Electric cars aren’t new, with the Anderson Electric Car Company in Detroit, Michigan producing their popular Detroit Electric branded battery powered cars from 1907 or just over 100 years ago to 1939, when World War II started.

Back then, Detroit Electric cars could travel 211 miles (about 339 km) on a single charge and they were popular, especially with women and physicians who preferred them for their dependable and immediate start without the arduous task of hand cranking to start the engine in the days before electric starters.

Some famous Detroit Electric customers were Thomas Edison, Charles Proteus Steinmetz, Henry Ford's Wife Clara, and John D. Rockefeller, Jr.

Improvements in internal combustion engine technology coupled with lower prices of cars they powered led to a decline in electric cars but Detroit Electric continued producing electric cars until it filed for bankruptcy after the stock market crash of 1929, when it was acquired and given a new lease of life until 1939, when the last Detroit Electric car rolled off the production line, according to Wikipedia.

However, Detroit Electric rose again like the proverbial phoenix from the ashes and has been developing electric car technology over the past two-and-a-half years ago – this time as a Dutch company and is now ready with a durable electric drive system to produce affordable electric cars for the masses.

So far, its installed its electric engines into three Lotus Elises, a Volkswagen Golf, a Daihatsu Cuore, a Proton Persona and a Proton Savvy. 

“We’re in preliminary discussions with a European and an American car manufacturer, as well as Proton on the possibility of licensing our technology for their production of electric cars,” Detroit Electric chairman and chief executive officer Albert Lam told a party of Malaysian journalists at Proton’s test track in Shah Alam, Malaysia on 2 September, 2008.

If its talks with Proton work out, Malaysians could look forward to driving electric powered Savvys, Personas and Lotus Elises in 2009.

Overall, Detroit Electric is looking at producing an electric sports car, mid-sized sedan and a sub-compact car.

Detroit Electric expects an electric powered sedan such as the Proton Persona to cost about RM80,000 versus RM60,000 for its petrol powered, though at 3.5sen per km for the electric version versus 35km for petrol based on current prices of electricity versus petrol, Lam expects owners of electric vehicles to save money in the long term..

While the core technology itself is older than most people alive today, improvements have been made in sensor, controller, battery, battery management and engine technology.

“We’ve developed a permanent magnet brushless DC (direct current) motor which is four times lighter than existing electric motors, with the highest power-to-weight and power-to-volume ratio available today,” said Detroit Electric chief scientist Frits van Breemen-Schneider. 

Detroit Electric’s motor delivers about 5 kilowatt (KW) per kilogramme (kg) versus to 0.25 KW per kg in some electric cars today.

Moreover battery technology has also improved, with Detroit Electric cars being powered by a dry lithium-ion battery, with an estimated lifecycle of about 200,000 km before its range begins decreasing, requiring replacement after up to 300,000 km. The company is also looking at lithium-polymer technology for future batteries.

Its electric sports car engine delivers 200 bhp (brake horse power) or about 149 KW, accelerates from 0 – 60 mph (96.6 km per hour) in 4.3 seconds, has a top speed of 220 km per hour and a range of 325km on full charge.

Its electric passenger car engine delivers 100 bph (74.6 KW), accelerates from 0 to 96.6 km per hour in 8.5 seconds, has a top speed of 145 km per hour and a range of 350 km on full charge.

Detroit Electric chief technical officer and director, Tim De Lange estimates that the use of in-car air conditioning, common in the tropics, would reduce their range by about 8%.

The proof of the pudding

While some may retain notions of electric cars lacking performance compared to their petrol or diesel counterparts, a test drive of the Lotus Elise and Daihatsu Cuore round Proton’s test track proved otherwise.

Both cars have a clutch, brake, accelerator pedal, manual gear shift and “ignition” key, much like petrol of diesel cars today and we had to turn the “ignition” key to turn on but unlike internal combustion engines, the electric engine did not crank, nor have any sound or vibration when the car’s stationary.

Next we just engaged the gear and stepped on the accelerator and off it went silently as we accelerated to high speed round the test track, shifting gears along the way.

The electric engines also let us put the Lotus into third gear and drive off like in a petrol or diesel car with automatic transmission and it also automatically applies a braking effect when we took our foot off the accelerator, without us having to engage lower gears to slow the car down, though we could have if we wanted.

However, electric engines don’t stop the car moving when parked with the gear engaged, so you’d have to rely solely on the handbrake to prevent the car rolling down a hill.

The battery can be recharged in about eight hours from a household 240 V, 13A socket, in 3.5 hours from 240 V, 35A charger or up to 80% of full charge in 10 to 15 minutes from a 240 V, 100A fast charge station but much like vehicles powered by liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) today, there’re valid concerns of where to recharge the battery when outstation.

For example, the distance between Kuala Lumpur to Singapore is about 325 km or the maximum range of the sports car, so who would be kind enough to let you charge your car up for the return trip?

Well, Detroit Electric’s Malaysian partner PRO DIS-T is looking into exactly that and more.

“We’re looking into setting up a series of fast-charging stations nationwide,” said PRO DIS-T managing director Armanudin Abdullah. “We’re also looking into research & development into zero emission technology and marketing Detroit Electric’s cars in Asia,” he added. For example, the batteries could also be made in Malaysia.