Thursday 21st March 2013

Detroit Electric reborn

Vintage US nameplate to be re-invigorated for Tesla-style sportscars

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Detroit Electric, a previously-defunct US manufacturer that last produced a car in 1939, is to be reincarnated. The new venture, headed by former Lotus executive director Albert Lam, has announced that its first vehicle will be a Tesla-style electric roadster based on the Lotus Elise, that’ll be revealed next month before making its debut at the Shanghai Motor Show.

Tesla will be main target for new company

Detroit Electric is talking up its Michigan location, with Don Graunstadt, Detroit Electric’s CEO of North American Operations telling Michigan Live that “there’s more technology, there’s more automotive talent here in Southeast Michigan than all the other states combined.” The new company has already established headquarters in the Fisher Building, an art deco edifice and Detroit landmark that was originally financed with General Motors money.  The company says that ‘a site has also been identified’ to assemble the new car, with an annual capacity of 2,500 units and production due to commence in August.

The company has already released a teaser image of its first model, showing its styling to be, perhaps unsurprisingly, heavily Lotus-influenced. Detroit Electric says that the car will have “bold styling, outstanding performance, exhilarating handling characteristics and impressive range.” All sounds pretty much par for the course, but one thing the company can’t be accused of is a lack of ambition; it hopes to follow the roadster up with two more high-performance models that are slated for production in 2014.

Detroit Electric was originally formed in 1884, as the Anderson Carriage Company, and started to produce cars as the Anderson Electric Car Company in 1907. The firm produced electric carriages and buggies using a rechargeable lead-acid battery, with an Edison nickel-iron battery becoming optional in 1911, the same year the company changed its name to The Detroit Electric Car Company. The company’s cars were, it was claimed, able to get 80 miles between charges with a top speed of 20mph, and offered the significant advantage of easy starting, lacking the hand-crank that was required with competing internal combustion vehicles. At its peak the company was selling over 1,000 cars a year, aided by the high price of petrol after the first world war, but with the end of the war and the advent of more reliable and faster internal combustion engines with greater range, Detroit Electric’s sales dropped off. The company filed for bankruptcy in 1929, but continued to struggle on until 1939, when the last Detroit Electric – to date, anyway – rolled off the production line.

[lindrup119]

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more electric cars!

[soad]

More computer-generated renderings, how exciting.

[anonymous-user]

Based on an elise? I can see there being a flaw in their logic...

[SturdyHSV]

I thought that dark image just a Corvette? Must be getting confused.

[bobberz]

Kind of intrigued by this, having seen several of the 19teen versions at antique car shows. Wish they would've come up with their own design rather than use the Elise. This will make it the third Elise-based electric car. There is the Tesla roadster and that Dodge concept that was a re-badged Europa with electric power. What will separate this from the Tesla?

[andytommo]

I think its a great idea-What a superb way to give the detroit car industry a rebirth. I guess that just like tesla, they will start off with a tested platform (elise) and move on to making thier own chassis later. This makes financial sense and i'm sure its possible to reskin the elise with their own unique shape. Good luck to them I say.

I'd suggest that if Ferdiand Porsche could start building sports cars based on a VW beetle (not a great starting point frankly) then a company basing its 1st model on an Elise platform has an even better chance of success.

Cool HQ building too!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fisher_Building

Edited by andytommo on Thursday 21st March 07:19

[RJDM3]

So that is now 3 Lotus based cars...Loving the originality...hhmmmmm

[Vantagefan]

How much of the last paragraph was from Wikipedia?

[Captain Muppet]

soad said:

More computer-generated renderings, how exciting.

You don't need much of a computer to take a picture of an Elise with a different bonnet scoop.

[k-ink]

A dead company revived by company about to die. Where do I sign?

Joking aside, I wish both parties good luck.

[McWigglebum4th]

It is a fact that the only reason that my nissan micra has a crappy little 4 pot is because of electric cars

Arrrggghhhhhh


Look at my beard

[disco666]

Yawn