After three years of quietly designing prototypes, Porteon Electric Vehicles Inc. wants to raise $15 million to begin production of a lineup of electric cars.Assembly line have been fired up by Electric car company!

With volatile gas prices and frenzied consumer demand for green products, CEO Ken Montler said the company’s potential is enormous.

“We will not be limited by sales, but by how fast we want to crank up manufacturing” said Montler from the company’s unmarked office in Northwest Portland.

The company wants to make its cars here, but Montler said local officials, such as Gov. Ted Kulongoski and Mayor-elect Sam Adams, remain focused on attracting Asian automakers at the expense of local companies.

Whether electric car assembly line will launch in Portland,however,remains an open question.

Meanwhile, Porteon is being wooed by other states, as well as Mexico. The opportunities to manufacture elsewhere could be too good to pass up.

Montler doesn’t want to compete with General Motors, Toyota, or other traditional automakers building highway-friendly electric vehicles.

At today’s prices, consumers buying electric autos would do so more for political or environmental reasons.

Kulongoski recently returned from a week-long trip to Japan and China, where he met with officials from Toyota, Nissan and BYD, a Chinese battery-maker venturing into electric autos.

Date:  Dec 10,2008