Return of the Detroit Electric....

[Dr Mordrid]

....or at least an electric car manufactured-for-hire in Malaysia by Proton (parent of Lotus Cars, UK) with a Detroit Electric electric drive line, optional equipment and name tag, even though the company is headquartered in the UK.

The original Detroit Electric (pic of a 1914 model) was Thomas Edison's favorite car way back when EV's made up 1/3 of the US car market in the early 1900's.

The new incarnation of Detroit Electric is to announce this week a compact 4-door with a range of 180 kilometers (110 miles) for between $24,000 and $26,000. An extended-range option (Volt-like) will go 320 kilometers (200 miles) and cost $4k - $5k more. DE also plans to make a hatchback.

By 2012 DE plans to sell more than 270,000 EV's in Europe, UK, China and the US.

Company site....

Detroit Electric e63

[Kruzin]

Several manufacturers built electric cars back in the early days of autos.
Can you imagine how different the world would be today, if only that tech had taken hold instead of petroleum based internal combustion.
Who knows where we could be with 100 years of R/D into EVs....

[Gurm]

Ooh! Ooh! Could you imagine where we'd be if Babbage's "difference engine" had worked? With 150 years of R/D into computers??!? W00T!

(sarcasm)