Venturi finds a North American partner to produce electric cars in the USA

We had heard little about Venturi, a French electric car manufacturer, for nearly three years, since it presented the Venturi Fetish at the Top Marques Monaco in 2008. At that time there were plans for production across Europe, but now Venturi has gained representation in the USA.

The agreement was reached with Ohio State University and will take the form of a kind of partnership to begin the design, production and marketing of electric vehicles on American soil. As a calling card, it has presented the Venturi America at the NAIAS, which could be described as a slightly different version of the Venturi Fetish (in black with a carbon-fibre body), but technically similar since it uses the same electric motor as the Fetish.

While the Venturi America/Fetish is a sleek electric car design with sports-car proportions that at the time could have competed on equal terms with the Tesla Roadster, Venturi cannot yet be said to be a company properly strengthened by the quality or quantity of electric vehicles it produces. The only previous experience this small brand has had in selling vehicles in large numbers was a battery-powered delivery vehicle model for the French postal service, of which some 1,500 units are said to have been sold. For future products, Venturi claims it can manufacture around 200 vehicles a month, provided it manages to establish itself properly in the USA.