YES, RM80,000 for an electric powered Persona SE, including sales tax, duties and everything.

That was what Albert Lam claimed the Persona SE would cost if his company, Detroit Electric (DE), is to use the Persona as its platform.

Of course an electric Persona will not be available anytime soon because as far as Proton is concerned, it is still reviewing the technology.

DE made the headline when Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi drove the electric Persona during the Merdeka parade.

The car took DE less than two weeks to prepare, and though it is far from perfect (no air-conditioning, no power steering, no real place for batteries, etc), the Persona did its job well to hit the spot.

Cars, Bikes & Trucks and the media fraternity were invited to view the cars. Sadly, we were not given the chance to drive the vehicles.

Four cars were displayed, and the eye catcher was the electric Elise. The rest were the Persona, a Savvy and a Daihatsu Cuore (or known here as our Viva), all running on DE technology.

Performance figures are nothing but amazing. The Elise gives an estimated range of 325km, has a power of 150KW (or 201hp), can accelerate from zero to 100km/h in 4.3 seconds, has a top speed of 220km/h and will cost the owner five sen for every kilometre.

The sub-compact gets 50KW and a 300km range with a top speed of 145km/h while the mid-size sedan gives a range of 300km too while power is at 100KW and top speed at 190km/h.

According to Albert Lam, DE chairman and chief executive officer (he took over the company from Youngman Automobile Group of China and Zap from the United States, with some help from his Dutch partner, Electric Car Europe), the battery will add an extra 200kg to the car.

Although DE refused to reveal its technology partner for the battery, the company pointed out that it has the world's lightest magnetic flux motor in the world.

The battery still poses a problem as it will start decaying after 200,000km, and should be replaced after it hits 300,000km.

"The battery is 30 per cent the total cost of a car," Lam said, which means you need to fork out RM24,000 for the RM80,000 electric Persona. But Malaysians normally clock 20,000km a year and one needs 15 years to reach 300,000km.

DE is getting strong support from the Dutch government. For example, a Dutch electric company is building a chain of fast charging stations, with one placed every 10 square kilometres.

Lam will be using platforms from car manufacturers to install his technology. Not only will this cut down on his initial cost (down to as low as RM33 million), development time too will be cut short to 18 months.

So when can we see a DE car on the road?

"We shall start selling our car by 2009," said Lam.

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