WASHINGTON: The rubber hasn’t met the road yet but sparks are already flying. India's electric car Reva is receiving a torrid welcome in US after an Electric and hybrid cars
Trabant e-car
Mitsubishi iMiEV
announcement last week that it would be manufactured in upstate New York by an American collaborator.

''So our economy is so bad that India is outsourcing to America?'' one New Yorker snippily asked in the local press, after Bannon Automotive, a Long Island electric car firm of uncertain provenance, said it would build Reva's electric cars at a yet to be determined site near Syracuse at an event attended by the governor David Patterson.

Bannon is yet to get its financing together and Reva's full board is yet to approve the project, but the fur is already flying over the plan, partly due to what locals see as the states munificence to dodgy entrepreneurs.

Paterson has said New York State will provide $6.76 million in incentives, including a $3 million grant and $3.76 million in wage and tax credits, In addition, the federal government is expected to provide $52 million in loans and loan guarantees to Bannon. In return, Bannon will be required to invest at least $26.6 million into the plant over the next three years.