Cars Guide Herald Sun
01/16/09
“Obviously we’d like to reduce prices and make them more attractive for private buyers. We’d like to get some scale to get the price down.”
Jan
12
The Daily Telegraph - 12/01/2009
IT’S the $70,000 car that could save the environment and a city’s economy.
The New England city of Armidale is developing its own electric car industry. Local company Energetique is building a hi-tech electric car based on a Mazda2 five-door hatch called the evMe.
It has started a pilot build program of 100 cars, which will sell for about $70,000. Energetique chief executive officer Phil Coop yesterday said the plug-in evMe had a range of up to 250km on one charge and can be recharged from a household 240-volt outlet. It can reach 100km/h in less than 10 seconds and has a top speed restricted to 130km/h - although in testing the car has hit 180km/h.
Dr Coop said they had received solid interest from private and corporate buyers. “Initial interest has been strong,” he said.
The cars will be engineered and built in Armidale after a development program over the past few years. Engineers replace the Mazda2’s 76kW/137Nm 1.5-litre petrol engine with a liquid-cooled hybrid synchronous motor developed in Switzerland which puts out about 90kW and 220Nm. Dr Coop said the evMe can be recharged overnight or has a fast-charge time of two hours.
Energetique is also developing an on-board device called RapidCharge that will fully recharge the car from a commercial power supply in 1 hour or less. Dr Coop admitted the cars were expensive because of the latest-generation electric technology in them: “Obviously we’d like to reduce prices and make them more attractive for private buyers,” he said.
Dr Coop said the Mazda was the most suitable car because of its high-quality body, however they have had expressions of interest to make an electric van and were looking to use a Suzuki body. Dr Coop said: “We looked at a lot of technology worldwide and we think we’ve chosen the best.”
The motor does not require a gearbox and the lithium ion batteries are lightweight and energy dense. The conversions will be done by Armidale firm Sport Vehicles Australia to comply with Australian design rules.
Energetique is one of only two Australian companies with commercial electric cars.
