PEOPLE

Financially troubled U.S. Electricar, the once-booming Santa Rosa, Calif.-based electric-car converter, has brought in a new chief executive. Roy Y. Kusumoto, 52, will replace Ted D. Morgan, who will remain as chairman.

Last month, U.S. Electricar, which had spent two years in an aggressive acquisition and expansion program, announced a drastic reorganization and the layoffs of a third of its 300-employee work force. It also closed a facility in Florida as well as a showcase Los Angeles shop in South-Central Los Angeles.

The company had grown from a storefront operation in 1976 to become virtually the world’s largest converter of gasoline cars and trucks to electric power. At the time, the company announced that only an interim loan from a major business partner--Itochu Corp., once known as C. Itoh & Co.--was keeping the company going. Many in the fledgling electric-vehicle industry quietly laid much of the blame for the company’s problems on Morgan.

Kusumoto, with 30 years of experience in the electronics industry, has been on the company’s board since 1994 and is currently chairman of Americus Corp., an aerospace industry manufacturer. He is also a former president of Sanwa Electric Co., a division of Sanwa Electric Corp., the electronics manufacturer; a former executive with Atari Inc., and founder and first chairman and CEO of Solectron Corp., which manufactures computer, medical, automotive and telecommunications equipment, according to a spokesman for U.S. Electricar.