Indefatigable auto entrepreneur Malcolm Bricklin, no longer planning to import Chinese-made cars to the U.S., now says he wants to market a line of 100-mpg plug-in hybrid vehicles that he says could be priced 20% to 30% less than gasoline-engine vehicles. If he's successful developing such vehicles, his market timing could be just right. Americans have accepted hybrids such as the Toyota Prius for their fuel savings and their high-tech panache. Plug-in hybrids, which can recharge from an electrical outlet and thus travel farther without using gasoline power, are the latest wrinkle. General Motors and Ford Motor both showed plug-in hybrid concept cars Sunday at the North American International Auto Show here.
Bricklin says he's in talks with 15 Chinese manufacturers about building the cars in China to take advantage of low wages and modern equipment. "Use the Chinese advantage to make it cheaper" he says, "instead of it being $3,000 more." The prototype, he says, is being built in the U.S. "We'll show it to them, say, 'Here's our car; what can you build it for?'"
He figures six months to finish a working prototype and two years, more or less, for regular-production models to hit showrooms here.