Salt Lake City ? A British team trying to set a speed record for an electric car gave up Saturday because the vehicle wouldn’t start for a third morning in a row.

They plan to return next year for another try at topping 300 mph.

The 34-foot-long “e(equals) motion” car ran well in England and on a single practice run on a desert highway, but then ran into a series of baffling electrical problems.

“In the end, we realized that whatever it was was not fixable at this particular moment in time so we’ve abandoned the attempt,” driver Mark Newby said.

Engineers were able to start the car in a warm garage, but it shorted out on the test track.

Newby said he hoped to find out what exactly went wrong when the car is inspected after returning to Great Britain.

They were trying to break the record on a remote stretch of Nevada highway about 40 miles south of West Wendover, Nev. Insurance and the team’s permit to use a 7.2-mile stretch of the highway both expired Saturday.