does tanfield have 2 good businesses ( smith electrics and upright)which are good value for the medium to long term hold ?

It is worth noting, from the Electric Drive Transportation Association website, the following list of 'guests' at the Washington event:-

Members of Congress, leaders from the Department of Energy, Department of Transportation, General Services Administration, the U.S. Postal Service, and other honored guests at this historic event.

The U.S. Postal Service have been purchasing ev's from Ford and Chrysler for some years now and are due to begin using a fleet of 250 Chrysler battery mini vans. There has, apparently, been a U.S. Postal Van parked at Tanfield for a while. Although not stated, it could be presumed that they will include a few Smith Newtons in their fleet, otherwise unless purely to appear to be supporting 'green', why would they be included in the Washington party?

http://www.usnews.com/blogs/washington-whispers/2009/07/27/electric-trucks-arrive-on-capitol-hill.html

RNS Number : 4115W
Tanfield Group PLC
28 July 2009



28 July 2009




The Tanfield Group Plc ('Tanfield')




FIRST TANFIELD ELECTRIC TRUCKS DELIVERED TO MAJOR US CORPORATIONS




Smith Newton electric trucks will be delivered later today to six customers, including four Fortune 500 Companies:




Pacific Gas and Electric Company

Coca-Cola

Staples

Frito-Lay

AT&T

Kansas City Power & Light




Smith Electric Vehicles US Corporation will today deliver electric trucks to six customers in North America, including four Fortune 500 companies, at a launch event in Washington DC.




Coca-Cola, Staples, Frito-Lay, AT&T, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) and Kansas City Power & Light (KCP&L) will become the first customers to take delivery of the Smith Newton truck. In total they have committed to an initial 30 seed vehicles.




Newton was launched in the UK by Smith Electric Vehicles, a trading division of The Tanfield Group Plc, in 2006. Newton is produced in North America by Smith Electric Vehicles US Corp, based in Kansas City, Missouri.




Darren Kell, CEO of The Tanfield Group Plc, said: 'The electric vehicle technology delivered to these customers today can readily be delivered to fleets in every major town and city in North America.




'The Smith Newton provides depot-based truck fleets with a realistic, zero emissions transport solution that both lowers greenhouse gas emissions and helps improve air quality in our urban centres.'




Missouri Senator Kit Bond, who is hosting today's launch event, said: 'These next generation electric vehicles Smith is producing demonstrate exactly the kind of technology we need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and end our dependence on foreign oil.




'Missouri is a growing leader in exciting new battery technology, making it an ideal partner for all-electric vehicle manufacturing.'




For further information:


The Tanfield Group Plc +44 (0)845 1557 755
Darren Kell, CEO
Charles Brooks, FD

Arbuthnot Securities +44(0)20 7012 2000
Nomad and Broker
James Steel

This is semi "Good News" - for this tiddler, but shows that saving the planet is still a PR effort in USA.

These US-companies are taking delivery of - ( is it ONE, each?), so they can get publicity - and that their Brand will be broadcast hither and thither. Let's hope TAN/Smiths manage to get their name in there, somewhere. I note the total is 30-vehicles, but there is no mention of the time-frame....let's hope it features completion this financial year, eh?

+++ It does mean there is no-one else that satisfies the best "Green" niche, so that is the message I take. To that extent it's good, but needs careful work so the next delivery is one more of many.

Current sp 66p, is a tad below the CONsolidation, but rising.

http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/political-fix/political-fix/2009/07/a-plug-for-these-missouri-made-trucks/

Hopefully Roy Stanley's TAN/SEV in tray is full!


RNS Number : 5287W
Optare PLC
30 July 2009




Optare plc
(the 'Company' or 'Optare')

Directorate Change


Roy Stanley, the Company's principal shareholder and former Chairman, has informed the Board that, in order to devote more time to his other business interests and in order to avoid any future potential conflicts of interest, he no longer wishes to stand for re-election at the Company's Annual General Meeting ('AGM') which is to be held later today. Accordingly he will retire from the Board immediately post the AGM.

Roy Stanley was the creator of today's Optare business, when he reversed Darwen Group into Optare in June 2008, and will remain as the Company's largest shareholder. The Board would like to thank Roy for his hard work and dedication to the Company over the last few years.

Nissan rolls out new electric car

From The Independent:-

Warning: Oil supplies are running out fast
Catastrophic shortfalls threaten economic recovery, says world's top energy economist.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/warning-oil-supplies-are-running-out-fast-1766585.html


All the more reason to go electric then! :o)

SEV US & Tanfield are now recruiting staff.

RNS Number : 9150W
Tanfield Group PLC
05 August 2009



The Tanfield Group PLC
('Tanfield', or 'the Company')

5 August 2009

Tanfield Completes Negotiations over US Associate

Further to its announcement of 6th February 2009 Tanfield is pleased to announce that it has now entered into a licence agreement (the 'Licence') and shareholders' agreement ('Agreement') with its US Associate, Smith Electric Vehicles US Corporation (SEV US Corp).

Under the Agreement and following the completion of the SEV US Corp fundraising (the 'Fundraising'), which is expected to be closed shortly, Tanfield will hold 49% of the equity of SEV US Corp. In addition, to protect Tanfield's shareholding from dilution, Tanfield has been issued with a warrant with an exercise price of $0.01 per share over 49% of the aggregate of: (i) any shares issued pursuant to SEV US Corp's 2009 Incentive Compensation Plan and (ii) any SEV US Corp's shares issued pursuant to the Fundraising with a value of over $7,500,000 and up to $15,000,000.

In exchange, pursuant to the Licence Tanfield licenses Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), brand and all existing sales and sales enquiries in North America. Additionally, SEV US Corp will pay Tanfield a royalty calculated as 2% of the sales price of each vehicle up to 1m, and 1% per vehicle thereafter with an immediate advance against royalties of 1 million, the license can only be terminated in the event of non payment of royalties and non performance.


Nice. Very nice.

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/us-department-of-energy-awards,916991.shtml

Interesting times !

Getting more interesting!

http://movementbureau.blogs.com/projects/smith-electric/

Back to 12p (pre 1:5)

Interesting article:
Published: Tuesday, September 15, 2009 at 3:30 a.m.
Last Modified: Monday, September 14, 2009 at 10:29 p.m.
FRANKFURT | Sales have plunged, General Motors Co. has emerged from bankruptcy and Chrysler has been taken over by Italy's Fiat. The past year's turbulence will be reflected this week in a smaller U.S. presence at the Frankfurt Auto Show along with the new electric vehicles many hope will secure the auto industry's post-recession comeback.

GM's Cadillac brand won't have a presence in the sprawling Frankfurt Messe exhibition center when the show opens to the news media today, and Chrysler's Dodge and Jeep have moved to the Fiat SpA stand.

And GM's European brands, Opel and Saab, will only serve to remind that GM is selling them. Other notable absences include Mitsubishi, Honda and Nissan's Infiniti, which are instead focusing on the upcoming Tokyo Motor Show.

Industry observers and the public will focus on advances in electric cars and hybrids, and for improvements that might bring the vehicles into the mainstream. They'll also look for clues about forthcoming small-car offerings from U.S. carmakers aiming to improve their line of fuel-efficient vehicles.

Top new product offerings include four new electrics from Renault, with one headed for consumers by 2011, including one with no internal combustion engine at all; a hybrid Mercedes B-Class, called the F-Cell, which sports a fuel cell and an electric motor; and the first plug-in version of Toyota's Prius hybrid, meaning its batteries can be charged from a household outlet.

GM will tout its Chevrolet Volt, a plug-in electric which uses an internal-combustion engine to extend its range beyond the standard commuting distances its batteries are designed to handle.

Those cars are headed for consumers soon, but BMW AG gives a look farther down the road with its low-slung supercoupe, the Vision Efficient- Dynamics. It's a high performance, plug-in diesel-electric hybrid powered by a three-cylinder 1.5-liter turbo engine, and by not one, but two electric motors, one for the rear wheels, one for the front.

The BMW coupe is a concept car, designed to show designs and technology that might or might not be reflected in production models in coming years.

Those looking for an idea of U.S. automakers' small-car offerings can look at Ford's redesigned C-Max, as the company beefs up its small-car arsenal globally.

Ford said it hasn't scaled back at the show, as its European division vehicles are better sellers than GM and Chrysler brands.

'Ford in Europe is dominant there,' said Stephanie Brinley, senior manager at AutoPacific Inc., a U.S- marketing and consulting firm. 'Chevy has a presence but Opel is GM's volume brand.'

Opel has a new version of its Astra, its mainstay in European markets. The Astra will also give a preview of GM's plans for small cars in the United States. While GM has announced plans to sell 55 percent of its European subsidiary to parts supplier Magna International, it will keep a minority stake so it can keep developing small and medium sized cars with Opel. The Astra uses an architecture Opel developed for GM to use in small cars worldwide, including the Volt.

'There will be an electric car at almost every stand,' at this year's Frankfurt show, Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer, an industry expert at the University of Duisburg-Essen said, although it would be some time before they are on the production line and in dealer show rooms.

'Like in hybrids, the Japanese are ahead of the Germans in electric cars,' he said. 'One of the reasons is the battery technology which in Japan is systematically further developed.

'Another reason is Germans' strength in diesel,' Dudenhoeffer said. 'Large parts companies like Robert Bosch, for example, are behind the curve in batteries and electric cars,' compared to the Japanese, he said.

He said Toyota has already built its 2 millionth hybrid car this year an important link in the electric car chain while Daimler's Mercedes S400, the only German hybrid on the market so far, has built less than 200 of the cars to date.

In August, Nissan Motor Co. in Japan unveiled the Leaf, an electric car scheduled to go into mass production for a global market in 2012. And U.S. President Barack Obama committed $2.4 billion in federal grants to develop next-generation electric vehicles and batteries in the U.S.

Last month, Germany's government said it would spend about $730 million over the next three years on a plan to put 1 million electric cars on the road by 2020, including about $250 million into battery research.

The heavy batteries that take the place of international combustion engines and gasoline are expensive to produce, and countries like South Korea and Japan are far ahead in research and development. Improving them is key.

Analysts expect global production of purely electric cars to expand rapidly in the coming years. IHS Global Insight forecast that it will grow from nearly 9,500 this year to more than 58,000 in 2011.

Organizers said 753 exhibitors are on hand for the event, which will be opened to the public by Chancellor Angela Merkel Sept. 17 and run through Sept. 27.

Matthias Wissman, president of the German Association of Automotive Industry, said that 62 vehicle makers are at the show, with 82 world premieres.

Thanks for that BB :)

Interesting story from the Sunderland Echo, as yet unconfirmed by TAN as far as I can see:-

"Washington firm signs 1m deal to supply electric trucks to Hong Kong

The Echo understands that Washington-based Smith Electric Vehicles part of the Tanfield Group has signed a 1million-plus deal which will give it a foothold in the lucrative Far East market.

The deal was completed at the national Low-Carbon Vehicle Event, held near Milton Keynes late last week.

News of the deal emerged during a visit to Smith's Vigo Lane factory by business minister Ian Lucas."


http://www.sunderlandecho.com/news/Washington-firm-signs-1m-deal.5650826.jp

Half Yearly Report




TIDMTAN

RNS Number : 9066Z
Tanfield Group PLC
30 September 2009

?
The Tanfield Group Plc
("Tanfield", "Group", or "the Company")
Interim Results for the six month period to 30 June 2009
30 September 2009
Tanfield Group Plc, the leading manufacturer of aerial work platforms and
commercial electric vehicles, announces its unaudited interim results for the
six month period to 30 June 2009.
Summary
* Turnover of GBP29.9m (H1 2008: GBP92.8m / H2 2008 GBP52.9m)
* Operating loss of GBP11.0m (H1 2008: Operating profit GBP10.3m / H2 Operating
loss GBP9.0m)
* Net cash at 30 June of GBP10.8m (31 December 2008: GBP11.1m)
* Staff costs reduced by 40% since H2 08

Thanks Skinny - i now know why my price alert triggered this morning !
I've been waiting for a while to get back into these, but somehow not inclined to buy just yet awhile - more fallout possible from those figures i suspect.....