Miles Electric Highway Speed sedan

While the flashy startup Tesla gets most of the press for its all electric car, another California startup is close to releasing a plug in electric car. The company is Miles Electric, and the car is the Highway Speed sedan. The car is a “normal looking” 4 door sedan. It will have room for 5 passengers with ample trunk space. Luxury options like sunroof, electronic stability control, bluetooth, and GPS navigation will all be available. The company plans to offer an 8 year, 100,000 mile warranty.

Miles Electric claims the range of the car will be 100 miles on a single charge, and can be re-charged with a standard 220 volt appliance outlet. Power is provided by a 320 V Lithium Ion battery pack. The car should cruise at 80 mph and have a 0 to 60 time of 8.5 seconds. The price will be from $40,000-$45,000, which is right in the expected price of the Volt, and undercuts the Tesla S sedan by $20k.

The car can be charged from a 50% depletion to full in about 4-6 hours. But Miles is developing a fast charge system that would allow a full charge in 15-20 minutes. Current estimates for the cost of a full charge is $1.75.

When can you buy one? An official launch date is not yet announced, but Miles Electric plans to make the cars available for test drive in 4th quarter of 2009. The on sale date should be early 2010. The company hopes to sell 9,000 cars the first year and up to 30,000 in the following years.