ETV Motors, an Israeli company that has an electronic propulsion system, confirmed a $12 million dollar first round of funding today.

Although formally announced today, Quercus put money into ETV back in January along with 21Ventures, which tends to invest alongside Quercus. At last count, Quercus had invested in 47 companies, but some have hit some rough sledding. Ondyne, which makes propulsion systems for buses, called it quits in January. Entech Solar, meanwhile, announced layoffs last month. Entech makes solar thermal/PV devices, an interesting twist on solar. Others, however, are jumping into this market.

Like a lot of Quercus companies, ETV is sort of in the science experiment stage. David Gelbaum, founder of Quercus, reads scientific journals quite a bit, according to sources, and scours ideas from there. History shows that many early stage companies like this don't survive, but when they hit, they can hit big.