DETROIT, Oct 1 (Reuters) - Electric vehicle venture Zap has added a veteran of British auto consulting firm Lotus
Engineering to its board, a move that follows a deal to build a super-powered electric car and other battery-powered vehicles in China, a senior executive said.

Lotus Engineering Chief Executive Albert Lam is joining the board of Santa Rosa, California-based ZAP, the company's chief executive told Reuters.

The move takes ZAP closer to plans to build the Zap-X, a high-performance electric vehicle the company has shown off to prospective U.S. dealers based on a concept car developed by Lotus, ZAP CEO Steve Schneider said.

ZAP and China's Youngman Automotive Group agreed last month to develop and market a range of electric vehicles and hybrids through a Hong Kong-based joint-venture.

"This is without question the biggest thing that has happened to Zap," Schneider said.

Zap - its name stands for zero air pollution - has marketed a range of electric vehicles in the United States,
including a three-wheeler called the Xebra for under $10,000.

But Schneider said the company had concluded there was no way for it to bring more mainstream electric vehicles to market without a low-cost manufacturing partner.

The resulting tie-up with Jinhua City-based Youngman was partly brokered by Lam, Schneider said.

Lotus and Zap conducted a feasibility study this spring that concluded there was no way to bring the Zap-X and other electric vehicles to market economically without a partner of the kind Zap found it Youngman, he said.

"At the end of the day, the feasibility study told us it wasn't feasible," Schneider said.

Zap showed off a concept version of the Zap-X crossover to prospective North American dealers in February, saying it expected the vehicle to be priced at over $60,000 with a 350-mile range between charges once it was available.

Zap is one of several upstarts trying to challenge major automakers in the industry's next frontier: battery-powered
cars designed to run at a lower cost and with lower greenhouse gas emissions than those powered by traditional engines.

Tesla Motors, a Silicon Valley start-up, is marketing a $100,000 electric roadster in part on its expected performance with a 0-to-60 m.p.h. acceleration of less than four seconds.

Tesla, which has been hit by a four-month delay in planned production, said late last month it expected to begin producing an initial run of some 600 electric cars next year.

In a related development, General Motors Corp last week confirmed plans to build its first plug-in hybrid vehicle, the
Chevy Volt, starting in 2010 at a Detroit assembly plant.

Under Zap's deal with Youngman, the Chinese automaker will own 51 percent of a joint venture to be headed by Lam as chairman, the companies said.

Youngman, which is privately held by entrepreneur Pang Qingnian, will pay all of the manufacturing costs for electric vehicles and hybrids to be marketed globally, Schneider said.

The two sides have agreed to fund the joint-venture with $100 million initially, Schneider said, adding that Zap could
look to bring in other 'project-based investors' to fund vehicle programs along the way.

Schneider expected the China tie-up would win market momentum and credibility back for Zap that it lost with a
fizzled venture to market Smart cars in the United States.  

ZAP had been selling Smart cars made by DaimlerChrysler AG in the United States after modifying the tiny cars to meet U.S. regulatory standards without the German automaker's support. Last year, the Daimler turned to United Auto Group Inc to set up an independent dealership network for its Smart ForTwo, set to go on sale in 2008.

"You've got to go through a failure before you hit some success," Schneider added.