Smokey Robinson Endorses Electric Cars for His Grandchildren's Future

The past few years have been rather busy for iconic R&B artist Smokey Robinson. As Spinner previously reported, Robinson recently teamed with Cracker Barrel for the release of 'Now and Then,' a compilation album that culls from recent live shows and material from 2009's 'Time Flies When You're Having Fun.' On top of that, he recently signed on as the spokesperson for the Green Automotive Company, which is planning to launch a new electric car called the Zotye.

"It's an electric car and we're trying to get that on the market now," Robinson tells Spinner. "It's looking really, really good -- and it's a good looking car."

While proponents of the electrical car have had trouble getting their products accepted into the mainstream, Robinson is confident that the Zotye SUV will change people's perceptions about how this vehicle operates. "You can plug it into a socket at your house," he says. "It goes from 0 to 60 in nine seconds and [for] about 200 miles before you have to recharge it."

Robinson's interest in the company goes deeper than a paycheck; he sees it as an investment in the future. "We'd better do something, because we're destroying [Earth]," he says. "We got to do something fast. I have grandbabies and I want them to have some place to live."