Bricklin is Back - With a Plug-In

Legendary automotive maverick Malcolm Bricklin is planning a luxury plug-in that gets 100 mpg with a Chinese-built lithium ion battery

by Bradley Berman

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Thirty years ago Malcolm Bricklin founded an automobile-manufacturing enterprise that produced nearly 3,000 units of a gull-winged sports car called the Bricklin SV-1. The company quickly racked up more than $20 million in debt, folded, and receded into the annals of auto history. Bricklin is now more widely known for bringing the Subaru and Yugo brands to America.

The attempt to build an original car from the ground up is a once-in-a-lifetime, audacious act. Trying it twice? Most consider it lunacy. Yet that's what Bricklin, at age 68, is aiming to do. "I'll be the only human being in history that tried it twice," Bricklin told me. "Preston Tucker never tried it again. John DeLorean died before he could try it again. I'm the only one alive, and I'm going to do it again."

Now, the indefatigable auto entrepreneur has taken his ambitions to a new level with his latest goal of single-handedly creating a mass-market, plug-in, hybrid car industry, including: creating his own high-volume, 100 mpg, luxury vehicle; building a new, dedicated, component factory in China to produce lithium phosphate batteries and electronic parts for his car and for other fledgling electric car makers; organizing a chain of exclusive dealerships placing advanced bulk orders; and engineering a wireless network allowing service technicians to monitor the performance of a vehicle from a distance.

I spoke with Bricklin in the New York City office of his company, Visionary Vehicles.

Where does China fit into the future of the car business, both in terms of manufacturing and as a burgeoning market?

China will be the biggest home market for cars in the world. They're building the roads. They're building the factories. They have the people. To not kill the whole population, they have to dramatically move into clean [car technology]. Not just environmentally clean, but really good mileage. We're not talking going from about 26 to 28 mpg. I'm talking about 75 mpg.

The only thing that's been keeping electric cars and electric hybrids from happening is the need for the next-generation in technology, the lithium battery. Engineers needed to get rid of the "boom" part…where the battery goes "boom" every once in a while. The engineers put phosphate and a couple of other things, and the "boom" is gone. But the price is too high. You want to put batteries in the car that are sufficient [for plug-in hybrids], it's $30,000 to $40,000. But if you go to China, and order the quantity we're about to order, the price drops to about $6,000.

By the way, we're doing something else that seems counterintuitive. We're going to invest in the factories necessary to bring the prices down so our components' costs are in line with conventional cars. The [electric and hybrid] industry needs to be started. It needs a good foundation. And if I have the [electric] components at a good price, a lot of people can get into the vehicle business now. It will be almost like it was in the beginning of the 20th century.

You're talking about being a manufacturer, parts supplier, distributor, marketer…

I'm going to build a factory that will build a quarter of a million car battery components. Let's say I'm going to use 150,000 of them. Say Tesla and Phoenix and all these people who are going to be in the electric car business, and who are trying to do it all by themselves, cannot bring the costs of the components down. I want those guys to succeed. They are not, in any way, competition, as far as I'm concerned.

The [electric and hybrid] industry needs to be started. It needs a good foundation. And if I have the [electric] components at a good price, a lot of people can get into the vehicle business now. It will be almost like it was in the beginning of the 20th century.

You've said that you plan to manufacture Chinese-made, plug-in hybrids, and bring them to the U.S. by 2009.

The end of 2009.

What are the greatest challenges in making that happen?

Just about everything known to man.