NZ Minister for Climate Change Issues - Dr Nick Smith

NZ Minister for Climate Change Issues, Dr Nick Smith, gave a speech to the 6th Climate Change And Business Conference in Sydney on Wednesday, 11 August 2010.

Dr Smith has been driving an Electron in his electorate of Nelson for over 2 years. In the speech he says in part:

“Another initiative of which I have a personal interest is encouraging the uptake of electric car technologies.

“ New Zealand having such a large percentage of renewable electricity is uniquely placed to reduce emissions from the new generation of battery powered cars.

“Full credit to Blade Electric Vehicles in Melbourne (sic) who converted my Hyundai Getz into full electric.

“My nine-year old son disapprovingly calls it a “nana car” but it is technology such as this that is helping pave the way with its zero emissions.”

The Conference Communique contains recommendations in the transport area including:

• Help change behaviour through incentives, regulations and gov’t best practice e.g. with its vehicle fleets.
• Work on integrating infrastructure e.g. upgrade electricity grid to facilitate renewable power for vehicles.

Full transcript of speech here.

On display is the ‘CO2 Tacho’ to be installed in each Electron (naturally it will be smaller) to (a) record the CO2 content of energy being put into the car and (b) allow the drive to automatically set charging to commence when Green energy on the grid is at its highest and to turn charging off when dirty power is at its highest.

Following  a  successful  crash  test  last  year,  BEV  has  received  official  approval  from  the   Department  of  Transport  Administrator  of  Vehicle  Standards  to  produce  up  to  100  electric   vehicles  per  year.  This  builds  on  BEV’s  status  as  a  licensed  low  volume  (second  stage)   manufacturer  of  motor  vehicles.

“This  approval  is  recognition  of  the  quality  of  our  vehicles  and  our  adherence  to  Australian   Design  Rules”,  said  Ross  Blade,  founder  of  Blade  Electric  Vehicles.  “We  are  committed  to   obtaining  full  manufacturing  status  in  the  near  future,  in  order  to  fulfil  the  increasing   demand  for  electric  vehicles.”

or  further  information,  contact:

Ross  Blade,  Blade  Electric  Vehicles,  03  5472  2009

November 24, 2009

Central Victorian electric car company, Blade Electric Vehicles, has just completed a set 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 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 or Mr Alan Gray on 0428 51 52 54.

October, 2009

Australia’s  first  commercial  electric  car,  the  Blade  Electron,  has  passed  the  frontal  offset   crash  test  required  under  Australian  Design  Rule  73/00.

“The  excellent  test  result  proves  that  the  Electron  is  a  safe  vehicle  according  to  Australia’s   stringent  standards  and  further  demonstrates  Blade’s  commitment  to  the  safety  of  its   customers”,  said  Blade  Electric  Vehicles  founder,  Ross  Blade.

In  2009  VICroads  stated  that  there  was  clear  evidence  to  show  changing  the  drive  system   in  a  production  vehicle  can  lead  to  the  failure  of  safety  systems  such  as  air  bags  during  a   collision.  Blade’s  immediate  response  was  to  arrange  for  the  Electron  to  be  crash  tested.   The  results  prove  beyond  doubt  that  Blade’s  remanufacture  of  the  Hyundai  Getz  to  electric   drive  has  kept  all  existing  safety  features  fully  functional.

The  complete  test  results  can  be  viewed  at  BEV’s  website,  www.bev.com.au.

For  further  information,  contact:

Ross  Blade,  Blade  Electric  Vehicles,  03  5472  2009