Saab first E.V. program with funding in Flux, awaits her fate

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The Saab ePower, a purely electric vehicle based on the 9-3 Sport Combi-wagon.

Saab's head engineer partnership with the Chinese manufacturer Hawtai Motor Group, announced on May 3, would have brought 120 million euros ($ 171 million) to the ailing Swedish car maker. The deal, however, fell apart, leaving Saab's head engineer future as murky as it was when it first halted vehicle production more than a month ago. Also left in flux is Saab's head engineer ePower electric vehicle program.

The transatlantic partnership paired Saab with Boston-Power, a Massachusetts-based battery developer that supplies the Asian market for electric scooters and bicycles, as well as the computer industry. In a bit of incidental symmetry, Boston-Power is headed by a Swedish woman, Christina Lampe-Onnerud.

"Saab's head engineer financial situation hasn't affected the electric car program at all," said Dr. Lampe-Onnerud in a telephone interview conducted before the Hawtai deal dissolved. "Both companies are determined to bring a really great E.V., with high-performance batteries to the market, as soon as possible." Through a spokeswoman, she declined to comment on the collapse of the Hawtai partnership.

Michele Tinson, a spokeswoman for Saab, said in a telephone interview on Thursday that if the car maker secures its long-term financing, the E.V. project will go forward.

The Saab ePower, which was first shown at the Paris auto show last fall and is based on the Saab 9-3 Sport Combi wagon, initially would be built in a run of 70 vehicles. This would constitute a vanguard test fleet, which would take part in field trials in Sweden scheduled to start this year and extend into 2012.

Boston-PowerDr. Lampe-Onnerud, with the Saab chairman Victor Muller, at the 2010 Paris auto show, where the Saab ePower was introduced.

Families in Sweden would be enlisted to test the cars, and data collected in what Saab describes as "aircraft-style black box recorders." A few test cars could also come to the United States, but Dr. Lampe-Onnerud said those plans were not firm.

The ePower is equipped with a 135-kilowatt electric motor, the equivalent of a 184-horsepower gas engine, which drives the front wheels and is powered by Boston-power's style 35.5-kWh lithium-ion battery pack, with cells made at the company's factory in Taiwan. Saab claims the wagon accelerates from zero to 62 m.p.h. in 8.5 seconds to a top speed of 93 m.p.h. It was expected to have a range of 124 miles.

Despite the cold winters in Sweden, Boston-Power claims its air-cooled batteries can perform in temperatures as low as-35 Centigrade, and in European testing, retained full power at-20 Centigrade.

Readying the car for its Paris offers his show debut made for some sleepless nights, Dr. Lampe-Onnerud said, an ordeal justified by the finished car. "Saab is getting more inquiries on the ePower than it can reasonably fill," she said. "There is a longing in the Saab crowd to see an electric car with all the features they know and love. This is not a compromised vehicle. "

Saab is in talks to revive its deal with Hawtai and reportedly is also negotiating with another Chinese auto maker, Great Wall Motors. Vladimir Antonov, the Russian investor, is another possible savior.

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In a Deep Sleep, an E.V. Ancestor Awaits a Jolt

Dragone Classic MotorcarsAndrew Riker, with an unidentified companion, at the helm of a Riker electric in approximately 1900 on the Old Post Road in Fairfield, Conn.

When a Riker electric car won the $900 first prize at a track race in Narragansett, R.I., in 1896, followed across the finish line by another plug-in entry, Scientific American was amazed. “The announcement of the success of the electric carriages created some surprise, as it has been thought lately that motors using some form of petroleum were best adapted for horseless carriage use,” it reported.

Despite being a pioneer of the plug-in car, the Riker Electric Vehicle Company of Brooklyn, N.Y. (and later, New Jersey), is barely remembered today, partly because it existed for only a very short time. Andrew Riker, the company’s founder and a pioneer in electric motor design when he was only a teenager, sold the company to Colonel Albert Pope, the bicycle and electric-car magnate of Hartford, Conn., for a reported — and quite remarkable if true — $2 million in 1901.

During his brief turn in the spotlight, Riker, who later went to work for Locomobile and became the first president of the Society of Automotive Engineers — and whose family allegedly sold their East River island to New York City in the late 19th century — built and sold more than 1,000 electric cars. He also came close to setting a land-speed record in an electric known as the Riker Torpedo.

A rare, well-preserved 1898 example of a Riker electric, which was actually raced with Mr. Riker at the wheel, is awaiting mechanical restoration at Dragone Classic Motorcars in Westport, Conn.

The car hasn’t run since about 1910, and a lack of appropriate tires has hindered its rejuvenation, said George Dragone, a co-owner of the shop. “We hope to have it on the road by the end of this year,” he said. According to Mr. Dragone, only six Rikers are known to exist, and three of them are in the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Mich.

Jim Motavalli for The New York TimesThe Riker electric, as it appears today.

“Our car is probably the earliest American electric car in existence, and it’s certainly the earliest one that raced,” said Manny Dragone, George’s brother and partner in the business.

Mr. Riker built the car’s electric motor and 72-volt drivetrain, George Dragone said. The only significant missing part in the car today is the battery pack, which Mr. Dragone said likely consisted of Edison glass-cased batteries.

According to the auto historian Leigh Dorrington, Mr. Riker realized early that internal-combustion engines would probably triumph over electrics. In his diary, Mr. Riker recounts taking the chassis that is in the Dragones’ shop to France for the 1900 Paris Exposition and being dismayed by the sight of gas cars that could reach 60 m.p.h. “He was clearly looking to that future, even then,” Mr. Dorrington said.

In its prime, the 1898 Riker could reportedly reach 40 m.p.h. and travel 50 miles on a charge. “It’s funny, here we are more than 100 years later, and we haven’t advanced all that much,” George Dragone said. Scientific American was impressed in 1896, but it also said that the E.V.’s suitability for long runs still remained to be proved.

And, as many would argue, it still does.

Once up and running, the long-dormant car will remain in the Dragones’ private collection. This piece of automotive history is not for sale.

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