November 24, 2009

Central Victorian electric car company, Blade Electric Vehicles, has just completed a trio of major milestones that place it at the forefront of global development in electric passenger cars.
Firstly, its four door hatchback ‘Electron’ – a converted Hyundai Getz — has just passed being crash tested by a national crash testing authority (Autoliv Australia Test Centre).
“This is Australia’s first electric vehicle to be successfully crash tested and, according to Autoliv’s engineers, the Electron’s results were excellent,” said Ross Blade, founder of Blade Electric Vehicles (BEV). The detailed charts supplied by Autoliv (available on request) show that the Electron easily passed all crash testing criteria by large margins. BEV is the first EV manufacturer to comply with VicRoads’ stringent new rules for evidence of safety in EVs. Victoria has the highest standards of evidence for EV safety in Australia.
Second, one of BEV’s earliest customers, Mr Alan Gray, has just completed 20,000 km in his Electron – unserviced – and without the car being off the road for a single day in the past 18 months.
“The car is amazing. I have to fight my wife for a drive – she loves it more than I do. And it never lets us down. We charge it from the solar panels on our roof, and I estimate that it will pay for itself in four years – even without petrol prices rising,” said Mr Gray.
The third development is that BEV have recently hired the Chief Scientist for General Motors in Australia, Dr Larry Jordan.
“Dr Jordan joins the staff of BEV at an exciting time. Now that we’ve had a successful – and very expensive – crash test, we are licensed as a second stage manufacturer for volume production. We’re about to start supplying Electrons to interested parties from Perth to New Zealand, and perhaps even cities in South-East Asia,” said Mr Blade.
“Larry’s unique experience will be of vital assistance as we further develop the Electron and sell it into new markets,” he added.
The Electron currently sells for $48,000 inc GST; BEV have a three year buyback scheme in place; the four-seater car goes 110 km/h+ with all the acceleration of its petrol equivalent, and has a daily range of 200 km with its optional one-hour rapid charger.

• For more information please call Mr Ross Blade on 0410 492 195, Dr Larry Jordan on 0411 841 197, or Mr Alan Gray on 0428 51 52 54.