Electric Vans May Be Making a Comeback

The Department of Energy said Thursday that it has joined with six U.S. utilities in hopes of revving up a largely forgotten automotive market: electric vehicles.

The department, Detroit Edison and General Motors told a news conference that 31 electrified compact vans will be shipped to the United States from GM’s Bedford truck division plant in Luton, England.

The $21,500 mini-vans, which carry GM’s Griffon nameplate, are the first electric vehicles to be mass produced on an assembly line, according to the GM and utility officials. They have a minimum range of 50 miles between eight-hour battery recharges.

There were high hopes for electric vehicles during the oil shocks of the 1970s. But stable gasoline prices and sluggish developments in making lighter, more powerful batteries have kept the electric- vehicle market in the experimental stage. The GM vans, for example, won’t go faster than 50 m.p.h. and contain one ton of traditional lead-acid batteries.

But the utilities say there’s a niche to be tapped in the commercial van market. It is comprised of businesses that own fleets of vehicles that are used primarily in low-speed, stop-and-go urban traffic and are brought back to a central location at night.