The company began in 1920 as Northern Coachbuilders in Newcastle upon Tyne, making electric trams and trolleybuses before moving into electric delivery vehicles. In 1949 the electric vehicles were separated from the buses and built by Smith Electric Vehicles in Gateshead, run by the Smith family, who also own Ringtons Tea. In the 1950s and 1960s, as dairies replaced horses and carts, Smith’s near-silent milk floats became a familiar sound of early mornings, and by 1962 more than 14,000 Smith electrics were in service across Britain and western Europe.
In the mid-1960s Smith launched the Cabac, the first milk float with a rear-entry cab, so the milkman could get out on either side. It also built electric Mister Softee ice-cream vans and in 1989 bought Wales & Edwards, makers of three-wheeled milk floats. The Tanfield Group bought the business in 2004 and restored the Smith name, launching the Newton electric truck and the Ford Transit-based Edison, used by TNT, Sainsbury’s and others. A new factory in Washington, Tyne and Wear, was opened by Tony Blair in 2007.
The American arm took over the company and moved its headquarters to Kansas City in 2011. The British businesses were shut down, and in February 2017 Smith ceased operations for lack of funding.
