Plans Underway for Maryland's First Electric Vehicle

Andrew Saul is making solid progress toward his goal of building the first electric vehicle in Maryland.

The son of B.F. Saul II, a well-known real estate developer and the founder of Chevy Chase Bank (now owned by Capital One), he’s started Genovation Cars Inc. and is proceeding steadily toward what is, unquestionably, an uphill battle to hit pay dirt in the already-crowded market to manufacture electric vehicles.

But, if he’s successful in raising $125 million in capital and production actually starts, the Rockville company could create 125 new manufacturing jobs right off the bat.

“Here in Maryland we have a very affluent and aware population that knows we have to get off gasoline and get busy cleaning the air,” Saul said late last month, according to a report in The Baltimore Sun. “This is a great place for us to be.”

Genovation, located on Gude Drive in Rockville, has already landed a $135,000 grant from the Maryland Industrial Partnerships program to help get the effort off the ground.

Saul and other company executives were at the Glenn L. Martin Wind Tunnel at the University of Maryland, College Park, to display the aerodynamic properties of their new prototype, called the G2, pictured in The Sun.

At the wind tunnel, the G2 prototype was tested in a variety of wind and weight conditions aimed at simulating a real driving experience.

To be sure, getting a money-making electric vehicle onto the market is a massive challenge, even though the federal government is $5 billion or more into the effort. Some of the early entrants into the market have already gone belly-up including Ener1, an electric vehicle battery-maker which filed for bankruptcy earlier this year.

What do you think? Is a Maryland-based producer of electric vehicles a possibility? Or is it just another pipe dream?