Detroit Electric, Proton Ink Deal To Sell EVs

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Remember Detroit Electric? Don’t feel bad if you’ve never heard of it. Detroit Electric is a manufacturer of electric cars in the early part of the 20th century, a group of investors scored the Detroit Electric naming rights and made some noise last year by claiming it would produce a plug-in electric sports car sometime this year.

At the time, Detroit Electric’s execs, including Albert Lam, the former CEO of Lotus Engineering, said a prototype was in development that could reach 100 km/h in less than five seconds, run 323 km on a single charge and would take seven to eight hours to charge from an ordinary electric outlet.

The future of both companies are about to look brighter, as both companies have agreed to manufacture and assemble electric cars locally. Reports are that Detroit Electric has fitted its electric drive system to an Elise and two Proton vehicles.

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Production will start by the first quarter of 2010. Detroit Electric will lease two Proton platforms that’ll receive the startup’s proprietary Magnetic Flux Motor Technology electric drivetrain. Plans call for more than 270,000 of the models to be produced at Proton’s Malaysian factories by 2012. Although they’ll be built by the already established automaker, they’ll be sold in Europe, China and the United States, early next year under the Detroit Electric banner. (Finally a Malaysian car in the US market!! About DAMN time too!)

Powering the Magnetic Flux Motors are the brand’s own lithium-ion batteries. The units are said to have a single charge capacity of 178 km when under the hood of the ‘city range’ model and a 323 km range in ‘extended range‘ model form. Around 400,000 of the electric drivetrains are slated to be manufactured in three year’s time.

The American automaker will sell, certify and warranty the vehicles.

About the author: Shahir R. Ali General Manager and lead programmer at wemotor.com who loves cars and enjoys writing about them once in a while.