Volvo Parent Company, Geely, Buys Lotus

Li Shufu, the Chinese billionaire who purchased Volvo from Ford and oversaw the company’s successful resurgence seems to have acquired a taste for turning around car brands. I say that because he’s just acquired another storied, troubled, European car brand to turn back from the brink of extinction: Lotus.

That’s the same Lotus whose versatile chassis launched both Tesla Motors and Detroit Electric (to name just two). The same Lotus, too, that brought Kimi Raikkonen back to the top step of an F1 podium a few years back (before reverting back to Renault ownership, anyway). We’re big fans.

Being big fans, it was big news when Li’s Geely Holding Group announced, yesterday, that it would buy a 51 percent stake in Lotus Cars. For Geely, the brand could act as a prestigious “halo” brand to help grow the company’s eponymous core products. “Like Volkswagen has Porsche and Toyota has its Lexus,” explains Tian Yongqiu, an independent auto consultant who tracks Chinese car maker acquisitions.

Li Shufu Now Owns Both Volvo and Lotus

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Lotus has a history of using other car makers’ engines in its lightweight sports cars. If that history is a guide, we could see a featherweight Elise or Evora model powered by Volvo’s super-efficient, twin-charged T6 engine in the near future. There’s even talk of an ultra-sporty SUV coming hot on the heels of Geely’s expected cash injection into the British car brand. Could it be based on the all-new Volvo XC60? Should it be based on the new XC60?

Let us know what you think of Geely’s new acquisition- and whether or not you think Lotus and Volvo will make good partners in an eco-friendly- in the comments section at the bottom of the page.

Sources | Images: Bloomberg, LotusTalk

Detroit Electric Gets Nearly $2 Billion In New Investment Money

Once upon a time, there was company that wanted to rip the engine out if a Lotus sports car, stuff it full of batteries and an electric motor, and jump into the deep end of the electric car pool. You can be forgiven if your first thought is, “Tesla Motors.” In this case, though, we are talking about Detroit Electric, a company whose electric car dreams began back in 2008. Frankly, other than announcing the SP-1 Lotus based sports car two years ago, nothing much has happened with the company. Until now.

Detroit Electric just announced a joint venture worth $1.8 billion with Far East Smarter Energy Group, a Chinese electrical and battery company. It says it has plans for two new electric car models in the next two years. The new joint venture company will spend $370 million to ramp up Detroit Electric’s European operations over the next four years. Part of that expansion includes updating and adding to the current facility located in Leamington Spa, England.

The first priority is to get the long delayed SP:01 into production, something they hope to accomplish before the end of this year. Simultaneously, a new R&D and testing facility will get underway. An electric SUV is planned for 2018 with a third vehicle due to come to market in 2020. Detroit Electric hopes to be selling 100,000 cars a year by then.

The plan sounds overly aggressive for a company that has languished by the side of the electric car highway for nearly a decade with nothing to show for its efforts. Elon Musk found out the hard way that thinking about building an automobile is easy; actually producing one is hard. The competition is ramping up. The mainstream manufactures may view electric cars as ugly step-children — something to be tolerated rather than embraced — but Detroit Electric will soon have lots of company.

Faraday Future, Lucid, and NIO all have electric SUVs coming. Tesla is already working on an SUV version of the Model 3. The German car companies all have electric SUVs on their drawing boards. Nonetheless, never underestimate the power of nearly $2 billion. Someone clearly thinks Detroit Electric has a bright future. “We’ll see,” said the Zen Master.

Source: Autoblog

Two Of The Most Important EVs Ever In A Single Photo

At the turn of the 20th century, electric vehicles were by far the most popular means of personal transportation on the planet, and automakers like Detroit Electric were a dime a dozen. As Planetsavepoints out, the first car dealer in the U.S. only sold electric cars, and Ferdinand Porsche’s first vehicle design was an EV.

It once seemed like the future belonged to electric cars, but once automatic starters and cheap gasoline became prevalent, so did combustion-powered cars. But thanks to Tesla Motors, electric cars are cool again, and people are starting to come around to the idea that EVs don’t have to be bland to look at and boring to drive. And if you’re a history buff like me, it’s fun to remind people that electric cars have actually been around for a lot longer than most realize.

What better way to encapsulate just how far electric cars have come in the past century than this photo, which sees one of the oldest EVs in the world parked next to one of the newest, and arguably best EV ever built. In the 1910s Detroit Electric hit its peak production, selling as many as 2,000 cars a year. But this was the same time period where the Model T was taking off, and by the 1930s electric cars had all but disappeared from America’s highways. Detroit Electric itself has experiencedsomething of a revival, though it has almost nothing to do with the original automaker besides the name.

But thanks to dedicated enthusiasts, a few rare examples have survived long enough to see a revival of electric cars. One day a Tesla and Detroit Electric might be side-by-side in a museum, instead of somebody’s garage.

Source: Gas2

Detroit Electric To Start Production In Holland

The second revival of the Detroit Electric name is banking on a carbon copy of the Tesla Roadster to get the ball rolling on this new/old brand, as well cashing in on Detroit’s resurgence as a manufacturing hub. Alas,production delays and the lack of a factory deal has sent Detroit Electric to Holland to begin production. Is this Fisker 2.0?

Detroit Electric says it is committed to producing cars in the city of Detroit, but that come the fourth quarter of 2013 actual production will begin in Holland instead. Detroit Electric has failed to secure a factory in Michigan, even though executives had said the revived automaker would begin production last month. Eventually, we are told, production will begin somewhere in Michigan, with up to 100 people employed and annual production capacity of 2,500 Lotus-based SP:01 electric sports cars per year.

This all has shades of Fisker Automotive which, as you will recall, bought an old GM plant in Delaware on the shoulders of taxpayers. That plant has sat idle for years while Fisker built a couple of thousand Karma models in a European facility before shutting down production due to lack of money. Detroit Electric is already going by the same playbook, which doesn’t exactly fill me with optimism.

Also don’t forget that Detroit Electric has signed a deal with Chinese automaker Geely to produce an affordable electric hatchback and sedan for the Asian market, just like the original Detroit Electric plan launched in 2009. Something tells me those cars won’t be built in America either.

Source: The Detroit News

Delays At Detroit Electric Postpone Electric Sports Car By A Month

Forgive the cynicism, but color us not all that surprised at the news that startup automaker Detroit Electric is postponing production of its SP:01 electric sports car by "at least a month."

Launched in a flurry of media attention in early April, the plug-in electric SP:01 sports coupe is essentially an electric conversion of the now out-of-production Lotus Elise.

If that sounds familiar, it should: That was the basic formula behind the first car from Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA], its 2008 Roadster, which launched five years ago with more cabin space and entirely new styling.

According to The Detroit News, CEO Don Graunstadt said the company has not yet settled on a manufacturing site in Wayne County, Michigan, which includes the city of Detroit.

He told the local newspaper that Detroit Electric has identified a site in Plymouth Township, and "hopes to reach an agreement" to lease it "soon."

The company now hopes to begin production of the SP:01 electric sports car sometime in September, rather than August.

It will hold a jobs fair in June to fill the first of a projected 100 jobs, Graunstadt said.

While we presume final engineering on the SP:01 has been completed, three months still seems a rather short time to set up a final assembly plant, even if "production" is based on the use of partially assembled "glider" chassis from elsewhere.

Detroit Electric hopes to sell 999 of its SP:01 cars, priced at $135,000 each. It has also raised venture capital funding.

Those sales are intended to provide the capital to build and launch a second, less-pricey sports car to help fill its projected capacity of 2,500 cars a year.

Tesla built a total of 2,500 Roadsters over the three-year life of that car, before ending it ended production in December 2011 and began assembly of its Model S luxury sport sedan in June 2012.

2013 Detroit Electric SP:01

The SP:01 features a 37-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack powering a 150-kilowatt (200-hp) electric motor. Unusually, it has a four-speed manual gearbox as well. The company says the SP:01 will accelerate from 0 to 62 mph in 3.7 seconds.

Detroit Electric was formed by a group of former Lotus executives, including founder Albert Lam. It also hopes to build the car in the Netherlands for European buyers.

It has a partnership with Chinese carmaker Geely (which owns Volvo) and hopes later on to launch an inexpensive electric sedan in China that uses the mid-size Geely Emgrand EC7 car as a base.

The modern-day Detroit Electric reuses the name of the company that produced many thousand electric cars during the first and second decades of the last century.

Many of those cars survive today, including a century-old 1914 Detroit Electric once owned by pioneering General Electric scientist Charles Steinmetz.

Source: Green Car Reports

Detroit Electric Pledges To Launch Sedan, Hatchback By End Of 2014

The big news last week was the return of Detroit Electric, which is launching later on this year with the SP:01, an all-electric supercar based on the Lotus Elise. Sounds familiar, right? But Detroit Electric promise it isn’t just a Tesla Motors copycat, and the newly-resurrected company is pledging to have both a pure-electric sedan and hatchback on sale by the end of 2014. The question is…how?

It took Tesla Motors about a decade, from conception to production, to bring the Tesla Model S into the world, but Detroit Electric thinks they can do it in less than two years. Their secret? Buying engineless “gliders” from automakers in Southeast Asia, and then adding that Detroit Electric flair that includes a pure electric drivetrain and custom bodies.

Coda Automotive tried the same thing, except they took a boring, plastic-bodied Chinese car and tried to sell it for $44,000. That didn’t work out so well. Detroit Electric pledges their cars will look and feel different, and hopes to sell 10,000 vehicles by 2015. The Lotus-based SP:01 will only represent about 1,000 sales, as the $135,000 electric supercar will have a limited production run.

While the cars will likely be based on Chinese models, Detroit Electric pledges they will have a unique look inside and out. More importantly, final assembly will take place in the Detroit area, and Detroit Electric will also be assembling their own battery packs, which is kind of a big deal.

But will this help Detroit Electric become a big name player in the EV game? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Source: Wired

Detroit Electric SP:01 Sports Car Production Begins This Summer

When Tesla Roadster production ceased, the world was suddenly left without a fast, fun, and (comparatively) affordable all-electric sports car. The revival of the Detroit Electric name hopes to change that with the SP:01, a Lotus-based electric coupe that will begin production this summer. In many ways, this is like the Tesla Roadster 2.0…but with a hardtop roof.

Let’s skip all the hyperbole and get straight to the meat and potatoes. The Detroit Electric SP:01 uses a custom made carbon fiber body based on the Lotus Exige, a hardtop version of the Lotus Elise, which underpins the Tesla Roadster. Power comes from two 37 kWh battery packs motivating an AC electric motor that makes 201 horsepower and 166 ft-lbs of torque.

That doesn’t sound like a lot, but its apparently enough power to sprint from 0-60 mph in 3.7 seconds, the same time as a Tesla. The Detroit Electric also offers between 150 and 180 miles of driving range, depending on how you measure range. Again, this is comparable to the Tesla Roadster.

But there is one key difference that enthusiasts are sure to appreciate between the Detroit Electric and Tesla, and that is the transmission. Where the Tesla uses a one-speed automatic, Detroit Electric will use a 4-speed manual with an optional 5th gear, as well as a two-speed automatic. For my money, the 5-speed is the only way to go in an electric sports car that weighs just 2,400 pounds. Who couldn’t have fun with that?

What this will all come down to, however, is price. With the Tesla Roadster no longer in production, the market for a $100,000 electric sports car is wide open. Sure other companies are offering electric supercars, like Mercedes and Rimac, but those cars cost anywhere from $500,000 to almost a million bucks. Can Detroit make a name for itself…again?

Source: Autoblog

Detroit Electric Rises From The Grave To Sell Lotus-Based EV Coupes

Once upon a time in America, electric vehicles were sold by the thousands, and the chief EV was the Detroit Electric, built by Anderson carriage. A few years ago, the Detroit Electric name was revived, with the hopes of selling a Lotus-based electric roadster. Now Detroit Electric is back, again, with the intention of selling an electric roadster based on…a Lotus.

More than a century ago, Detroit Electric sold EVs with a range as high as 80 miles, But once the Model T hit the scene, electric cars fell out of fabor, and by 1939 Detroit Electric went belly-up. But now some investors have brought the Detroit Electric Name back to build a new brand of cars.

The money behind the new Detroit Electric wants to build a two-person EV based on the Lotus Exige, a car you can’t buy in America because it lacks airbags. The Exige is essentially a coupe version of the Lotus Elise, the car which Tesla used to build its popular Roadster model. Detroit Electric announced its deal with Proton right around the time Tesla delivered its first Roadster.

Then all went quiet, no doubt because of the collapse of the global financial system. The original Detroit Electric revival plan called for a roadster based on the Elise, and a sedan built by Proton. The sedan idea has been dropped, as has the roadster; instead, Detroit Electric will build a lightweight coupe, though they failed to mention any specifics in regards to range, power, speed, or cost.

It makes everything sound very suspect, but Detroit Electric did open a new headquarters in Detroit’s Fisher building, while scouting nearby production facilities. The official debut for this new coupe is just a month away at the Shanghai Auto Show, and Detroit Electric promises 180 Michigan-based jobs as well.

Sounds like the same story we heard before…but since Tesla no longer produces the Roadster, the market for a (relatively speaking) affordable electric sports coupe is wide open. Maybe Detroit Electric can capitalize on this wide open market.

 Source: Detroit Electric

The 80-mile Detroit Electric Car From 105 Years Ago

Electric cars have always been around in one form or another, and when the auto industry was still in its infancy, electric vehicles were actually quite popular. To kick off a new series of articles looking at the green cars of yesteryear, we decided to go all the way back to the very beginning of the American car culture, when a little company called Detroit Electric was selling a 100% electric car with an advertised driving range of 80 miles.

That 80 mile range is about the same range that many more modern EVs have today, with their lithium-ion batteries. The Detroit Electric EV used a rechargeable lead-acid battery, though for $600 (about the cost of two Ford Model Ts) you could upgrade to an Edison battery that used nickel, lead, and sodium-hydroxide. Edison claimed these batteries had a shelf life of 100 years or more.

While the Detroit Electric had a top speed of just 25 mph (the Model T could go up to 45 mph), it is rumored that one particular Detroit Electric travelled more than 200 miles on a single charge. Impressive, no doubt, though the high cost ($2,650) meant that most people couldn’t afford to own an electric car. The most common customers were women and old folks, who had a hard time starting combustion engine-powered cars (this was before the advent of electric starters, mind you). Henry Ford even bought two Detroit Electrics for his wife, Clara.

Granted, cars this old didn’t have to deal with many safety regulations or demands from consumers that today’s car companies do. Because it was literally little more than an electrified carriage with primitive steering controls, range could be maximized. Building such a vehicle today would be impossible.

Production of the Detroit Electric began in 1907, and continued through 1939. While there were many highs and lows in the company’s brief history, it was ultimately the cheap price of gas that ended the reign of early electric cars. Today, these cars command a premium on the auction block as a resurgence of interest in EVs has brought out classic car fans seeking to own and restore this piece of history. One Detroit Electric will be hitting the Barrett-Jackson auction this weekend, and is expected to fetch close to $100,000 despite its unrestored state.

Will Detroit Electric make a comeback? Well back in 2009, Detroit Electric signed a deal with Proton to sell EVs in Malaysia, and in September the two companies finalized a $555 million agreement. Detroit Electric will build EVs on Proton’s platforms, with prices starting around $23,000. Can Detroit Electric make a comeback? Or will it again succumb to low-cost gasoline and inadequate battery technology?

Source: Wikipedia | The Daily Mail | DetroitElectric.org | Image: Sfoskett

Detroit Electric and Proton Announce Strategic Partnership to Produce Real EV's at a Real Price

The Detroit Electric Vehicle







This news is exciting. Detroit Electric Holdings and Proton Holdings are collaborating to bring us a real, electric vehicle at a real, reasonable price. The city variant will travel up to 112 miles and the extended range model travels 202 miles. Don't forget to subtract the $7,500 federal tax rebate and you wind up with a great alternate energy vehicle at an affordable price.

I am very excited for this car to come to the US.

From Green Car Congress:

The DE e63 in a media test drive at the Proton Center of Excellence track in Malaysia. Click to enlarge.

Detroit Electric Holdings Ltd, originally formed as a joint venture between ZAP and China Youngman Group (earlier post), and Malaysia-based Proton Holdings Berhad are forming a strategic partnership for the mass production of electric vehicles.

Under the agreement, Detroit Electric will license two Proton vehicle platforms and contract Proton to assemble the vehicles, using the Detroit Electric drive systems. The vehicles will then be marketed under Detroit Electric’s brand.

“When you are trying to redefine the automotive industry, you need to bring many partners along.” —Albert Lam, Detroit Electric’s Chairman and CEO

Detroit Electric plans to begin sales in 2010; its plans call for selling more than 270,000 EVs in Europe, UK, China and the United States by 2012. The vehicles will be priced between US$23,000 and US$26,000 for a city range option and between US$28,000 and US$33,000 for an extended range option. Styling changes will distinguish Detroit Electric’s vehicles from Proton’s existing line-up.

Proton, established in 1983, is Malaysia’s largest manufacturer of automobiles, currently producing 270,000 vehicles of various models annually in Malaysia.

The Detroit Electric drive system incorporates a 75 kW (150 kW peak) axial magnetic flux motor and a 25 kWh lithium-ion polymer (LiPo) battery pack to support a single-charge range of 180 km (112 miles) for the city range option. A 40 kWh pack supports a single-charge range of 325 km (202 miles) for the extended range option.

Detroit Electric currently has specified two models, the DE e63 and the slightly smaller, “race-inspired” DE e46. The DE e63 will offer a choice of the city-range or extended range battery packs; the e46 is currently spec’d to offer only the city-range pack.

The 25 kWh LiPo battery pack has a recharge time of 8 hours at 13 Amps, <3.2>

The axial magnetic flux motor develops torque of 350-380 Nm (258-280 lb-ft). Acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h is less than 8 seconds, and top speed is 180 km/h (112 mph).

Detroit Electric will be responsible for the homologation of the vehicles and for vehicle certification in the US and European markets. Detroit Electric will assume all warranty and liabilities for the Electric Vehicles, while Proton will warranty the vehicle’s build and standard components.

The agreement also initiates the test and validation program in which Proton will evaluate Detroit Electric’s electric drive system with the intent to license the rights to distribute, market and sell vehicles under the Proton brand in Asia.

Detroit Electric is in the final stage of setting up two subsidiaries: Detroit Electric Energy, which will produce the battery technology, and Detroit Electric Advanced Propulsion Lab, which will manufacture the motor and controller.

The Detroit Electric Advanced Propulsion Lab and Manufacturing Plant is targeted to be in Malaysia close to the vehicle assembly facilities of Proton. By 2012, the two production plants plan to produce more than 400,000 electric drive systems to meet Detroit Electric’s internal demands as well as third-party OEM’s needs.

Detroit Electric is looking to repeat similar contract production partnerships with manufacturers in Europe and the United States. This will allow the company to extend its range of models very quickly to meet demand in the different automotive segments in these markets.