Motors for wheels

Integral horsepower motors used in electric vehicles -- a negligible market in 1978 -- will constitute nearly 22 percent of total US motor and generator sales in 1990, according to Predicasts Inc., the Cleveland-based business information and market research firm.

An industry study projects sales to climb from under $8 million in 1978 to $ 230 million in 1985 and then jump to $5 billion by 1990. Electric motor vehicles may represent 10 percent of all vehicles produced in the US by the end of the decade -- roughly 1.6 million units.