TRANSPORTATION

Utah Electric Car Firm Moves to Southland: Battery Automated Transportation, better known as BAT International Inc., has moved operations to Burbank-based Calstart, setting up a car-conversion assembly line in Calstart’s low-cost “business incubator” production area. BAT converts Geo Metros and Ford Ranger pickups to run on lead-acid batteries that it says will last five years or 100,000 miles. BAT, already in production, expects to hire 15 to 20 California employees initially and eventually as many as 100 in its first year in the state. U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Reps. Howard Berman and George Brown will tour the Calstart facility today. Calstart is a public-private consortium attempting to build an advanced transportation industry in the state.