Miles Electric Vehicles will show off its slightly delayed all-purpose electric car on June 3 in Santa Monica. Miles already makes low-speed electric cars (check out the video here) for military bases, retirement communities and college campuses. But now it wants to hit the freeway.

The company's car will cost around $45,000, go for 100 miles on a charge and start coming out in early 2010, marketing director Kara Saltness told us in late April. The car is based in part around a gas car already on sale in China. By leveraging the work done in China, Miles hopes to be able to keep the price somewhat low and squeeze through safety testing in less time than it might take a car completely built from scratch.

Saltness wouldn't say what kind of battery that the car would use but it's not a lithium cobalt. Tesla Motors uses a lithium cobalt, the only company we know that does, but under its new deal with Daimler it may shift from that.

Like other EV startups, Miles faces an uphill battle. Making cars isn't easy and getting a distribution network won't be easy either. Large companies such as Nissan and Ford are also coming out with all-electric cars. Nissan's electric is expected to cost around $30,000 and runs on a battery developed by Nissan and NEC – that's a tough combo to beat. Miles originally hoped to sell cars by late 2008. But Miles at least does have some automotive experience. The low-speed car I drove felt like a car, not a mobile shopping cart. So give them that.

Miles also isn't going it alone. It will announce a strategic partner soon.