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<H1 class="cN-headingPage prepend-5 span-11 last">New electric car on a charge
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<H5>Chris Harris </H5>
<DIV>The Age</DIV><CITE>November 27, 2010</CITE>
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<P>AN AUSTRALIAN-DESIGNED electric car, to be built in China, plans to take on
the world with a price under $10,000, an iPad-like dash capable of downloading
apps and the promise of never needing liquid fuel.</P>
<P>The Noddy-like EDay hatch, set to debut at July's Melbourne motor show, will
arrive next year as 100 lease vehicles, before going on sale in 2012 from $9990
(plus on-road costs). This undercuts petrol-powered competitors by thousands of
dollars and is about 14 per cent of the price of the only mass-produced electric
car on sale today, Mitsubishi's i-MiEV.</P>
<P>The car, able to travel up to 160 kilometres between charges, has a top speed
of just 80km/h and weighs 450 kilograms. It will be the slowest and lightest new
car on the market - and the cheapest, something sure to cement its appeal in a
segment where shaving a few hundred dollars can boost sales.</P>
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<P>The top-secret project is being run by EDay Life, a small Australian company
run by former Holden director of innovation and advanced engineering Laurie
Sparke and car dealer Robert Lane.</P>
<P>They have formed a team of 20 engineers and are finalising plans to sell the
cars in countries as diverse as Malaysia, Hong Kong, Britain and France.</P>
<P>''What we're bringing … is Australian innovative technology,'' Mr Sparke said
of the ambitious start-up project. ''We are going to develop the new generation
of electric car.''</P>
<P>While the prospect of a start-up taking on the established car makers may
seem overly ambitious, Mr Sparke said the size, flexibility and clean-sheet
approach had advantages.</P>
<P>Just as fledgling brand Tesla had prompted others to take notice - Toyota has
since signed an agreement with the Californian electric car specialist - Mr
Sparke predicted a rise of next-generation vehicle makers driven from the IT
industry, pointing to the Dell computers business model of lean
manufacturing.</P>
<P>He said the new approach allowed engineering flexibility, while Australian
ingenuity - often leveraged by US giants Ford and General Motors - and EDay's
minuscule size gave it an advantage over established players.</P>
<P>The EDay will also get a touchscreen display to control major functions and
the ability to download apps that could include everything from basic vehicle
data to vehicle-to-home communications. With production set for a Shanghai
plant, with initial capacity of 50,000, EDay plans to sell the cars around the
world.</P></DIV></DIV></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>