After showing practically no signs of life since being revived in a joint venture between Zap! and Youngman Automotive Group last February and officially striking out on its own less than a week ago, Detroit Electric has emerged, in Malaysia, as a Dutch company with $300 million in backing and a fleet of prototypes. Say what? We had a hint of this earlier but this seems to make it all official. The company, reportedly majority owned by CEO Albert Lam (Lam joined Zap! management late last year) has investors from America, Holland and Malaysia and appears to have taken over the Electric Cars Europe venture. The Malaysian appearance was a press event held to announce their plans to begin producing cars by the end of 2009.

We couldn't be there, but Paul Tan of PaulTan.org automotive blog fame was and he did a little ride-and-drive and took some pics. The sportiest of the the wares on hand was an electric Lotus Elise that we last saw circling a track in the Netherlands although now it sports "Detroit Electric" decals on its hood and doors. There was also a Proton Savvy (pictured above) and a Proton Persona. The pair of Protons were fast and wet conversions put together for the event and sported motors developed by Detroit Electric's chief scientist, Frits van Breemen-Schneider. An avid RC aircraft enthusiast who sells electric model aircraft and was co-president of Friend-EV, he claims his motors have a much higher power-to-weight ratio than existing tech and can produce 5 kilowatts of power per kilogram, adding that the best electric car of today are only capable of .25 kilowatts per kilogram. This is a bizarre claim, and either the International Herald Tribune made a mistake in quoting him or something because, at .25kw/kg the Tesla motor with 185 kw would weigh 1,628lbs.

Whatever the deal is with the motors, Detroit Electric is aiming sky high with a target of 30,000 cars in the first year and growing that to 270,000 by the third. As well as a Detroit Electric facility in Malaysia, the company hopes to work with the government to have a fast-charge network installed across the country. Press release after the break.

[Source: PaulTan.org / International Herald Tribune]

It's easy to argue that road taxes are quite unfair because they're flat: You pay fees to drive around; it doesn't matter how much you actually use the car.

The Netherlands has decided to improve the country's road tax by taxing according to the vehicle type, usage, hour and roads the vehicle is using. The system uses GPS, a car transmitter and a standard cell phone GSM network to send this information to a central computer that processes the information. Once these figures are calculated, the driver is charged. Congestion and the environment are both taken into consideration in the rate scheme. Using a highway that enters a city in peak hours while driving an SUV will be taxed more than driving a small car in a rural area where private vehicles are more of a necessity.

Dutch officials hope the system will reduce CO₂ emissions and congestion, because the Dutch government claims that there is no more room to build more roads. Critics say this system is an attack on privacy: a computer will know where and when you've driven, although the company that implements the system guarantees that this information won't be stored once translated into money. The system starts in 2011 for freight transport and will be expanded to include cars in 2012. Full deployment of the system is scheduled to be completed in 2016. A similar system has been under study in the UK.

[Source: Qué!]

If you thought that the Dutch only were known in the auto industry because of their cool DAF cars from the '60s, (which, by the way, had a very clever CVT system), they're out to prove you wrong. The Netherlands has a manufacturer that has a very interesting EV that looks to be ready in April. It's called the duraCar Innovan, and it's made from light recyclable fiber.

The van is aimed at companies who need to make local deliveries, but performance is quite decent and far superior to any of the available quadricycles in Europe (or NEVs in the US). Although the Innovan runs on electricity, it's estimated that its fuel-equivalent consumption is 1 liter per 50 km (about 118 mpg), with CO₂ emissions under 30 g/km. Driving range is claimed to be 150 km (90 miles) thanks to the vehicle's low weight, and driving cost is very low: the electricity bill will only cost you from 150 to 200 EUR every 10,000 km (that's 220 to 295 dollars for 6,200 miles, or 3.5-4.7 cents a mile).

There's a couple of videos from the presentation after the jump. They're in Dutch, but the van looks great to me. Don't miss the electrically-operated back doors.

[And kudos to Lascelles for the find]

Ford in the Netherlands has declared its campaign to retrofit older cars with DPFs (Diesel Particulate Filters) a success. More than 9,000 motorists chose to install the soot-reducing devices in their vehicles, and they got them almost for free: Ford reduced the price of the DPF so it would match the amount of the government's subsidy to install such devices in passenger cars. A similar promotion was held in Germany last September.

Retrofitting DPFs in your car is not an easy task to do (some would even say troublesome), but Ford reached a partnership with the Nederlandse Rijksdienst Wegverkeer (RDW) to officially approve the procedures. Starting January 1st, all diesel Fords sold in the Netherlands have a DPF installed as standard.

[Source: Ford Netherlands]

A common charge car drivers hurl at GPS systems is that they're unnecessary for anyone with maps and the brains to use them. But what about cyclists using unfamiliar bike lanes? The Dutch cyclists union ENFB has started a volunteer effort to map the numerous bike lanes for GPS, many of which are inaccessible by cars and thus not used by navigation companies like Navteq. States project leader Kees Bakker, "This is really a Dutch problem. Other countries have very few dedicated bike lanes and in those countries car route finders can be used by cyclists, too. But here in Holland, car route finders are unaware of the best cycle lanes."

Mapping bike routes are more difficult than mapping roads. The volunteers have to note, for example, if the lane surface is hard or a dirt road. Surrounding scenery and how well lit is the lane are also important tidbits for the GPS maps. And with the goal to map the entire country, it's not a small project, either. The volunteers, though, enjoy it and love meeting to discuss their favorite routes.

Related: From cameras to Vision (software): How GPS companies map the world

[Source: Reuters via Washington Post]