The typical Miles Electric Car is a neighborhood electric vehicle (NEV).
The sturdy slow speed EVs have been around for some years.
They come in two flavors: the Miles ZX40S Car and the Miles ZX40ST Truck.
They are mostly manufactured in China.
The car and truck have similar model numbers, and platforms.
The truck is about 10% heavier than the car, with correspondingly less range, 35miles for the truck vs.
45 miles for the car.
Cost for both is around $20,000.
That is higher than the Zap NEV for example, though the Miles is well built.
Both are powered by good old lead acid batteries.
This is fast becoming a dated power source for electric vehicles.
Fast forward to 2010; Miles is pulling ahead with the Miles Coda powered by a 100kW motor supplied by an advanced 34kWh Lithium Battery pack.
The car is expected to first sell to Californians sometime late in 2010.
The Coda weighs in at around 3,600 lbs which improves the power to weight ratio considerably over the ZX40 class.
The target market for the Miles is likely to be the same as for the Nissan Leaf.
For information, the Leaf has posted some 19,000 pre-orders already.
Interestingly, a recent survey shows that it turns out that people purchasing the Leaf might be former Prius owners.
Since the Coda and the Leaf share similar power, range and price levels, it appears that they may also be sharing the same market.
Miles has news stating construction of a new plant in Ohio if support funding from the US Department of Energy comes through.
The Miles Coda is designed and managed in the US, but many if not most of its components are manufactured in China.
Likewise, Miles has teamed up with the Chinese concerns Lishen Lishen Power Battery and Lio Energy Systems to produce their batteries.
Lio would operate the plant should the Government funding come through.