Energy and automotive executives on Wednesday launched what they expect to be a $200 million-plus initiative to make the Indianapolis area a leader in green vehicle technology.

Saying the region had the technical resources to become the national center for hybrid and electric propulsion, executives from a range of high-profile companies and recent startups gathered Downtown to announce the formation of the Energy Systems Network.

“If this is successful, and I’m confident it will be, this will be great for the state of Indiana,” said Joseph Loughrey, who recently retired as vice chairman of Columbus-based diesel maker Cummins.

Although Chrysler and General Motors are nearly bankrupt and Ford is deep in debt, cash for technical initiatives is readily available in Washington, where Congress last fall earmarked $25 billion for green vehicle technology.

Loughrey, who is chairman of the initiative, said the group would bring together the engineers and strategists of companies in the state to help them quickly focus resources on projects.

The first two projects would be a test vehicle — an electric truck recharged at wall outlets in Indianapolis — and a diesel hybrid system for heavy work trucks. The hybrid would be sold to companies with fleets of work trucks such as delivery vans and trash haulers.

Indiana is well-stocked with resources to develop electric systems as a result of General Motors’ presence in the state for seven decades, said Bill Wylam, a former GM engineer who is a technical adviser to the new initiative.

GM’s Remy offices in Anderson helped pioneer the EV1 electric car in the early 1990s under Wylam’s direction. Later, GM’s Allison Transmission in Indianapolis was the automaker’s center for hybrid technology. GM’s Delco plants in Kokomo produced computer chips and electronic controls.

Allison, Remy and Delco, which is now known as Delphi, are today independent companies spun off by GM. All are heavily involved in the project in Indianapolis.

Officials from Allison, Bright Automotive, Delphi, Duke Energy, EnerDel, I-Power Technologies, Ivy Tech Community College, Purdue University and the Rocky Mountain Institute would serve on the board of directors of the new enterprise.

Energy Systems is part of the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership, a leading economic development group headed by executives of major companies in the region.

Paul Mitchell, formerly a policy adviser in Gov. Mitch Daniels’ administration, is the president and chief executive officer of Energy Systems. It would join the BioCrossroads life-sciences venture and the Conexus manufacturing initiative as key programs under the partnership.

Jim Rogers, chairman of Duke Energy, pledged $1 million over three years to help sustain Energy Systems. Jeff Owens, president of Delphi’s Kokomo-based electronics division, said Delphi has sought $200 million in federal grants to help engineer a diesel hybrid system for heavy work trucks.

The truck system would include Cummins’ diesel, Allison’s transmission, Delphi’s electronics and EnerDel’s batteries. EnerDel, an Indianapolis developer of lithium-ion batteries for electric cars, was once part of Delphi Kokomo.

Officials did not say when the projects would be completed. The project with Duke would make use of at least one electric truck that would recharge at wall outlets to be made available in the city for the test.

Bright Automotive in Anderson would supply the electric truck. Bright is a new company trying to launch an electric truck the size of a full-size van. Its founder, John Waters, was a GM Remy engineer who worked on the EV1 program and later went to the Rocky Mountain Institute, a Colorado think tank that researches alternative energy systems.

“We are headed to a carbon-constrained world,” Rogers said in remarks Wednesday introducing the initiative in a meeting room in the Indiana Convention Center.

Rogers said federal efforts to curb air pollution will drive energy prices higher and give urgency to programs to develop electric vehicles repowered from wall outlets.

As a result, Indiana’s hard-hit manufacturing base could get a new infusion of capital and orders around the engineering and assembly of electric vehicles.

Although the industrial economy is off now, Indiana can’t drop manufacturing “like an embarrassing relative,” Daniels told the gathering. “We simply have to find a better way” to produce.