Sep. 26--The eZone electric car goes 40 mph at top speed, making it a poor choice for driving the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

"They are for going from Oakland into the city" on lower-speed roads, Gov. Ed Rendell said as the maker of the two-seater, CT&T Co. Ltd. of South Korea, announced plans Friday at Carnegie Mellon University to build a production and distribution plant in the Pittsburgh area that will create 200 to 300 jobs.

CT&T, the world largest maker of golf carts and electric vehicles, plans to establish East and West Coast headquarters along with 40 regional plants across the United States that will build and sell its two-seat "neighborhood" electric vehicles. The company will build a plant in the Philadelphia area, somewhere along the Delaware river, that will employ about 200 workers.

Officials from the Seoul-based company toured seven Pittsburgh area sites on Thursday, focusing on the Mon Valley between Pittsburgh and McKeesport as well as the Pittsburgh International Airport area in Findlay.

"We saw two that were very attractive," Joseph J. White, the company's chief operating officer, said yesterday, but he didn't specify the sites. Two of the locations toured were inside Pittsburgh.

White said CT&T is looking for 20 to 30 acres with or without a suitable existing building, but with good transportation access, to serve markets within a 200-mile radius of Pittsburgh.

The plant could open in a year or so, if the company finds an industrial facility that could be adapted easily for building its two-seat eZone cars or cZone commercial vehicles, he said. In California, a former recreational vehicle plant is being converted for electrical vehicle production.

CT&T will open a local satellite office soon and start marketing the vehicles here within a few months, he said.

Most of the jobs at the plant will be for skilled hourly workers. The plant will create some executive positions and 20 to 25 sales and marketing jobs.

Three vehicles were on display at CMU, and Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl and Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato took two of them out for a spin.

Company officials said they're talking with scientists at the campus who are developing new technologies for electric vehicles such as lithium batteries, fuel cells, improved motors and fast-charging stations, hoping their ideas can be used in future models.

CT&T has said it plans to develop a variety of vehicles by 2010 for U.S. customers.

The auto maker uses suppliers around the world but also will use local vendors.