With electric vehicles being the next big thing, seems that everyone and their uncle wants in on the genre, and the idea of making them mucho affordable in a region like Southeast Asia promises the sound of a cash register going off continuously, big time.
It looks like the Chinese can clearly hear those bells – the Nikkei reports that Chinese business owners are set to form a joint venture with a Vietnamese trading firm to make low-cost electric vehicles in northern Vietnam, at an estimated initial cost of US$50 million. Chinese businessman Zeng Fanyu and other company owners will have a 90% stake in the venture, with a Vietnamese trading company holding the remaining 10%.
The new company, which would be the first electric vehicle maker in Southeast Asia, recently started laying the groundwork for a factory in a special economic zone in Lang Son province in the country – the plant is slated for completion by the end of this year, with a view to being operational in 2012. In the meantime, the JV has started building a distribution network in southern China and northern Vietnam, and plans to procure components, materials, assembly line facilities and machine tools from electric vehicle ventures in China.
The report adds that the company will take advantage of cheap local labour to build two- to seven-seaters that will sell for an average price of 200 million dong (RM30,000), and supply these low-cost EVs to China and three countries in Southeast Asia. The countries were unnamed in the report.
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RM30k EV…? Wooww, I hope it is making its way to Malaysia. Proton you hear that?
Low cost ASEAN EV….. the Chinese are bringing the fight to the Thais and their ‘green’ cars?
Will it exploded like those china’s handphone? lol! joking joking!
Ok we’ve been pounded by news of EV for years now, but when can we actually possibly buy one??? Hopefully next year onwards :)?
I really think EV is the way to go as the boffins at MIT already designed fuel for EV vehicle, whereby you can just fill it up when empty (just like a normal gasoline powered vehicle), the tech, however, still at its infancy, so, a long way to go for them and for us. Refer here
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-20069295-54/mit-flow-battery-breaks-mold-for-cheap-storage/
Electric cars. Hmm. They still have issues with: Range.
Malaysian known to like vehicle for balik kampong trip such as big mpv’s and cars with boot; sedan.
Which means we prefer cars with extended range capability. At least it have to exceed 400km per tank, or in this case, per charge.
BYD just amend their electric fleet (e6) to be able to go ‘up to’ 300km only and i guess it will be under economical driving method. normal driving, it will be less than that.
Nissan Leaf only able to go up to 175km per charge.
Its a good progress but need some time to get mature, especially for the odd malaysian market :)
For those who could afford, let’s consider getting 2 cars in the future !!!
1 EV (almost no maintenance fees) for city driving, and another efficient hybrid or diesel hybrid or whatever for longer distances and road trips :)!!!!!!
true, true, but new innovation/invention has to start somewhere, and this is a good progress, making affordable EV cars…
If we were to refer back to the old days, when people started introducing combustion engine to replace horses and carriages, many weren’t fond of the idea as well, 100+ years in the future, combustion engine becomes the norm, now EV comes into play due to tech advancement (smaller batteries, etc.), mind you, the concept itself is more than 100 years old.
They can give you 500km+ per charge if you want, but at what cost, much higher price, more weight and less space for passengers and trunk. They’re trying to have a good balance of weight and cost and others.
Oh ya I have just realised EV may not practical in Kuala Lumpur with the usual crazy hours of traffic jams, what happen if you stuck in a long-hours jam and the battery is going flat??? You don’t take a container to buy battery like we buy petrol right?
Is definitely going to be EV or extended EV in near future to come. Problems is the maker are not putting enough of batteries power inside. Yet again in the near future we know that an average advanced EV can easily touch 1000Kms. But for the present, don’t buy this one if you are on the road too often. By a hybird instate. Or if you do, change the batteries when more higher capacity batteries are available. But this cost you more! Make wise decision and be very carefully from now!
in hot malaysian weather, air con will consume lots of energy. driving range per charge will be even lesser.
I think for some EVs the air conditioners run on a separate system so how you use them should not affect the range per charge, just how you drive them. And when the car is stationary it’s almost not using any electricity from the Lithium Ion battery.