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Detroit Electric's EV business gets a $1.8 billion jumpstart
Do you remember Detroit Electric? You're forgiven if you don't -- the American automaker vowed to make electric sports cars exciting back in 2013, but a combination of production delays (it delivered its first car in 2016) and Tesla's rapid rise largely robbed it of its thunder. However, it's about to get another shot at glory. Detroit Electric has unveiled a $1.8 billion joint venture with Chinese electric company Far East Smarter Energy that should kickstart its plans. The alliance will initially help ramp up production of the SP:01 sports car by the end of 2017, and pour $370 million into expanding Detroit Electric's European operations over the next 4 years.
Detroit Electric reveals the SP:01 sports EV with stick shifting, traces of Tesla
Anyone who wanted a Tesla Roadster but showed up too late to the party (or too early) is about to get a second chance as soon as this year, if not quite in the way they expected. The Detroit Electric badge has been restored once more for the SP:01, a high-speed EV that shares Tesla's early use of a Lotus design -- albeit an Exige coupe this time, not an Elise. Its 201HP equivalent motor can also approximate the Roadster Sport's brisk 0-60MPH time of 3.7 seconds. That's roughly where the major similarities stop, however. The SP:01 should have a shorter range (around 180 miles on a European cycle) and will take a longer 4.3 hours to charge up from a 240V source, but it will cater to enthusiasts with a lighter carbon fiber body, a higher 155MPH top speed and even the choice of a manual transmission. Detroit Electric goes so far as to include a clutch, although stick shifters won't have to use it when starting or stopping. Just be ready to pony up in short order if you like the SP:01's notion of electric revivalism: only 999 examples of the $135,000 car will roll off the line after production starts in August.
Proton and Detroit Electric detail their forthcoming rechargeable offerings
If you didn't already have enough electric and plug-in hybrid cars on your shopping list for next year, make sure you add pair of offerings from the reborn Detroit Electric to the running. The company (which, naturally, isn't based in Detroit) has already announced a partnership with Malaysian automotive group Proton (owner of Lotus, responsible for much of the Tesla Roadster's underpinnings), and the two are now providing a few details of the offerings set to launch throughout next year in Europe, China, the UK, and the US. Two versions of the e63 model will be available, seemingly distinguished only by how far they can go before stranding you. The so-called "city range" model is rated for 112 miles to a charge and will sell for under $26,000, while the "extended range" version pushes that distance up to 200 miles -- and the price up to $33,000. MSRP for that radical ZAP Alias the company has been teasing you with for years? Nowhere to be found, naturally.[Via Financial Times]
ZAP Alias electric car makes its video debut
ZAP didn't have much more than some shiny renders to show for itself when it snapped up the hundred-year-old Detroit Electric brand earlier this year, but it looks like the company has now finally turned out an equally shiny prototype, which recently made its debut on the local news in Ohio. Unfortunately, the car apparently isn't capable of moving off the parking lot on its own just yet, with it reportedly now on its way to California where it'll get outfitted with a motor. While the current pace of things may seem a bit slow, the company is apparently still promising to have its first cars on the road as early as next year, when the Alias here is expected to sell for about $33,000. Hit up the read link below for the video.[Via AutoblogGreen]
ZAP revives hundred-year-old Detroit Electric brand
It's taken a while, but it looks like we could soon be seeing a new batch of Detroit Electrics roaming the roads, as ZAP has just announced that its reviving the hundred-year-old brand for some of its own all-electric vehicles. According to the company, those will be developed in a joint venture with the China Youngman Automotive Group, and will include the Zap Alias (pictured above), which we've seen previously under slightly more mysterious circumstances. Other details are expectedly light at the moment, but ZAP will apparently have plenty more to say about its new retro ways at the NADA 2008 auto show, which gets underway in San Francisco next week.
