Oct. 31--Smith Electric Vehicles will not partner with Ford Motor Co. to build a battery-powered light commercial van in Kansas City next year, but instead will focus on assembling medium-size delivery trucks.

Bryan Hansel, chief executive of SEV U.S. Corp., said it was a mutual decision by the new British-American firm, which began operations this month at Kansas City International Airport, and Ford to drop plans for a plug-in version of the Ford Transit Connect.

The move will let Smith Electric concentrate on its "core business" -- the Smith Newton electric truck. The firm has 255 orders for the Smith Newton being assembled here and has produced nine vehicles. The vehicle can travel up to 100 miles between rechargings and haul more than 8 tons.

"We're extremely excited because we believe we're in a strong position to own the cab-over-truck market," Hansel said Friday.

The Ford Transit Connect, which uses a car-based chassis, posed development and competitive challenges that Smith Electric and its British associate, The Tanfield Group, decided to avoid. Darren Kell, chief executive of Tanfield, issued a statement saying building the Smith Newton was a better use of the company's financial resources.

The company said it "was concerned that the market for electric-car-derived vans would become increasingly competitive."

Ford confirmed the parting was mutual and said it has a new deal with Azure Dynamics Corp. of Oak Park, Mich., to build the Transit Connect.

"While both companies are committed to ensuring the success of their electric vehicle product lines, it became clear that our companies were pursuing different markets and we would better achieve our goals individually or through different partnerships," Ford spokeswoman Jennifer Moore said in a statement.

Smith Electric said it planned to develop a prototype electric delivery van for testing by the Postal Service. The firm will collaborate with AM General, based in South Bend, Ind. The Postal Service operates 178,000 gas-powered vans.

AM General will manufacture the chassis, and Smith Electric will supply the electric drive train, which includes the motor, battery pack, electronics and ancillary systems.

As for the long-term future of Smith Electric in Kansas City, Hansel said the firm's preference was to stay. It has a one-year lease on a former aircraft maintenance building at KCI but wants to build a full-scale plant.

City development officials said they believed that other states, particularly Michigan, would be courting the company hard with incentives for that bigger investment.

"It's ours to lose," Hansel said, adding that development officials over the last two months have stepped up efforts to keep Smith Electric in Kansas City.

To reach Kevin Collison, call 816-234-4289 or send e-mail to kcollison@kcstar.com.

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