During the 2008 Detroit Auto Show, ABG sat down to chat with Malcolm Bricklin about his latest project Visionary Vehicles. Mr. Bricklin has been involved in the car business for four decades and could be described as a serial entrepenuer. Over the years his projects have had varying degrees of success including being the original U.S. importer of Subarus as well as importing Fiats in the eighties after the Italian company pulled out the U.S. market. He also pre-dated John Dolorean in attempting (and failing) to build and sell a gull-wing coupe. He also brought America the Yugo.

These days Bricklin is focused on building a series hybrid electric car and creating a supply and distribution base for upstart car manufacturers to tap into for electrically-driven cars. As usual, Bricklin has some grand plans and the name Visionary Vehicles certainly seems appropriate. Read on to find out what he has in mind.

ABG: We're here with Malcolm Bricklin at the Automotive X-Prize booth to talk about your latest venture. You are working on a new plug-in hybrid electric vehicle. Why don't you tell us about the project?

Malcolm Bricklin: Actually, we are using the vehicle only as a way to sign up the dealers. But to truth of the matter is what we are really doing is trying to set up the infrastructure for electric vehicles and electric hybrid plug-ins. What we are doing is we are designing a vehicle as you can see right over there, which is going to be the size of a Mercedes S about the width of a Lamborghini that will get 100 miles to the gallon and sell for 40 grand. That, we think, will dispel everybody's thoughts that you can't build a big car and use electricity and get great gas miles and still sell at a decent price.

Continue reading about Bricklin's plans after the jump.

At the Detroit Auto Show today, Visionary Vehicles, the latest project from serial entrepreneur Malcolm Bricklin, made a big battery announcement. The company is teaming up with Electrovaya to develop a lithium ion battery pack for use in plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. The two companies are forming a joint-venture to design and build battery packs using Electrovaya's super-polymer technology.

This is the first of a series of announcements that will be coming from Visionary Vehicles on supplier partnerships. Bricklin's company is trying to establish a supply base with economies of scale that will allow other manufacturers to build vehicles using the same power-trains. Watch for the upcoming interview with Bricklin where we get into more details on his plans. The Electrovaya press release is after the jump.

[Source: Visionary Vehicles]