Member Info for rob295

Public organisations have to comply with procurement regulations if the contract is over a set value. This is to ensure free and fair access to, and competition for, public sector contracts. As a result normally, all public contracts that are above threshold must be advertised in the Official Journal of the European Union. Transport for London is helping organisations avoid duplication and unnecessary red tape by creating these frameworks. For example, most public organisations may only need to buy a small number of electric vehicles, but collectively, London's public sector can save money and negotiate discounts, by working through the same procurement processes. The companies on the vehicle procurement are: Allied Vehicles, Ashwoods, AVID Vehicles, BMW, Citroen, Electric Motorcycles, EVF SpA, LeasePlan, Mercedes-Benz, Micro-Vett, Peugeot, Smith Electric Vehicles, Tata Motors, The Colt Car Company (Mitsubishi), Toyota and ZAP. Nick Fairholme, Interim Director of Congestion Charging and Traffic Enforcement at TfL, said: "These procurement frameworks will play a key role in achieving the Mayor’s goal to accelerate the uptake of electric vehicles in London. Over the next few months Londoners will begin to see the fruit of this work as branded Source London charge points pop up in public locations across the Capital and increasing number of public and private organisations choosing electric." http://www.egovmonitor.com/node/42848

Sixteen Suppliers Sign Up To Sell Green Vehicles To London Public Sector he Mayor's ambitions to create the electric capital of Europe took a step forward today with an initiative launched to make it easier for public sector organisations to buy electric vehicles at better value rates to make city fleets greener and cleaner. The new electric vehicle procurement framework published by Transport for London, provides a list of 16 pre-approved suppliers and manufacturers which can provide the Greater London Authority group and other public sector bodies with electric vehicles more promptly by cutting out red tape and at competitive rates, helping to save money. This follows the development of a separate procurement framework that is supplying charge points to TfL and its partners quickly and with better value for money helping to boost the delivery the Source London network. This is even set to be used by public organisations in Scotland and East Anglia that have recently registered an interest to buy charge points, showing how the capital is leading the march on electric delivery across the UK. Transport for London is also working with the Clinton Foundation to encourage private organisations to go electric and there are now 20 organisations actively working with them to accelerate uptake. In May this year the Mayor, Boris Johnson, launched Source London, the capital's largest network of charge points. Source London will provide a 1300 network of publicly accessible points by 2013. The new network launched with 150 charge points, which is set to be 180-strong by the end of this month. Existing charge points installed before the launch of Source London are now being retrofitted to become part of the scheme. Use of Source London costs a £100 annual membership fee for limitless re-charges. For more information visit: www.sourcelondon.net. Kulveer Ranger, the Mayor of London's Environment Director, said: “The Mayor wants to make London the electric vehicle capital of Europe and Transport for London's vehicle framework will help achieve this by making it easier for public sector organisations to go electric. This will encourage greener, cleaner choices when the time comes to replace the vehicles being used to carry out important services for Londoners. By using this framework, public organisations can save money off a comprehensive range of electric vehicles and help with our drive to improve London's air quality.”

Not sure they'll get the IPO in by the end of the year... might be optimistic... they'll want the new factories planned and on the way first. That said with an IPO likely within a year you cannot help but wonder why this SP is where it is... at the same prices as the private SEVUS placing valuing the core Tanfield group at zero and assuming that SEVUS will not be worth more in the future.

The most important thing is that they keep improving it and making it better. Smith have an advantage on diesel trucks AND other EV manufacturers in that they understand the limitations of EVs and they now can try to improve them. It sounds like there are a lot of innovations in several areas of which a few will hopefully pay off. I very much doubt all will be used. If they can improve their EVs they can not only put diesels clearly behind them, but also make it difficult for others to compete with other EV trucks.

This article might be of interest: http://www.gizmag.com/antonov-3-speed-transmission-ev/19088/ "Antonov is currently involved in a project with Smith Electric Vehicles in which five prototype electric delivery vans are being developed for commercial applications."

Fuel extension article. Here's part of an article that might be of interest. Fuel range is obviously a key factor to discourage electric vehicle purchases. "StockMarketWire.com - Turnover increased by 273% to £718,000 at Proton Power Systems, the designer, developer and producer of fuel cells and fuel cell electric hybrid systems, in the year ended 31 December 2010. It secured €6,480,000 of new funding from convertible loans (2009: £3,930,000) and its loss was £3,018,000 (2009 Loss: £4,888,000) A convertible loan facility was extended to €7.56m. of which €6.34m. has been drawn down. Proton achieved successful trial results of a fuel cell range extender, developed with Smith Electric Vehicles ("SEV"), and was awarded grant funding worth €9.2m. from the National Innovation Programme ("NIP")" http://www.stockmarketwire.com/article/4157984/Losses-at-Proton-reduced-as-turnover-jumps.html

Looks like a one year timescale to first set of factories up and running and second lot on the way post an-IPO... could be a good year.

Getting more this morning: "He added that the second quarter will be “an inflection point” for revenue generation because several customers are boosting their production now. The good news he wanted to highlight included the start of production for Fisker Automotive’s first car, the Karma, during the first quarter and a deal to supply 5 kilowatt-hour batteries to Smith Electric Vehicles starting in the second half of this year." From: http://gigaom.com/cleantech/a123-systems-posts-lower-sales-widens-loss-in-q1/?utm_source=webworkerdaily&utm_medium=specialtopics

Read what you will into delivery in H2.

WALTHAM, Mass., May 9, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A123 Systems (Nasdaq:AONE), a developer and manufacturer of advanced Nanophosphate® lithium ion batteries and systems, today announced a production agreement with Smith Electric Vehicles to supply battery modules for Smith's portfolio of zero-emission all-electric commercial vehicles. A123 expects to begin shipping its 5kWh automotive-class prismatic modules to Smith for integration into battery packs in the second half of 2011. http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/news.html?d=221238

http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/news.html?d=221361 "Our first quarter results were in-line with our expectations," said David Vieau, CEO of A123 Systems. "Even more importantly, in the first quarter, we commenced volume production of battery systems for Fisker. The ramping of this program reinforces our expectation for a revenue inflection point beginning in the second quarter. We continue to expect strong revenue growth throughout the second half of the year as well, which is supported by our customers already in production, as well as a number of customer programs that are expected to enter production during the year, including BMW, Daimler, and Navistar. Additionally, we advanced our relationship with Smith Electric Vehicles by entering into a production and supply agreement, and we anticipate delivering batteries under this program in the second half of this year."

There's talk of a US investor on ADFVN who placed for 50k in the listing... I'd take any comments from that with a pinch of salt... typical minimum buy in was listed as 500k in the documentation... a 50k user would be unusual unless they are not an outside investor which the person does not seem to be. From work using sceptical data the best thing without much data is to use every bit you can and judge each objectively against what else you know taking sources involved with more of a pinch of salt than others. Work what each means and if you see a similar trend it's good if you see volatility sit down and see what fits trying to look from the outside. You can't make bricks without clay....

I'd expect $3-5m... I know we both looked into factory costs regarding Optare and that was a similar ball park. Worst case that's 10 plants at $50m and I imagine site are being identified and plans are being put in place right now... they were probably fairly advanced for the private listing. The 180 days is 6 months so they could be able to start producing 12,500 trucks on one shift each this time next year.... I'd imagine they'd look to start the new sites by around August, September time so they can open by February, March and launch an IPO later next year and do another 10 at about the same time. At 3 shifts $50m worth of plants could be producing 37,500 trucks on three shifts. Roll out another 10 and the upper limit will be 75,000. The big question will be whether it's a US launch or a US and Europe launch.. buying SEVUK as we should probably call it suggests some will be in Europe. At $100m further money to fund what would be another 20 plants taking it up to 32 you'd probably see a $500m+ raising diluting by 20% valuing the stake at $125m... a $1bn listing would value it at $250m. Seems reasonable margin for error there. At 10 plants and just one shift we could see revenues of $125m... maybe profits in the region of about $10m so I think they'd get going with the second IPO as soon as they could to keep the ball rolling. Not much point in waiting for profits till you have 20 plants.

ditto, but this is still a great share to be in... kept a good holding... only selling because opportunities elsewhere are so strong. It's a tough one because this remains very lucrative... especially post IPO.. could be a massive company in the future.

Long term real thing... short term who knows.

This has been expected... 40p wasn't enough... 50p was about right. For the record what I expect to happen is a $200m listing for cash to allow all 20 new sites when it does happen. At a $500m valuation this gives us 32.2% of $300m or about $100m or £66m At a $1bn valuation this gives us 32.2% of $800m or about $267m or £178m. $200m amount may vary, but looks good for us.

I'd put money on it coming to absolutely nothing... been there before. However, it does highlight that the stake is worth £37m, which might have caused interested eyes.

This might be it: "Please respect FT.com's ts&cs and copyright policy which allow you to: share links; copy content for personal use; & redistribute limited extracts. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights or use this link to reference the article - http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8b714788-70d6-11e0-9b1d-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz1Kl7p4jwk Tanfield added 11 per cent to 44p on rumours the maker of aerial work platforms might sell its 32 per cent stake in Smith Electric Vehicles. Tanfield sold its zero-emission vehicles division to Smith Electric at the end of the last year. At the time analysts said the holding it received following the sale was worth £37m. However, it has retained a 32.2 per cent equity stake in Smith Electric which traders reckon could be sold. DDD, the 3D software specialist, moved up 8.3 per cent to 39p after revealing the licensing agreement signed with an unnamed chip manufacturer earlier this month was in fact Intel. In response, Canaccord Genuity reiterated its “buy” recommendation “We forecast DDD’s total shipments quadruple to almost 10 million units in 2011 from 2.5 million in 2010 as TV chip shipments accelerate and PC shipments ramp. We expect revenue to more than double to £3.5m in 2011 from £1.3m in 2010, allowing DDD to break even in 2011,” said the broker." The FT rumours don't always lead to much from experience.... I think we can do better without it... had to be at least £2 a share in my eyes.

Well said... but that is what the summer is for... we go enjoy ourselves and the sunshine and when we come back it's hopefully made some progress. If not we're penniless and unable to pay for heating by then of course, but I suspect we can avoid that investing here.

If it goes down again I'll be putting the blame squarely at your feet for trying it twice... ever heard of jinxing something?