Tanfield Soars on Ford Deal

Online Stock Trading - Ford USA Likes Tanfield Electric Vehicles

Ford Likes Electric Cars

Could this be a good time to buy stock in Tanfield (TAN) (not a recommendation just thinking out loud).

Tanfield are a small UK company that makes electric vehicles, you would think therefore in these green energy, renewable energy and pollution-conscious times that they would be raking in the cash, this does not appear to have been the case. The share price has plummeted from 200p to a low of 4p ! If you are into charting you would have fun analyzing this 8 year chart

TANFIELD 8 YEAR CHART



TANFIELD 3 MONTH CANDLESTICK CHART




However, could all this be about to change? One for the long-term investors or the day traders? Or maybe Warren Buffett - the Oracle of Omaha will take a look - he was investing in a Chinese battery company earlier this year.

Tanfield has just announced a collaboration agreement with Ford to develop a battery-driven light van. I would expect a lot of press coverage of this deal, from both Tanfield and Ford and journalists keen to strees the green energy aspect of this deal in the light of Obama's energy-saving and pollution-reduction drive.

This electric vehicle is the first in Ford's electrification strategy for the North American auto market. The van design will be based on the European Ford Transit Connect, which will be available in North America later this year.

Tanfield will be making a limited number of the electric vehicles in North America next year, and production will be increased in future dependent upon demand. The vehicles will be branded by Ford.

The move comes on the heels of the announcement last week by Tanfield of the creation of Smith Electric Vehicles US Corporation. Tanfield has a 49% equity stake in Smith who will manufacture the vehicles under licence.

Darren Kell, Tanfield CEO, said, "The collaboration with Ford and development of the battery-electric Ford Transit Connect demonstrates that Smith Electric Vehicles is the industry leader in commercial electric vehicles."

The share price is up 30% on the news, it was up 40% earlier, and in theory this has got to be seen as good news, the problem of course is that although environmental issues and green energy are being encouraged by Obama, viable electric vehicles always seem to be "just around the corner" and the auto market is going through its worst recession in living memory. This particular van has a range of 100 miles between recharges.

"After scuttling an earlier plan to build trucks in the U.S., a new Tanfield Group announcement reverses that reversal. The company has just incorporated Smith Electric Vehicles (SEV) US Corp. and expects them to begin building copies of the Newton (above) in the U.S. sometime this year. In a shrewd move, Tanfield will hold 49 per cent of the company, thereby allowing the new U.S. majority-owned entity to qualify for government funding and other benefits."

The recent trading statement from Tanfield was all about 'adverse trading conditions' 'difficult markets' 'downsizing' etc...

"As previously notified we experienced much poorer market conditions in the
second half of 2008. The Group had a number of loss-making months before the
impact of cost cutting restored us to a break-even position on a monthly basis,
before exceptional restructuring costs. We were however still able to grow the
Group year on year, with revenues of GBP146.5m."

I will certainly be keeping an eye on Tanfield from now on and Tanfield is certainly back on the radar as far as my stock trading portfolio goes, but I will let the dust settle before jumping in I think. Just a final word the Tanfield website - you need to go to www.smithelectricvehicles.com to see the vehicles.

On another and totally unrelated note - Amazon should be announcing the launch of version 2 of their Kindle Ebook Reader today - a big money-maker for Amazon see Investing in Ebook Readers.

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