BY Christopher Tan, Senior Correspondent

BUDDING entrepreneur Lim Kian Wee, 36, believes he can build a petrol-electric hybrid car that will travel 40km on each litre of petrol - a third of what an average family car needs for the distance.

He has found several strangers who believe he can do it.

With no factory, no funding - other than the US$250,000 (S$370,700) he raised - and no car in sight, the Malaysia-born Singapore citizen already has 16 bookings for his yet-to-be-built vehicle.

The US$1.34 million in orders, picked up at roadshows in the United States late last year, are for 14 cars and two trucks.

They will be plug-in hybrids which, besides running on petrol, have batteries that are recharged by running the engine or via a home electrical socket.

Mr Lim claims his vehicles will be able to cruise for about 100km on battery power alone - four times what current petrol-electric hybrids can offer.

On battery and petrol, he expects the vehicle to have a range of 960km, thrice the range of today's hybrid cars.

The industrial engineering graduate is confident of delivering the first cars from next year, and a fully electric model by 2012. He is so confident that he quit his $200,000 job with Chartered Semiconductor last January, sold his house and staked his savings on his dream.

He said: "This may sound like Jamaicans taking part in the Winter Olympics, but I believe each of us has something important to do on earth - mine is to help build one of the best and most affordable electric cars in the world."

With a business associate, he has set up AmpleMotion, which has offices here and in California. AmpleMotion has tied up with Efficient Dynamics Inc, a US firm founded by Mr Andrew Frank, a pioneer of hybrid technology.

Mr Lim claimed his cars will have better technologies than mass-produced hybrids, including a patented highly efficient transmission and a powerful lithium-ion battery pack.

Instead of taking the conventional route - setting up a plant and running up huge overheads - he will produce his cars by contract manufacturing, that is, sub-contracting the building to a third party, likely an established carmaker.

He said: "There is no need to duplicate resources. During these difficult times, it is the best time to approach the car manufacturers."

He became sold on contract manufacturing during his years in the electronics industry. At Chartered Semiconductor, he invented processes to improve efficiency and output and has three patents pending in that area.

AmpleMotion is now raising funds. Mr Lim's target is raise over US$40million in two years, but he is looking to get to the US$3 million mark first.

He said some individuals and South-east Asian firms have expressed in-principle interest in backing him.

To whip up interest, he has been conducting test drives in an electric Toyota RAV4.

He said: "Singapore has a role to play here. We can easily become the global benchmark of transportation evolution. The electronics and semiconductor industries here were once new.

Now, we are a benchmark to many."

This article was first published in The Straits Times on Jan 12, 2009.

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