HISTORY OF VANTAGE VEHICLE

 

Vantage Vehicle has accomplished significant success during its nineteen year history with its primary understanding that the market requirements for fleet vehicles are similar worldwide: reliability, versatility and a low operating cost.

 

Beginning in 1999 with gasoline internal combustion engine powered vehicles (ICE), Vantage initially followed the lead of its competitors at the time – Daihatsu and Mitsubishi – into golf course utility vehicle production. The golf and turf market proved to be too small however and in 2001, Vantage adjusted its strategy and expanded its off-road utility fleet market to include sales to corporations, educational institutions, airports, factories, resorts, farms, municipalities, parks, zoos, and military bases.

 

Vantage Vehicle is successful because of the low operating costs of the vehicles it offers compared to commonly used fleet vehicles such as the Ford F-150. For comparative purposes, the F-150 normally has a 4-liter internal combustion engine and costs the owner approximately 18 cents per mile in fuel costs to operate.   Vantage vehicle, equipped with a 1-liter internal combustion engine, costs a fleet owner merely 10 cents per mile to operate in fuel costs.

 

In 2005, Vantage Vehicle decided to pursue an electric vehicle platform because electric vehicles offer fleet operations the potential to further lower operation costs. Since the successful launch of its first electric vehicle in 2007, three-quarters of the total vehicles sold by Vantage have been electric.  By using Vantage electric vehicles, fleet customers can lower operating fuel costs to less than 5 cents per mile.