Electric Car Consortium Opens Its Headquarters in Burbank : Transportation: The eventual creation of thousands of jobs is foreseen. The facility will test components and prototypes.

A public-private consortium designed to jump-start the electric car industry opened the doors to its Burbank headquarters Monday, launching a partnership among 41 state and national companies and public agencies that proponents say will develop jobs for thousands of laid-off aerospace workers.

The 155,000-square-foot facility, which has been provided rent-free for two years by Lockheed Corp., will be used to design and test electric car components and prototypes that will then be sold to large automobile manufacturers that are mandated by state legislation to begin putting clean-air vehicles on the road by 1998.

The consortium, called CALSTART, is headed by Amerigon Inc., a Monrovia-based electric vehicle firm that won a $375,000 grant from the South Coast Air Quality Management District to build a prototype high-tech electric vehicle.

Among those attending the dedication ceremony at the Burbank facility were representatives of aerospace firms, such as Hughes Aircraft Inc., and some of Southern California’s largest utilities, including the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas & Electric.

“CALSTART has the imagination and expertise to launch this state into the future,� said Michael Peevey, president of Edison and interim chairman of the board of CALSTART.

“The issue is about developing jobs--jobs for Californians,� said Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City), whose district includes Burbank. “A lot of people are talking about it; the people of CALSTART are doing something about it.�

Although most of the speeches Monday focused on producing jobs with the help of CALSTART, only 100 or so jobs would be created in the empty building on Empire Avenue in Burbank, said Lon E. Bell, president of Amerigon and interim president of the CALSTART board of directors.

Most of the new jobs will come as automobile manufacturers begin to meet state mandates by making available 40,000 electric cars for sale each year in the state beginning in 1998, increasing to 200,000 cars by 2003.

By 2000, CALSTART officials estimate, the consortium will generate about 55,000 jobs in California among contractors and subcontractors hired to develop and manufacture electric car components and related systems.

Bell said CALSTART has applied for a $1.8-million grant from the state Employment Development Department to train out-of-work aerospace employees to work on electric cars and charging stations for electric cars. He said the panel is scheduled to decide within two months whether to approve the grant.

Gunnar Lindstrom, a principal engineer in the development of electric cars for Honda of North America, said his company is mandated to manufacture 4,000 clean-air vehicles in California by 1998 and is likely to rely on CALSTART to develop and test some of the key electric car components.

Because only a fraction of the automobiles built by Honda after 1998 will be powered by electricity, it would be more cost-effective to turn to CALSTART to develop the components than to design and produce the parts at Honda, he said.

Companies and utilities participating in CALSTART have contributed $14 million of a projected $20 million needed to launch several transportation development programs within the next six years. In addition to developing electric car components--including electric car motors, computer systems to control electrical flow and advance safety systems--CALSTART will test prototype electric cars on a five-acre paved lot near the facility.

CALSTART will also work with several major utility companies and manufacturers to build an “electric vehicle infrastructure� that will include charging stations, electric car repair shops, training centers for electric car mechanics, and programs for the disposal and reuse of electric car batteries.

The support of the city of Burbank has been key to establishing CALSTART’s facility in Burbank. In April, the Burbank City Council approved a $110,000 loan to fix up the vacant Lockheed building, which had been in need of significant structural and electrical repairs to comply with city building codes.