PLUG OK license plate
Odyne: Long Island, NY PHEV Bus Company
Nov 13, 2006 (From the CalCars-News archive)
CalCars-News
This posting originally appeared at CalCars-News, our newsletter of breaking CalCars and plug-in hybrid news. View the original posting here.
Want more? Become a subscriber to CalCars-News:


PHEVs are great for large vehicles, as Prof. Andy Frank has shown with large SUVs. Odyne Corp is the first company in business building PHEV buses. Below are a of press releases (most recent first), including a December 6 event where they'll be introducing PHEVs to state legislators in Albany, and at the end, a news story profiling the company.

http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp? ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20061113005033&newsLang=en

Healthy Environment-Healthy Economy conference

HAUPPAUGE, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Odyne Corporation (OTCBB:ODYC) CEO Roger M. Slotkin will speak at the "Healthy Environment-Healthy Economy" conference, which will be held at the New York State Legislative Office Building in Albany on December 6th, 2006. Mr. Slotkin will explain the importance of "Hybrid and Plug-In hybrid electric propulsion technology" directly to New York State legislators and to the staffs of various state agencies. A number of influential policy makers are expected to attend. Mr. Slotkin will be part of the "Green Transportation" panel along with Dr. Neil Murphy, President of the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, and Mr. Tim Gilchrist, Chief of Transportation Strategy at NYS Department of Transportation.

The "Healthy Environment-Healthy Economy" conference, organized by the Citizens' Environmental Coalition, seeks to bring together decision makers from state government, academia, high technology, transportation planning, and public policy in order to raise awareness of the connection between green technology and the benefits resultant with its use, highlighting the economic development potential that New York State can reap by being a high technology/green technology leader.

The goal of the planners is to facilitate a safe and sustainable future for New York State by using homegrown transportation technology options and building techniques to keep the state "clean and green," and also create new jobs in the process. Odyne's hybrid electric propulsion system provides an effective response to the conference's primary questions: "What are some of the most promising opportunities that exist today for building a safe and sustainable economy? What are the most important challenges?"

About Odyne Corporation

Odyne Corporation is a clean technology company that develops and manufactures propulsion systems for advanced Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles for medium and heavy-duty trucks and buses by integrating its proprietary electric power conversion, electric power control and energy storage systems with a range of off-the-shelf components including electric motors and storage batteries. Odyne's Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle systems are series configuration hybrids that offer customers significant advantages when compared to the more familiar parallel architecture found in hybrid passenger cars. Odyne's environmentally friendly and cost-effective Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle systems allow vehicles to operate at lower costs and with lower vehicle emissions.

Odyne goes public
By Henry E. Powderly II
Long Island Business News
Wednesday, October 18, 2006 12:26 PM EDT
http://www.libn.com/­breakingNews.htm?articleID=6118

HAUPPAUGE - Hybrid engine maker Odyne Corp. went public Wednesday in a reverse merger with Roseland, N.J.-based shell company Technology Integration Group. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, though Odyne said in a statement it raised $3.1 million through a private placement related to the merger.

In a reverse merger, a private company agrees to be taken over by a public shell company, and then takes over control of the business. In this case, Odyne assumed Technology Integration's ticker TING on the Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board. But company spokesman David K. Waldman said Odyne is expected to announce a change in its ticker symbol soon. Shares of TING were trading at $1.36 per share in afternoon trading.

Hauppauge-based Odyne specializes in plug-in hybrid electric propulsion systems for trucks and transit vehicles like school buses and garbage trucks.

In July, the Long Island Power Authority contracted Odyne to convert a 40-passenger Metropolitan Transportation Authority bus to run on a plug-in hybrid engine. That project cost LIPA $2 million. The Towns of Hempstead, North Hempstead and Oyster Bay are converting several buses and garbage trucks to hybrid.


October 18, 2006 09:00 AM Eastern Time Odyne Corporation Acquires Technology Integration Group in Merger Transaction

Merger Coincides with $3.1 Million Private Placement http://home.businesswire.com/­portal/­site/­google/­index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20061018005509&newsLang=en

HAUPPAUGE, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Technology Integration Group, Inc. (OTCBB:TING) announced today the closing of a $3.1 million private placement and the concurrent merger with Odyne Corporation, a Long Island-based plug-in hybrid electric propulsion system design firm and manufacturer. The combined company will operate under the name Odyne Corporation and will assume and execute Odyne's business plan as its sole business. Odyne's shares will be initially quoted on the OTC Bulletin Board under the trading symbol "TING."

Odyne has created innovative hybrid electric vehicle technology which can be applied to Class 6, 7 and 8 vehicle platforms, including medium and heavy-duty trucks, transit and school buses, refuse trucks and utility vehicles. Odyne's plug-in hybrid electric drivetrain system can be utilized as an all-electric vehicle, or as a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (known as PHEV technology), utilizing conventional fuels such as diesel or gasoline, or the "clean" domestic American fuels of natural gas, bio-diesel or propone.

Odyne believes the fuel agnostic and plug-in capability of its systems sets Odyne apart from its competitors, and provides users with an environmentally-friendly vehicle with lower emissions and lower operating costs. Additionally, the "plug-in" capability allows fleet operators to utilize electrical energy from the "grid," which is generally produced from domestic fuels and is currently cheaper per mile than conventional fuel, and believed to be more efficient and cleaner.

Odyne believes market demand for its system will be driven by uncertainties regarding world petroleum reserves, the influence of unstable and unfriendly governments on world oil production, the imperative to attain clean air requirements and reduce greenhouse gas emissions and maximizing the ability to shift from imported fuels to domestic energy sources.

Odyne is led by Roger M. Slotkin, Chief Executive Officer, and Joshua A. Hauser, President and Chief Operating Officer, with a combined 65 years of business experience in technology and finance, along with system designers and company founders Joseph M. Ambrosio, Executive Vice President of Engineering and Chief Technology Officer, and Konstantinos Sfakianos, Executive Vice President of Operations. The company's business and growth strategy encompass proprietary battery management technology, unique systems architecture, and a modular/scalable configuration for application to municipal and private fleet transportation needs.

Roger M. Slotkin, Odyne's Chief Executive Officer, commented, "The private placement and merger transactions are significant to Odyne. They give us the resources to fill existing orders for the plug-in hybridization of transit buses, refuse trucks and recycling trucks, and enable us to continue to participate in this significant market." Mr. Slotkin continued, "Growth for Odyne is a win, not only for a Long Island company, but for the Long Island region, New York State, our country and our environment. Maintaining the tradition of technology development will bolster economic development in the region, create new jobs and enhance Long Island's reputation as a high-tech leader. Our motto is 'Where technology meets the environment.'"


Diesel-to-hybrid conversion niche gives LI company juice BY TOM INCANTALUPO, Newsday Staff Writer http://www.newsday.com/business/ny-bzcars244945813oct24,0,548292.story

Newsday - Long Island,NY,USA October 6, 2006

A small engineering company tucked away in a Hauppauge industrial park is planning to go public next week to fund an expansion of its business converting noisy, smelly trucks and buses into quiet and cleaner hybrids that run almost entirely on electricity.

Shares in Odyne Corp. are to be available publicly on the Nasdaq market after a "reverse merger," in which the now privately owned 12-person company will be acquired in a stock swap by a public one already in existence but inactive. The technique is an alternative to a formal initial public offering of stock.

"This is to take us to full commercialization," said Odyne chief executive Roger Slotkin, "from a one-at-a-time prototype schedule to a full production schedule."

Founded in 2001 by ex-students from New York Institute of Technology, the company can convert new vehicles or retrofit existing ones.

"Big companies find you a lot more credible when you're public than when you're private," Slotkin said, although a current trend has some public companies such as Long Island's Reckson Associates Realty Corp. going private to avoid investor pressure for short-term gains and eliminate the need to comply with expensive new accounting and disclosure regulations. Slotkin says his company's conversions can cut a diesel vehicle's fuel cost by 30 percent. Conversion costs about $80,000 per vehicle but Slotkin says Odyne's goal is to get it down to about $65,000.

Anthony Pratt, senior manager for global powertrain forecasting at market researcher J.D. Power and Associates, says Odyne's chosen niche in the auto business has huge potential.

"There certainly are opportunities in the market for commercial application [of hybrids] in trucks like delivery, UPS, garbage trucks, where you have frequent stops," said Pratt, who is based in Power's Troy, Mich., office.

But he said Odyne will be competing against giants like General Motors, which is supplying hybrid powertrains for transit buses, though using a somewhat different technology.

Odyne has converted three vehicles to hybrids so far - beginning with a 32-seat transit bus, now being fine-tuned in Odyne's shop on Cabot Court for delivery to the Long Island Power Authority for in-service testing. The second, a garbage-collection truck, sits next to it in the shop, destined for the city of Fresno, Calif. A transit bus for the Town of North Hempstead is in Michigan being fitted with its body, Slotkin said. A fourth vehicle, a garbage truck for Hempstead town, is at a shop being prepared for conversion.

Also in Odyne's pipeline are three garbage trucks and three buses for Huntington Town and three recycling trucks for Oyster Bay Town. The company also is bidding to provide hybrid bucket trucks for LIPA crews and to convert a Blue Bird Corp. school bus into a hybrid diesel-electric.

Unlike hybrid cars and trucks for private use, such as the Toyota Prius, Odyne's vehicles are propelled entirely by electric motors, which are powered by batteries. The vehicles' fossil fuel engines serve only to help recharge the batteries if the charge from plugging in the vehicle overnight is expended.

The Prius and most other hybrids on sale cannot be plugged in, so generators run by their gasoline engines have to provide all of the needed electricity. The gasoline engines also provide most of the propulsion.

Odyne claims to be the only company in the country offering a plug-in hybrid but other companies, including Toyota, are considering it.

Odyne says revenues from its inception to the end of last year totaled $1.5 million. It projects revenues of $300,000 for this year and $4.8 million next year, with profitability beginning in 2008.

Copyright © 2003-09 California Cars Initiative, an activity of the International Humanities Center | Site Map