Southern California Edison, Toyota Announce `Triple Crown' Electric Vehicle Alliance
12 December 1997
Southern California Edison, Toyota Announce `Triple Crown' Electric Vehicle Alliance
ORLANDO, Fla., Dec. 12 -- Southern California Edison
, an Edison International company, and Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A.,
Inc., announced today a winning "Triple Crown" alliance in the race to bring
zero-emission electric vehicles (EVs) to market. The three-pronged
arrangement involves:
* Toyota making RAV4-EV leases available on a personal-use basis to
employees of Southern California Edison, as well as to other Edison
International employees;
* Southern California Edison providing service and maintenance for Toyota
EVs; and,
* a utility agreement to lease 80 RAV4-EVs for fleet use over the next
year.
The announcement was made during kickoff events for the 14th International
Electric Vehicle Symposium and Exposition, being held through Dec. 17 at Walt
Disney World.
"We are delighted to offer Edison employees the opportunity to be among
the first to drive a quality Toyota EV," said Wendy James, Southern California
Edison's manager of electric transportation. "We are hopeful that our
employees' positive experiences will encourage Toyota to make the RAV4-EV
available to other consumers in the retail market."
"Toyota is proud of the relationship we have built with the member
companies of Edison International," said Al Cabito, TMS vice president of
sales administration. "With its long-life batteries and advanced packaging,
we believe the RAV4-EV is the perfect vehicle for our commercial fleet
partners, and with the assistance of Edison employees we hope to learn what it
takes to be successful in the retail EV market."
Southern California Edison will also provide normal maintenance, warranty
and other repairs as necessary to the utility's fleet. Edison engineers,
technicians and battery specialists will undergo Toyota service training in
early 1998.
Another industry first was Southern California Edison's recent agreement
with Toyota to lease 80 RAV4-EVs. Under the arrangement, announced in
November, Toyota will deliver 30 EVs to Edison by year-end 1997 and 50 in
1998. This major delivery represents about half of the number of zero-
emission vehicles that Edison will purchase in the next year.
"Toyota offers a quality product in terms of fleet operations and driver
missions," said Jim Scheidler, an EV engineer with Southern California Edison.
"With more than 10 years of EV fleet maintenance experience, our
Transportation Services Department plans to integrate these vehicles into the
Edison fleet for `real world' use by meter readers, service managers, field
representatives, service planners, mail handlers, security patrols and
carpools."
The Toyota RAV4-EV is Toyota's first production EV and is based on the
popular and versatile RAV4 sport utility vehicle platform. Powered by
advanced nickel-metal hydride batteries, the RAV4-EV can travel up to 125
miles on a single charge at speeds up to 78 mph. With four doors and seating
for five, the vehicle offers true utility for a variety of fleet applications.
The RAV4-EV is available to fleet buyers in selected states nationwide.
"We are hopeful that our alliance with Toyota will spur continued
development of our other utility partnerships, as well," said James. "As
pioneers in the EV field, we at Edison view our relationship with Toyota as
one that builds upon an already strong foundation: We have a sizable and
growing utility fleet, we're a premier proving ground for all the major
automakers' prototype EVs, and we maintain third-party EV service agreements
with other manufacturers, including General Motors."
Edison has logged nearly 1 million miles on its fleet of EVs, one of the
largest in the country. The state-of-the-art EV fleet also includes vehicles
from Chrysler, Ford, GM, Honda and Nissan.
Southern California Edison is one of six Edison International companies.
It is the nation's second largest investor-owned electric utility, serving
more than 11 million people in a 50,000-square-mile area within central,
coastal and Southern California. The other Edison International companies are
Edison Mission Energy, Edison Capital, Edison Source, Edison EV (Electric
Vehicles) and Edison Select.
SOURCE Southern California Edison
