private industry battery electric vehicle founded washington tyne and wear united kingdom . 1920 ; 96 years ago 1920 headquarters kansas city missouri washington tyne and wear area served worldwide key people john dixon ceo robin mackie cto products the smith newton website smithelectric.com smith electric united states headquarters and factory in the kansas city overhaul base smith electric vehicles also known as smith s is a manufacturer of zero emission commercial electric vehicles . the company was founded in 1920 in the north of england but in 2011 moved its headquarters to kansas city mo. smith manufactures the largest range of zero emission commercial electric vehicles in the world with gross vehicle weights gvws from 3 500 kg 12 000 kg . it was formerly based in washington tyne and wear smith produces vehicles for the us canadian european and south east asia markets . it was formerly part of the tanfield group plc which trades on the aim market of the london stock exchange . tanfield established a separate company smith electric vehicles us corp sev us corp in 2009 to penetrate the north american market . a delaware corporation . 1 its headquarters is in kansas city missouri . the united states company in march 2010 indicated it wanted to buy out the uk company . 2 contents 1 history 1.1 early years 1.2 north america 1.3 diversification 1.4 development 1.5 2008 1.6 2009 1.7 2010 1.8 2011 1.9 2013 1.10 2014 2 current production vehicles 2.1 newton truck 2.2 step van 3 discontinued vehicles 3.1 edison 3.2 london taxi 3.3 ampere 4 further research and development 5 smithlink 6 smith electric vehicles us corp 6.1 corporate structure 6.2 vehicles 6.3 government support 6.4 locations 6.5 march 2010 smith us bids for independence 7 see also 8 references 9 external links history edit early years edit the company was founded in 1920 as northern coachbuilders in newcastle upon tyne uk . after making a name as a producer of electric trams and trolley buses it moved into road going electric delivery vehicles . smith electric vehicles was born . the name comes from the smith family that founded the business and ran it until 2004 . the family remains in north east england and it still owns ringtons tea engaged in the importation blending and distribution of tea . 3 the smith electric vehicles business in the 1950s and 60s focussed on the milk float a vehicle solely engaged in the doorstep delivery of milk and other dairy products . as the dairies phased out delivery by horse and cart they opted for near silent electric vehicles for their early morning deliveries instead of the noisier ice powered vans and trucks . in the mid 1960s smith launched the smith cabac the first float to have a rear entry cab so the milkman could exit the vehicle on either side . smith produced four series of the cabac ; the 65 75 jubilee 77 and 85 . 4 in 1989 the company acquired wales & edwards . north america edit the company also took its first steps into north america in 1962 . smith delivery vehicles ltd by then based in gateshead signed a partnership with coachbuilder boyertown and the exide division of the electric storage battery of philadelphia pennsylvania in order to produce an electric powered route delivery truck . the boyertown smith connection had been made in the late 1950s when the british firm s managing director was in the united states exploring a partnership with william and james conway the owners of mister softee whose mobile ice cream trucks were built by boyertown . smith eventually secured the united kingdom rights to the mister softee brand from the conways and started producing mister softee electric ice cream floats in 1959 in partnership with a j. lyons & co. subsidiary named glacier foods ltd. the smith family approached the firm with the battronic proposal in 1962 . at that time there were over 14 000 smith electrics in service across the united kingdom and western europe . the new company was organized as the battronic truck corporation . exide s parent company was a producer of motor vehicle traction batteries and smith was a producer of electric delivery vehicles . boyertown s contribution was its high strength lightweight multalloy body . 5 early battronics had a top speed of 25 miles per hour 40 km h and could carry a 2 500 pounds 1 100 kg payload up to 62 miles 100 km on a single charge . the potomac edison company of hagerstown maryland took delivery of the first production battronic in march 1964 . smith withdrew from the partnership in 1966 and battronic ultimately produced and sold fewer than 200 vehicles in its entire 20 year life 1963 1983 . 6 diversification edit a sev hospital utility vehicle in england back in the uk the rise of the supermarket coincided with the end of around half of all milk rounds during the 1990s . citation needed faced with a downturn in orders for its cabac smith diversified into niche vehicles . the smith st range of 7.5 t low speed electric trucks were marketed at low speed municipal operations and interior applications that mandated heavy duty vehicles with zero exhaust emissions . smith st vehicles are used in nuclear power stations 7 large factories 8 and former salt mines converted into records storage facilities . 9 the company rebranded itself as sev group ltd and diversified into fleet management mobile vehicle repair and the sale hire and maintenance of fork lift trucks and materials handling equipment . 10 the tanfield group plc an engineering company also based in north east england acquired sev group ltd in october 2004 for 2.2 m and 1 million new ordinary shares . 11 tanfield immediately restored the historic smith electric vehicles brand name and initiated r & d work to develop new electric delivery vehicles . development edit a proof of concept vehicle called the faraday was launched in october 2005 12 with a top speed of 50 miles per hour 80 km h a range of up to 60 miles 100 km in urban operations and payload capabilities of up to 2 000 kg . 13 built on smith s own all steel chassis the faraday had a gross vehicle weight gvw in excess of 5 000 kg . early adopters such as tnt n.v. and sainsbury s wanted an electric vehicle that better matched uk driving licence restrictions . in the uk anyone with a valid licence can drive a light commercial vehicle up to 3 500 kg gvw . for vehicles between 3 500 kg and 12 000 kg the driver requires a c1 commercial vehicle licence . 14 based on this feedback smith launched the newton 7.5 t truck in 2006 which housed the electric drive line technology in an established truck chassis from avia in the czech republic . 15 leading express and mail operator tnt n.v. took the first newton for assessment in its london fleet . 16 a new production facility for smith electric vehicles was built in washington tyne & wear and was officially opened by prime minister tony blair in february 2007 . he said this will be a company that will really make its presence felt not just in the north east but actually throughout the world . 17 in april the same year smith electric vehicles unveiled the smith edison . based on the ford transit this was the first electric light commercial vehicle to have a gvw of less than 3 500 kg meeting the everyman driving licence requirement of uk fleet operators . 18 first movers to deploy the edison included the retailer sainsbury s and utility company scottish & southern energy . 19 also in april tnt n.v. ordered a fleet of 50 smith newton trucks following its successful trial of the first vehicle in 2006 . 20 smith was one of several electric commercial vehicle companies invited to the department for transport dft in london for discussions on how the uk government might help stimulate the market for commercial electric vehicles . this led to the announcement of the low carbon vehicle procurement programme in the government s energy white paper of may 2007 . 21 during the summer of 2007 smith produced its first vehicles for export which were delivered to tnt n.v. in the netherlands . 22 in december they also showed its newton truck in north america and announced plans to establish a us production facility . 23 2008 edit in 2008 smith appointed its first full service distributor electric vehicles ireland . 24 and in april smith and ford of europe announced an official collaboration on the future development of commercial electric vehicles starting with the smith ampere a pure electric version of the ford transit connect . 25 however by the end of june 2008 smith s parent company tanfield reported the cancellation and postponement of customer orders . in november smith electric was shortlisted for the department for transport s low carbon vehicle procurement programme 26 a subsidy scheme that allowed public sector bodies to buy electric and low carbon vans for the same price as the equivalent diesel vehicle . 27 electric vehicle sales for 2008 were 25.1 m 2007 26.1 m . smith s parent company tanfield cited a combination of supply chain constraints and fleet operators reducing spend in line with their own decline in sales plus the lack of available credit facilities for those who did want to purchase . 28 furthermore the recession also impacted on the company s plans to open a production facility in the usa . 2009 edit after restructuring its operations in line with the downturn in demand in february 2009 tanfield announced the formation of smith electric vehicles us corp smith us a joint venture that is 49 % owned by tanfield with the 51 % majority share owned by private investors and smith us management . 29 along with establishing an associate company in the usa smith adopted a policy of appointing full service distributors in all foreign markets that were offering incentives for evs . the company defines a full service distributor as one who can sell products and also has the technical expertise to provide after sales service and spare parts . in march 2009 smith delivered its first newton electric truck to electric vehicles ireland its official distributor for the republic of ireland and northern ireland . the 10 000 kg vehicle was purchased by building materials retailer grange builders providers of dublin . 30 this was followed by the appointment of allgreenvehicles in the netherlands as the full service distributor for the benelux region . at the geneva motor show ford displayed a concept pure electric people carrier called ford tourneo connect electric a version of the ford transit connect . 31 this prototype was produced by smith electric vehicles . 2009 was also the year that the uk government began funding electric vehicles . in june smith announced that it was one of the successful bidders into the ultra low carbon vehicle demonstrator programme ulcvdp administered by the technology strategy board tsb . 32 this programme provided match funding for the development of demonstrator electric passenger vehicles . smith announced it would produce a seven seat executive minibus ; 10 london taxis based on lti s tx4 chassis ; and five people carriers similar to the concept ford tourneo connect electric that ford exhibited in geneva . the same month the uk government confirmed that smith was one of three electric van manufacturers in the final shortlist of suppliers into the low carbon vehicle procurement programme . 33 in november tanfield announced it was terminating its involvement in the electric ford transit connect project in both north america and europe by mutual consent with ford . 34 smith cited the