Two independent car makers in the U.S. have announced plans for plug-in hybrids covering two different ends of the price tag spectrum, joining a growing group of independent electric and hybrid automakers in the States.
Fisker Automotive teamed with Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide (Nasdaq: QTWW) last week with designs on the luxury sedan market. The Irvine, Calif., companies plan to release four different cars in their line, with prices starting at $80,000. Production is expected to start in 18 months.
"We want to get people who are today driving a Mercedes CLS four-door sports sedan, or a BMW 5-series or 7-series, or even a Lexus. We want these people to go and take a look at our car which is going to be a sexy, hot looking car," Henrik Fisker, CEO of Fisker Automotive, told Cleantech.com.
New York-based Visionary Vehicles is targeting drivers of more modest means. Headed up by the man who brought the Yugo to the States, Visionary Vehicles hopes to have a $35,000 hybrid on the road by 2010.
Visionary Vehicles in quarter scale now, real scale later >>
"You will see running prototypes on the road in '08, and you'll see cars coming off the manufacturing line in '09, and you'll see delivery of these cars to dealers in '10," Malcolm Bricklin, CEO of Visionary Vehicles, said in a conference call.
Other upcoming electric and hybrid cars include the much anticipated Tesla Motors roadster (see Ira Ehrenpreis joins Tesla's board, co-leads new $45 round), the three-wheeled VentureOne from Venture Vehicles (read If you tilt it, they will come), and ZAP and Lotus Engineering's ZAP-X (check out Cleantech.com's ZAP issues ZAP-X drawings, specs).
Although Henrik Fisker is known for his sports cars, with his Fisker Coachbuild company selling two limited edition two-seaters for $234,000 to $315,000 each, he said his hybrids will be spacious, with all the extras buyers would expect in a luxury car.
Fisker wouldn't go into specifics, but said, "It's going to have more than three times better gas mileage than any of those cars I just mentioned and better performance as well."
Quantum, which already has a wealth of experience in cars and alternative fuel technologies, is working on a single chassis design which will accommodate all four car bodies in the line.
"We have produced more than 500,000 specialty vehicles for the automakers to date. We've produced 20,000 natural gas vehicles for General Motors, and all the natural gas systems, and produced them right on GM's assembly line," said Alan Niedzwiecki, CEO of Quantum Technologies.
Earlier this year, Quantum received a $4.9 million contract from the U.S. Army to develop a diesel hybrid version of its fuel cell-powered Alternative Mobility Vehicle, the Aggressor (see Quantum gets contract for diesel hybrid Aggressor).
Quantum is also working on a $2.1 million project for California's South Coast Air Quality Management District to manufacture 20 Ford Escape plug-in hybrids for demonstration in Southern California.
Fisker and Quantum said they'll debut their first production car at the 2008 Detroit Auto Show in January. They plan to build an initial run of 15,000 hybrids in 2009, but they have future plans to go beyond just luxury.
"We're going to go downmarket and produce a car that is much less expensive, and we're going to sell several hundred thousand," said Fisker.
While Fisker has worked on the BMW Z8 and the Aston Martin DB9 and V8 Vantage, Bricklin has more experience in the downmarket. He's credited with starting the influx of Japanese cars in the States as head of Subaru of America in the late 1960s.
Bricklin announced last week that he's shooting for the multi-million dollar X-Prize that will be awarded to the teams that win a stage race for clean, production-capable vehicles that exceed 100 miles per gallon equivalent fuel economy. But he won't give up if he gets second place.
"If anybody can beat what we're doing, we'd like to go out and license their technology," Bricklin said.
He's still shopping around for a factory, in China and in other countries, and is even looking at manufacturing in the States.
Visionary is planning to make five vehicles in its hybrid line, and said the lithium ion battery will be guaranteed for 250,000 miles, be rapidly rechargeable, and able to power the car for 40 miles. The cars are expected to have a hybrid range of over 800 miles.
Although Bricklin hasn't announced any partners on the project, he said "there's a $50 million private placement that should be finished by the end of this month." He added, "As alway, I'm going to expect my dealers to be a part of my venture."