ELECTRIC TRUCKS * WORLDWIDE

* Electric, Hybrid Cargo Van Makers Looking for Interested Fleet Buyers

CO,USA -Environmental Leader -March 4, 2010: -- US corporate fleets buy about 300K vehicles a year. Expected to be steadfast electric vehicle customers including cargo vans... Commercial trucks account for 12% of miles driven but produce 25% of all emissions, said Azure Dynamics CEO... Sector likely to take advantage of emissions reductions possible by using electric, electric/hybrid vehicles... Company makes electric drive trains for hybrid commercial fleet vehicles... Ford has similar expectations... Companies making frequent deliveries expected to be among 1st customers for Ford Transit Connect electric van, has top speed of 75 mpg, can go about 80 miles on a charge...


* Bright Automotive Moves to All-Electric Vehicles with USPS Contract

AutoblogGreen, by Sebastian Blanco -March 5, 2010: -- ZAP won a big fleet contract w/ US Postal Service; now Bright Automotive has won a similar deal... Will do electric truck conversion for part of post office national fleet of Long Life Vehicles... Unlike Bright Automotive's IDEA plug-in hybrid, LLV conversion will be a pure electric... Once delivered in July of this year, truck will be tested in Washington, DC area for a year... IDEA is a lightweight, aerodynamic, all-aluminum light commercial vehicle... Some of same enabling technology developed on IDEA to be directly applied to EV propulsion conversion of LLV...


* Royal Dutch Shell: Forty Percent Global Fleet to be Electric Vehicles

USA - Reuters -March 4, 2010: -- Royal Dutch Shell CEO says electricity-powered vehicles will account for up to 40% worldwide car market by 2050... Peter Voser spoke at Wall Street Journal's ECO:nomics conference in Santa Barbara... Said technological improvements, increases in cost of producing gasoline give boost to vehicles using alternative power... Believes that by 2050, about 40% of 2B cars will be electric... Market needs low-carbon fuels, more efficient engines, and hybrids, he said... Gasoline demand in developed countries has started to decline... Partly as vehicles running on alternative fuels have entered market... Companies like Shell, BP spending more money on those newer technologies, including next-generation biofuels... Automakers racing to launch electric cars, betting these will be future environmentally-friendly transportation... Shell investing 25% of its research and development budget into renewables, including wind power, biofuels... Shell has bet big on ethanol in deal w/ Brazil's Cosan to create $21B / year ethanol joint venture
Joint venture will have 4.5K filling stations nationwide... Position Cosan and Shell to compete w/ 2 top players in the market, Petrobras and Ipiranga...