As a leading distributor of electric cars, neighborhood electric vehicles (NEV) and light duty on-road trucks in Costa Rica, Electric Cars of Costa Rica will distribute Balqon’s medium and heavy-duty electric vehicles and drive systems, and provide service and parts throughout Costa Rica.
"Costa Rica has been setting the pace among nations for reducing carbon emissions and has declared the ambitious goal of becoming the first country in the world to be carbon neutral," said Balwinder Samra, president and CEO of Balqon Corporation. "Electric Cars of Costa Rica has been leading the effort to introduce new zero emissions technologies to Costa Rica and has extensive experience in NEV inner city delivery vehicle markets."
"In addition to introducing all-electric medium and heavy-duty trucks for transportation of goods and services, we plan to jointly develop both the new and conversion vehicle markets in Costa Rica by providing our proprietary drive system and high-capacity lithium-ion battery packs for use in various vehicle platforms," said Samra.
James Middlebrooks, president and founder of Electric Cars of Costa Rica, commented: "We are excited to deliver to Costa Rica Balqon’s extensively tested and successfully commercialized zero emissions technology for heavy-duty vehicles. We expect these advanced technologies to be quickly adopted by our existing environmentally-conscious customer base of resorts, distribution warehouses, and inner city distribution companies."
Costa Rica is ranked first among the Americas and third in the world in terms of the 2010 Environmental Performance Index. In 2007, the Costa Rican government announced plans for Costa Rica to become the first carbon neutral country by 2021. According to the New Economics Foundation, Costa Rica ranks first in the Happy Planet Index and is the "greenest" country in the world. Also, according to an October 2009 article published by Summa Magazine, Costa Rica is the world’s fourth largest exporter of high technology due to the fact that nearly half of its sales from manufacturing relate to products developed with proprietary technologies.
Electric Cars of Costa Rica represents the third international dealer agreement Balqon has established since the first of the year. In Febuary, Balqon signed Autoelevadores Yale, a leading distributor of material handling equipment and electric vehicles in Argentina. In March, Balqon signed Industrias IVOR, a distributor of trucks, firefighting trucks and equipment, refuse trucks, and heavy machinery for material handling products in Colombia.
Electric Cars of Costa Rica is a distributor of light duty trucks, golf carts, trams and neighborhood electric vehicles. Its customers include local resorts, distribution warehouses, airports, the beverage industry, and state and local governments. Electric Cars of Costa Rica was founded in 2001 and has sales and services locations in the major markets in Costa Rica.
Headquartered in Harbor City, California, Balqon Corporation (OTCBB: BLQN) is a leading developer of heavy-duty electric trucks, tractors and electric drive systems. The company uses its proprietary flux vector control technology to design propulsion systems for 10 to 50 ton capacity vehicles and material handling equipment. Balqon Corporation’s product line of tow tractors built on Autocar LLC chassis are designed to transport containers at ports, marine terminals, rail yards, warehouses, intermodal facilities, military bases and mail facilities. For more information about Balqon Corporation, visit
