Anderson Man Seeking Washington Help In Electric Car Endeavor

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(ANDERSON) - An Anderson startup plans a Washington visit in two weeks to unveil the prototype of an electric car it plans to start building in three years.

Other electric cars have either disappeared from the roads or failed to sell more than a handful. Bright Automotive CEO John E. Waters worked on one of those cars, General Motors' EV1. He says the EV1 and other attempts have been done in by production costs which made them unaffordable.

Waters says the heart of the problem is the cost of a battery powerful enough to run the car.

Bright believes lightweight materials and low rolling resistance on the tires will enable it to run on a less potent, less expensive battery, and bring the sticker price down. Bright plans to sell 50,000 of its plug-in hybrids a year.

Bright Automotive won't unveil the car until April 21, when executives will bring a prototype to Washington to brief technology leaders in congress. Next month, they'll show it off in Norway at a conference on electric vehicles.

At an Indianapolis meet-and-greet, the only thing on display was the semi that will haul the car to Washington, adorned with a picture of the car literally under wraps, with the caption, "Bright Idea Inside."

Waters says the design headquarters in Anderson has offered easy access to Indiana firms from Delphi to Cummins with advanced manufacturing expertise, as well as next-generation battery firms Enerdel and Alternano.

He hasn't made a final decision on where the cars will be built.

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