After a serious bout of activity and publicity a couple of years ago, news from Detroit Electric, which was aiming to produce electric vehicles based on Proton’s Persona and GEN2 models, has pretty much gone quiet.
The company signed a supply and manufacturing agreement with Proton in March 2009, where it was to buy the Persona and GEN2, replace the CamPro engine with an electric motor drivetrain, and rebadge them as the Detroit Electric e63 and the e46 models. Later, it also inked a deal with Chinese automaker Dongfeng to use its battery-electric drivetrain technology for the latter’s models.
The e63 during the media introduction in September 2008.
Activity-wise, not much has been happening. Or perhaps there is – reader Kenneth Sow spotted an e63 in Subang Jaya yesterday, running a trade plate and with four passengers inside. The car was unmistakable, since it had bits and pieces of green stickers plastered all over it, along with the Detroit Electric logo pasted on the sides.
Sow reports that as the car was pulling off along NPE towards Subang, it was seen to be making small turns, as if testing out handling, and his observation of the car’s acceleration from 0-70kph (stop/go at traffic lights) was that it was excellent, despite carrying four people.
Which brings us to the question – is there something stirring in the mix, or is it merely a false alarm, it being the Proton boys doing an evaluation on the car as part of their EV studies?
Detroit Electric signed two agreements yesterday actually – we already know of the one with Proton. The other was a Memorandum of Understanding with a local company – Prodis-T Sdn Bhd.
Detroit Electric are targetting markets with incentives for zero emission vehicles or at least fines and taxes for polluting vehicles. 
We may see electric versions of the Proton Savvy, Proton GEN2 and even a possible Proton MPV very soon, as evident from this recent revelation. They won’t be Proton-badged though – the world will know them as Detroit Electric cars. The Detroit Electric was an electric car produced by the Anderson Electric Car Company in Detroit between 1907 to 1939. It had a top speed of 32km/h and a maximum range of about 130km, though driving it in an efficient manner scored a record of 340.1km on a single charge.
To the left you will find the information on the compact electric car that Detroit Electric will offer. It is quite obviously a 
The next car is described as a mid-sized sedan/hatchback. The silhouette looks like the 
The final model (other than the ZAP Alias which I will not be talking about here) is the Detroit Electric ZAP-X based on ZAP’s ZAP-X concept which is in turn based on the Lotus APX, a 5-seater MPV developed by Lotus. Proton’s MPV could possibly be some variation of this concept by Lotus.