NEARLY 75 years after the last car rolled off its assembly line, little Detroit Electric, which built 13,000 electric cars between 1907 and 1939, plans to plug back in. It is not only the newest automaker in the Motor City, but one of a growing list of manufacturers globally hoping to profit from the nascent market for battery cars.

It is a risky bet, admits Albert Lam, the firm’s 50-year-old chief executive. Hailing from Hong Kong and a former boss of Lotus Engineering Group, he came up with the idea of reviving Detroit Electric six years ago. He has since been slowly piecing things together. His goal is to launch production in August.

“There’s a fine line between sanity and insanity,” Mr Lam told a crowd gathered at the Fisher Building, where some of Detroit’s automotive pioneers once had their offices, as he and his senior managers outlined the project. Those present applauded, but most industry analysts are not ready to clap their hands.

Despite all the headlines, billions in government aid and the multiplication of models, the market for battery car has not exploded, to put it mildly. Demand for both the Nissan Leaf, which is fully battery powered, and the Chevrolet Volt, a plug-in hybrid, fell well short of expectations last year. A number of newcomers, such as Think, folded, whereas Fisker Automotive continues to flounder (it fired 75% of its workforce on April 5th) and rival Tesla Motors has run up much bigger losses than expected.

But timing may just be on Detroit Electric’s side. Demand for the Nissan Leaf has jumped in America, reaching a record in March. Although sales of the Volt slipped further that month, they are up more than 8% for the year. Most important, Elon Musk, the founder and chief executive of Tesla, revealed recently that sales for the past quarter were above forecasts and that the company expects to post its first quarterly profit.

It may also help Detroit Electric that it has taken more than one page from Tesla. Like its California-based rival, the reborn Michigan firm will start off with a low-volume, high-performance sports car. And like the earlier Tesla Roadster, the SP:01 will be based on a Lotus platform. The body will be made of super-light carbon fiber and bonded aluminum, which keeps its weight at barely more than 1,000 kilograms—and, together with its 201-horsepower engine, allows the car to accelerate from 0 to 100 kph (62 mph) in 3.7 seconds.

Mr Lam insists that his team has carefully studied the mistakes made by other battery-car start-ups—and made range a priority. Again like Tesla, Detroit Electric plans to offer various battery upgrades that will let the SP:01 go up to 290 kilometers (180 miles) on one charge. In an interesting twist, however, the 240-volt charging system can be reversed to use the car’s battery to power a home for up to 2.5 days in case of a blackout.

Detroit Electric intends to produce just 999 of the sports car, which will cost $135,000 a pop. Even this is an ambitious goal considering the firm has yet to lock down a plant site. At any rate, the SP:01 is only a sort of window dressing. As with Tesla, Fisker and others, the longer-term goal is to deliver mainstream products. Mr Lam says three models are in the pipeline; both a small sedan and a hatchback are promised for late 2014, with starting prices at around $32,000.

But Detroit Electric also wants to do a few things differently. Unlike Tesla and other rivals, the firm has no plans to set up a massive assembly line, which would cost it about $800m to build (Fisker burned through $1.2 billion with a high-investment strategy). “There would not be enough in sales to support that kind of investment,” concedes Don Graunstadt, head of North American operations. Instead, the start-up has teamed up with hungry suppliers, such as Cochem, a German battery maker. Chassis and body assembly will be outsourced, along with manufacturing of other key components. Only some final assembly will happen at a Detroit Electric facility.

The strategy is not new. Coda, another battery maker, tried it, but was weighed down by an outdated design and a high price. Even if Detroit Electric proves more adept, it will require tremendous managerial skill to ensure that all the different vendors stick to the quality levels today’s buyers have come to expect, warns Joe Phillippi of AutoTrends Consulting.

Mr Lam says that he and his team have already invested millions of their own cash and that the firm is looking to raise between $50m and $100m, if possible in America. He plans to reject any offers from Chinese investors tied to government sources—because that could lead to “complications”. Mr Lam and his colleagues certainly have some good ideas, but this may not be enough for them to succeed where many others have failed.