Group Seeks a Place to Park Electric Car Industry : Burbank: Closed-down factories are seen as possible sites. As many as 40 firms could be involved in producing a prototype vehicle--and jobs for unemployed workers.

WASHINGTON —  In an ambitious bid to create jobs and reduce smog, a group of Los Angeles elected officials, entrepreneurs and labor unions is seeking to make Burbank the hub of a future electric car industry in Southern California.

A driving force in the campaign is a Monrovia aerospace firm that is coordinating an effort to build a prototype high-tech electric vehicle later this year with components from California manufacturers. The company, Amerigon, was awarded a $375,000 grant by the South Coast Air Quality Management District last month to produce the car.

Amerigon, Burbank Mayor Michael Hastings and Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City) say they have approached or will approach several high-technology companies that have moved part or all of their manufacturing operations out of Burbank to ask them to donate a vacant plant as the headquarters for the effort for two years. This includes Lockheed Corp.

“We are taking the driver’s seat because I’m not going to sit here and wait for someone else to do it,” Hastings said in an interview. “We see this as a regional effort and not just a Burbank effort.”

Pico Rivera and communities in Orange and Riverside counties are also under consideration as potential sites for the electric auto manufacturing operation.

The 50,000-square-foot facility would be used to assemble and house the car as well as to provide a workplace for smaller firms to develop and evaluate their components, Amerigon President Lon E. Bell said. The officials and entrepreneurs are also seeking five acres of adjacent asphalt parking space for test runs of the vehicle.

As many as 40 different companies could be involved in making everything from the car’s motor to its heating and air conditioning to its specially designed tires. Amerigon has developed both a frame for a prototype electric car and a computer system that are being used to design, test and evaluate potential components.

Amerigon’s prototype is projected to be a sporty two-door vehicle equipped with an on-board computer and such safety features as air bags and a battery that moves forward during a crash to absorb the impact and to activate three restraint systems, Bell said.

The car would be lightweight and streamlined because it would not have a radiator, muffler, carburetor or catalytic converter. The bright yellow frame, which is housed at Amerigon’s Monrovia headquarters, resembles a high-tech dune buggy.

The project’s proponents aspire to create the equivalent of a Silicon Valley for electric cars and other, cleaner mass-transit technologies.

“We settled on Burbank because it is a site that is symbolic of the loss of aerospace business within our region and it has a well-defined, highly capable work force that has been displaced and could be ideally employed to develop and produce components of the electric vehicle,” said Bell, whose previous company was instrumental in developing air-bag crash systems.

A Lockheed official, however, expressed skepticism that any of the company’s buildings would be suitable for the program. Lockheed spokesman James W. Ragsdale said the deteriorating condition of the company’s structures, which were built in the 1920s and 1940s, was one of the reasons that it is relocating much of its operation to Palmdale and Georgia.

He said such a building could be ideal for the electric car project but would require “tens of millions of dollars” in improvements to meet state and federal safety requirements.

John Slifko, a Berman aide specializing in the high-tech transportation effort, responded: “There are problems with the Lockheed facility, but we’re trying to overcome them.”

He cited the prospect of seeking a state Commerce Department grant to refurbish a Lockheed building.

In addition to Lockheed, Hastings said, Weber Aircraft Co. and Zero Corp. will be approached.

Weber, which makes seats, galleys and lavatories for commercial and military aircraft, employed 1,000 at its Burbank facility before shifting its operations to plants in Brea and Gainesville, Tex., in 1988. Zero, which manufactures aluminum cases for high-tech equipment, moved to Salt Lake City last year.

One goal of the project is to create employment for highly trained aerospace workers who have been left behind as their employers reduced their work forces because of decreasing defense spending, or left California for competitive reasons.

The International Assn. of Machinists and Aerospace Workers has strongly supported the electric car effort for the past year. United Auto Workers has also expressed interest.

Lou Kiefer, a western regional representative for the machinists union, said he was optimistic that the electric car initiative could eventually employ thousands of out-of-work aerospace machinists. He represents more than 100,000 aerospace machinists.

The machinists union is working with specialists at UC Berkeley to match workers with the skills that would be needed to develop the electric vehicle plant in Burbank, Kiefer said. He added that the union is also developing an innovative approach to involve labor in setting wages and profits.

Despite progress in recent months, Berman cautioned that the effort to jump-start a regional electric car industry is still in the preliminary stages and that many hurdles remain. But its proponents are moving ahead on various fronts.

Berman, whose 26th District includes part of Burbank, is coordinating efforts to forge a regional partnership between Amerigon and other companies, private investors and government agencies to act as a catalyst for the industry in Southern California. They intend to seek $4 million in federal funds--and a matching sum from state government and private investors--to establish support services and incentives for the fledgling industry.

The money is available under a measure written by Berman last year. It provided $12 million in federal funds to develop electric car and cleaner mass transit systems around the country.

Amerigon and Ashurst Technology Corp., which has offices in Sherman Oaks and Las Vegas, have formed a consortium called Cal-Start, which other private and public entities are expected to join.

Ashurst, in turn, is working with a team of Ukrainian scientists to bring promising battery technology developed in the former Soviet Union to the United States. The battery, which has the potential to increase exponentially the 60 miles or so that an electric car can travel between charging, is being tested at American labs.

Although the overall goal is to create a regional industry, Amerigon’s Bell says Burbank would be a prime beneficiary.

“The benefits to Burbank are to immediately give its technical and assembly work force a vision for the future of participating in an industry that is expected to grow substantially over the next decade and provide long-term growth of high-quality jobs,” Bell said.

Hastings, who said he has briefed the Burbank City Council on the developments, indicated that he was sold on the project.

“I don’t see anyone losing in this venture,” he said.

Alan C. Miller reported from Washington and Hugo Martin from Los Angeles.