The Electron is Australia’s safest electric vehicle.

The Mark V specification includes the following safety features:

• Dual front and side airbags (not available on any other available EV)
• Seatbelt pretensioners
• ABS
• Four-wheel disc brakes
• Lockable childproof and theftproof charging cap
• Reversing alarm

The Electron is also the only EV available in Australia with a reversing alarm. Anyone who has been near a (silent) reversing electric vehicle will know how important this is!

BEV is committed to making reliable, efficient, affordable and above all, safe electric vehicles for the Australian market.

Training developments

As the first manufacturer of commercial electric vehicles in Australia, BEV has a central role in developing safety and training for electric vehicles.

Educator/instructor James Eccles with Kangan Batman TAFE Electron

Our company is leading the charge for training and safety, having entered into a contract in 2009 with the Auto CRC and Kangan Batman TAFE to create the competencies for servicing electric cars. The first of these, a course in safety for service personnel, has been delivered.

In addition, we have been urging the VACC to assist us by doing a skills audit. This would enable us to obtain funding to train service people in high voltage safety.

A recent article in The Age Drive section erroneously states that battery voltages in Australian EVs will be in the order of 15,000 volts. In fact, the Electron currently uses a 180V primary drive system, and will soon go to 360V, similar to the Mitsubishi iMiev.