RTEV, Shuanghuan Auto plan 2-seater electric car for '09

Stealthy electric vehicle startup RTEV and Chinese carmaker Shuanghuan Automobile said today they plan to partner to release an electric car to the U.S. market in May 2009 and global markets about two months later.

Mike McQuary, CEO of Winnsboro, S.C.-based RTEV, told the Cleantech Group that the companies expect sales of about 1,000 cars the first year in the U.S. and significantly more abroad. Initially the cars will be marketed as low-speed electric vehicles, but the companies are seeking crash-test certification to take advantage of the $19,000 car's ability to reach 70 miles per hour, McQuary said.

RTEV is contributing the vehicle's drive system, which uses plug-in, dry-cell sealed (AGM) batteries. Shuanghuan plans to produce the rest of the vehicle, which it currently sells as a gasoline-powered car in Europe and China since 2000.

See the E-Noble/Wheego Whip here »

RTEV has spent several million dollars on the venture, McQuary said. The company has raised several million dollars in early rounds and is seeking $6 million to perform the crash-testing needed for the vehicles to operate at high speeds, McQuary said.

McQuary said the vehicle requires an eight-hour charge for a 60-mile range. The company is also developing accessories for full charging in about an hour.

Many of the car's specs sounds similar to those of Toronto-based electric vehicle maker Zenn Motor (TSX: ZNN) or Santa Rosa, Calif.-based electric vehicle maker ZAP (OTC: ZAAP), both of which have struggled to meet promised production. San Carlos, Calif.-based Tesla Motors, one of the industry's most noticeable entrants, has struggled with its batteries and transmission, causing financial problems and production delays (see Tesla's new convertible).

"We’ve purposely been publicity-shy," McQuary said. "Tesla and Zenn and ZAP have been saying they could deliver things in a certain time frame, and then when it didn’t happen it hurt the industry.

"They set themselves up with really big expectations. Anything short of that should still be seen as a resounding success, but, because they made so many claims about range and speed, any time they fell short on those people were disappointed," he said.

Meanwhile, the RTEV-Shuanghuan partnership has "technology that's rock solid. We made absolutely sure our launch date was going to happen before we started talking about what our plans were," McQuary said.

RTEV has been producing electric recreational vehicles for years, selling about 1,000 in 2007, said Marketing Director Les Seagraves. Eventually, the company plans to incorporate a lithium-ion battery in the vehicle to improve the range, McQuary said.

Shuanghuan plans to manufacture the vehicle in China and send it to the U.S., for RTEV to install the drive system and send it to dealers to be sold as the Wheego Whip. 

RTEV plans to build the drive system and send it to China, where Shuanghuan can incorporate it in the two-seater vehicle to be sold as the E-Noble outside of North America.

Both companies announced plans for low-speed electric vehicles earlier this year but didn't disclose the partnership until today. 

Shuanghuan has the capacity to produce 30,000 vehicles a year of its various models. But the company has come under fire from competitors who say the company is copying the appearance of popular vehicles, such as DaimlerChrysler's Smart car or BMW's X5.

McQuary said the Wheego Whip/E-Noble's appearance was one of the attractive parts about the venture, in part because the car is stylish and consumers already like Shuanghuan's gasoline-powered Noble. But he said the design isn't a copy of the Smart car.

"When you're designing a car that's this small, you’re sort of stymied in the number of varieties you can create while factoring in this basic geometry," he said. "But if you put them side-by-side, you’ll very quickly be able to distinguish them."

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