SHANGHAI?-- Chinese automaker Dongfeng Motor Corp. and a Dutch-based company plan to cooperate in developing and making electric cars, the companies said Friday, as China pushes to expand use of alternative energy vehicles.
Detroit Electric Holdings, a startup company that owns the electric drive technology to be used in the cars, plans to license it to Dongfeng for testing and use in its electric vehicles, Albert Lam, Detroit Electric's chairman and CEO, said in an interview.
Financial details of the tie-up were not announced. Nor was there any word on when they hoped to produce the vehicles.
Lam said the deal would be similar in scope to Detroit Electric's agreement with Malaysian automaker Proton for producing electric vehicles for export.
If it succeeds, Detroit Electric would be among the first to mass-produce an electric car driven purely by a noiseless battery-powered motor, unlike current hybrid engines that combine gasoline engines and electric motors.
"The more I learn, the more I believe the electric car is the future," said Lam, who formerly worked with Lotus and Ford Motor Co., among other automakers.
Detroit Electric says its electric drive systems will enable extended-range models of the cars it is used in travel up to 325 kilometers (200 miles) on a single charge.
Car makers must innovate themselves out of their dependence on gasoline and diesel, and China seems committed to making the switch, he said.
Lam joined a group of Dutch investors and inventors to set up Detroit Electric, based in Damwoude, Netherlands, in 2008. He said bought the rights to the company's name?-- Detroit Electric produced electric cars in the US in the early 1900s?-- because "We share the same vision."
State-run Dongfeng, formerly the Second Automobile Works, is a partner of Japan's Nissan Motor Co., and is based in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.
The company is among many Chinese manufacturers moving quickly to develop electric vehicles for the fast-growing local market, with the encouragement of authorities who are keen to reduce automobile emissions and limit the country's growing reliance on imported oil.
"This cooperation with Dongfeng allows us to work closely with a strong partner in China to explore various ways to enter the world's largest vehicle market," Lam said. Chinese monthly auto sales so far this year have surpassed those in the US.
Despite China's endorsement of electric vehicles, so far their use has been limited here to a few experimental programs. Among other challenges, cities lack the infrastructure to enable consumers, most of whom live in high-rise apartments, to recharge the vehicles.
Purchasing equipment to make the cars would typically cost about $15 million to $20 million, Lam said.
Detroit Electric's deal with Proton calls for the Malaysian automaker to use excess capacity to make zero-emission electric sedans, initially targeted at the European and US markets. The plan is to sell 45,000 of the vehicles across Europe, the United States and Asia by next year, increasing to 270,000 units by 2012.