platform suitable for limited post code pick up delivery routes is currently being investigated with a large fleet operator.

Paul Bridden, Head of Engineering, RLE International UK, points out: “We are really excited about this venture. The automotive industry is entering a new horizon of development. Increasing awareness of corporate social responsibility allied to Government pressure through incentives and penalties are starting to make reducing carbon emissions a high priority item. The resulting focus on reducing use of energy resources and cutting carbon emissions, is creating opportunities for UK businesses to lead the way and become a major players in developing new Green Automotive Technology”. The maxEV platform has been developed with Energetique specifically to meet these requirements for fleet delivery, logistics and ‘in location’ service companies.

Future benefits for a fleet delivery company is that the charge of the maxEV may be optimised to meet the driving needs of the following day. The advanced charging technology being developed will enable fleet operators to migrate towards proactive or prognostic charging and take advantage of variable electricity tariffs. With the phase in of Feed in Tariffs across Europe, the maxEV technology could also allow fleet operators to export the energy stored in the vehicle battery to the grid (Vehicle to Grid or V2G). This will allow fleet vehicles to become a valuable resource in the integrated management of the companies energy needs.

We look to welcome all interested parties to our Ride and Drive on 15th and 16th September, at LCV 2010 at Millbrook.

Supplementary Information

The RLE INTERNATIONAL Group is one of the world’s leading development, technology and consultation service providers to the international mobility, energy and service industries.
We provide, design development and consultancy support and effective solutions for our customers in the fields of Mobility, Services and Energy.
Core Competence areas are in the fields of Vehicles, Drive and Electronics, Product Lifecycle Management and Business Services in the After-Sales environment as well as Wind Industry Engineering.
At our worldwide locations that are close to customers in Europe, North America and Asia we face up to today’s requirements reliably and with a great deal of motivation.

ENERGETIQUE specialises in the design, development, and integration of high density energy storage and energy management systems for the automotive, renewable, and power industries.
Energetique’s innovative power-train, battery and grid integration technologies have already been proven in the 100% electric vehicle, evMe which was released in November 2008. The Energetique technology platform has also been used to power the light delivery van maxEV.

For further information please contact:

Michael Collins
Business Development
RLE International
Mobile 0044 (0) 7966 617 262.
Email: michael.collins@rle.co.uk