The return of the electric car!

(Santa Rosa, CA) Shades of George Jetson! An old-but-new way of getting from here to there - albeit not involving flying - may be on a street near you in a year.
US electric car pioneer ZAP and a Chinese firm announced today they are reviving the 100-year-old electric car brand "Detroit Electric."
The companies hope to debut new vehicle technologies by 2009, and beyond that the possibility of bringing new manufacturing and green collar jobs to California.
Detroit Electric plans to introduce its first electric cars and buses in 2009. The ZAP Alias, which is under development, will be one of several vehicles being planned to carry the Detroit Electric brand.
ZAP is planning a presentation about Detroit Electric for North American auto dealers at NADA 2008, the world's largest auto show for dealers.
The company pioneered an early 20th Century electric car, perhaps the most popular in history. The Anderson Electric Car Company started building the cars under the Detroit Electric brand over 100 years ago. Anderson of Detroit, Michigan is the longest running electric car company in history, operating between 1907 and 1939.
In its heyday, Detroit Electric was an American icon and the cars were very popular with customers like Thomas Edison, Charles Proteus Steinmetz, Henry Ford's Wife Clara, and John D. Rockefeller, Jr.
Detroit Electric plans to build a special edition electric vehicle based on the original Detroit Electric as a tribute for the new name of the joint venture.
The first offices and facilities are planned, not for Detroit, but California. Management will be opening offices in California and evaluating manufacturing sites for economic development within the state. They hope to to introduce affordable and practical everyday electric vehicles with technology advances in motor drive, battery and hydrogen fuel cells. Their plan is to launch with a 36-foot pure electric transit bus, the ZAP Alias, and two family sedans as early as the summer of 2009.
The vehicles will be manufactured under the supervision of Youngman Automotive, one of China's newest automotive manufacturers and a leading manufacturer of buses and trucks. Youngman is a government-sanctioned, private holding company with 12 manufacturing subsidiaries.
Youngman expects to soon have the capacity to produce 200,000 vehicles per year, including more than 10,000 buses annually.

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RNS-02-07-08 0822CST