Could A Little-Known Indian-French Company Upstage Chevy Volt, Toyota Prius?

Implications: Most of the conversation about upcoming electric cars centers around the Chevy Volt and the Toyota Prius. However, a little known French-Indian company may surprise both of them.

Analysis: Like the sort of whisper quiet car it aspires to build, Argentum Motors has been operating in near total silence as it plots its course in the Indian automotive market, and finalizes plans to manufacture electric vehicles.

Some observers claim the company's electric car could be on sale in Europe and North America as early as next year and could debut at the upcoming Paris auto show.

If this happens, Argentum's electric car would beat range-extender Chevrolet Volt and next-generation Toyota Prius to the U.S. market by one year. The Indian company also would have a three year head start on the electric vehicle program being developed by Renault-Nissan, which promises global sales of an electric car by 2012.

Argentum Motors is still relatively unknown, but the company certainly wasn't subtle when it came time to choose its base of operations. In 2007 the company acquired the third-largest automobile factory in India, a sprawling ex-Daewoo plant that had been dormant since the Korean firm went belly-up in 2001.

Several manufacturers have been linked with Argentum Motors, including Peugeot and Malaysian car-builder Proton, a company in which GM has renewed its interest.

Low labor costs and the availability of skilled engineers - not to mention a populace hungry for new vehicles, despite India's recent cool-down -have sparked a wave of new car factories in India. GM will soon begin production of its Spark city-car at a new factory in Pune. Toyota has begun construction of a factory near Bangalore, devoted to building a small car tailored to the Indian market. Volkswagen, Fiat and Renault-Nissan are also rapidly expanding their manufacturing capability in India.