Proton and Detroit Electric to sell electric cars in China next year
America's Detroit Electric Holdings and Malaysia's leading automaker Proton Holdings Berhad have entered into a partnership to produce pure electric cars and sell them into markets including China from 2010 onwards.
Detroit Electric and Proton signed partnership in Kuala Lumpur last week to jointly produce and sell pure electric cars.
America's Detroit Electric Holdings and Malaysia's leading automaker Proton Holdings Berhad have entered into a partnership to produce pure electric cars and sell them into markets including China from 2010 onwards.
The two companies signed a contract for their collaboration on March 30 in Kuala Lumpur. Under the agreement, Detroit Electric will provide its patented electric drive systems. Proton will use the powertrains and two of its existing conventional vehicle platforms to assemble pure electric cars.
The two companies did not disclose which existing Proton gasoline models the new electric cars will be based on.
In addition to China, the agreement says the two companies will aim to sell cars into the United States, Britain and some other unspecified European markets.
Detroit Electric will be responsible for homologation of the vehicles for the US and European markets, where the vehicles will be sold under the Detroit Electric brand. Proton will look into distributing and selling the cars under its own brand in China.
Detroit says it plans to sell more than 270,000 pure electric vehicles in Europe, China and the United States by 2012. The vehicles will be priced between $23,000 (157,100 yuan) and $26,000 (177,600 yuan) for a city range model and between $28,000 (191,240 yuan) and $33,000 (225,400 yuan) for an extended range model.
