Electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer Phoenix Motorcars has appointed Edward Monfort, who built the first working electric school bus, as its new senior vice president.

In his new role, Monfort brings a track record of business experience in the electrical, manufacturing, and automotive industries. He has worked on products developed by NASA, Ford dealers, Home Depot, and other large companies around the world, according to a news release from Phoenix Motorcars’s parent company, SPI Energy Co., a global renewable energy company and provider of photovoltaic and EV solutions.

"Ed is a terrific addition to the Phoenix Motorcars team," said Tarek Helou, the company’s chief operations officer. "He brings a level of experience that is extremely difficult to find in a young industry like the EV market. I am confident he will be a great asset to our team, and I look forward to working with him to create tremendous value for our company and shareholders."

Monfort’s experience and knowledge of electricity, automation, thermal dynamics, and vehicle production allowed him to create and patent four inventions that raised more than $60 million and generated over $100 million in sales globally, including the Ronaele Mustang, COLDfire process, and electric truck and bus companies, according to SPI Energy Co.

As School Bus Fleet previously reported, in 2014, Monfort designed the first working electric 50-passenger school bus while he was president of Adomani Inc. The electric bus, which was converted from an older diesel model, was provided to Gilroy (Calif.) Unified School District through a pilot project led by Breathe California of the Bay Area. Monfort also built the first ever electric F150 conversion using all OEM parts except the engine block, according to SPI Energy Co.

With Monfort now on board at Phoenix Motorcars, two of his inventions will be brought to market:

• Smart plate technology, which is designed to allow any truck manufacturer in the world to convert any of their new or used ICE trucks to 100% electric while using lithium batteries and/or fuel cell technology.

• Smart battery technology, which is designed to allow batteries to be produced with a small computer chip that monitors every battery cell's health, providing information for telematics. This technology will reportedly allow the overall efficiencies of the high-voltage batteries to be significantly increased, thus providing longer driving ranges for end customers, according to SPI Energy Co.