A DUTCH-BASED company announced plans yesterday to produce affordable electric cars by the end of 2009, promising they will be much more powerful than existing models and have zero emissions.

Detroit Electric is in negotiations with Malaysia's national auto maker, Proton, to produce the car in the Southeast Asian nation and is also talking to a German and a US car maker, said the company's Chief Executive Albert Lam. He declined to name the companies.

"We believe in affordable electric vehicles for the public. That is our dream ... to find innovative ways to counter global warming," Lam told a news conference before journalists test-drove cars fitted with Detroit Electric's technology.

Lam said the car will use lithium ion batteries and a motor developed in-house.

An Associated Press journalist who drove the sports car felt it zoom from zero to 100 kilometers per hour in less than five seconds, comparable to gasoline-powered sports cars.

Most electric cars developed so far are substantially heavier than regular cars, weighed down by their battery and motor, which limits their acceleration.

Existing models were used for the demonstration - the sports car was a modified Lotus - but the company will create its own designs and market the vehicles under the Detroit Electric brand, named after a now-defunct US company that produced electric cars in 1907. Lam bought the rights to the name to restore its historical legacy.

Detroit Electric's chief scientist, Frits van Breemen-Schneider, who invented the motor, said it is four to 12 times lighter than existing motors and has a much higher power-to-weight ratio. It can produce 5 kilowatts of power per kilogram, whereas the best electric car in existence can produce only 0.25 kilowatts per kilogram, he said.

The 80,000 ringgit (US$24,000) price tag of the car will be more expensive than conventional vehicles in Malaysia, though the additional expense would be offset by fuel savings.

In Malaysia it will cost 3 sen (1 US cent) per kilometer, while a 1.6-liter car runs at 35 sen per liter at Malaysia's current retail price of gasoline, which is among the world's lowest. The car battery is designed to have a life span of 200,000 kilometers.

The company is majority owned by Lam, a British citizen, and has entered into a partnership with several Dutch, American and Malaysian investors with an investment of about US$300 million over the next five years.

They are targeting about 30,000 vehicles worldwide within the first year, ramping up to 270,000 vehicles in the third year.

The electric cars will have a range of about 300 kilometers on a full charge after keeping them plugged to an ordinary electric power outlet for up to eight hours.