Electric Vehicle (EV) conversion guides review and information from the web

The Early Electric Car From Detroit Electric

Check out the cool video below. It’s one of Detroit Electric early Pure Electric Car. It was made back in the year 1916!

Turn up the volume on the speakers and listen closely to the sound it made when it was taken out for a spin.

Did you know, back in the early days, the target market for Detroit Electric was women drivers? Apparently, women had a tough time manually “crank starting” a car with an internal combustion engine. The pure electric car was a better alternative for them.

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What’s Missing in the Detroit Electric JV with Proton Holdings of Malaysia

It it really interesting to see the latest development between Detroit Electric JV with Proton. I am proud to see our local car company is taking the initial step to pursue the concept of electric car for the masses.

The current trend is in hybrid electric cars. Most other car manufacturers such as Toyota, Honda, Nissan etc are developing and pushing hard on hybrid technology.

I am sure they have a pure electric car (PEC) model in the R&D ready for the next launching phase. That is a wise move because the world has been addicted to fossil fuel for far too long. It will be a matter of time before we shift to a cleaner form of energy for our vehicles.

Are we ready for pure electric cars on the road? The answer is, No! There is one key component still missing in the equation. It is the recharging infrastructure.

Driving a PEC is very different from driving a car driven by an internal combustion engine (ICE). If you run out of gasoline, a gas station is just around the corner for you to fuel up.

If your PEC runs out of electric power in the batteries, you will not be able to find a power outlet to recharge. No doubt modern electric car can recharge in a few hours, but will you be able to find a shop that will allow you to use their electric power?

How would you pay for the power that you consumed?

Therefore, the missing component in the Detroit Electric JV with Proton is the network of charging stations. They can mass produce all the PEC, but without a readily available power outlets to recharge the battery unit, the vehicle is simply not practical.

I have a feeling company such as Better Place will be entering into the picture in the near future.

Better Place already has plan to setup thousands of electric charging station in Australia and many other countries. Their JV with Nissan makes more economic sense.

Detroit Electric JV with Proton Holdings

Here are some news closer to home…my home. As of 30th March 2009, Detroit Electric Holdings Ltd and Proton Holdings Berhad has announced a strategic partnership to mass produce Pure Electric Vehicles. Here’s some history lesson for us.

Detroit Electric was the first company the manufacturer electric car back in the early 1900. The company went bankrupt back during the stock market crash in 1930s.

Recently, the company was resurrected by Mr Albert Lam, the current company Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

Proton is the first and the largest passenger car manufacturer in Malaysia. It was incorporated back in 1983 with much of the automobile technology from Mitsubishi Motors.

The first car that I own was a Proton Saga. It is a 1.3 liter front wheel drive vehicle. The car was pretty excellent because most of the components were from Japan.

After a few years, Proton started to make the parts locally and thereon, its quality dropped substantially. Nonetheless, it is still one of the cheapest car available in Malaysia. I currently drive a Proton Satria Neo 1.6 liter.

It is very interesting to know Proton is betting most of its future on pure electric car. In the last couple of years, we have seen the company falling from grace after its market shares were eaten up by Malaysia second car manufacturing company, Perodua.

It will be interesting to see the development of electric car for the masses. The current challenge is the lack of funding in the market. Detroit Electric JV with Proton may find it hard to roll out their electric vehicle (EV) without hundred of millions in capital investment.

The bigger challenge is the lack of infrastructure to support the EV such as electric charging stations. To solve that issue, we may have to look for Better Place.