The unstated question is, will this project, this car, subtract from the woes generated by other cars? Woes that include pollution, resource depletion (resources that could be utilised as fertilizers and medicines for generations to come) and a widening systemic collapse that threatens to disintegrate the entire auto-industry.
[Nissan: We'll be mass producing EV's by 2012]
“In our efforts to make a positive difference, Kobus especially did a lot of research, and we came up with the idea of an electric vehicle. Then we went to the Innovation Fund – a South African Department affiliated to the Department of Science and Technology. We got seed funding for early development; it’s probably the only fund in the country where you can get funds for early development. It took us 18 months to get the money; not because they weren’t convinced of the merits of the project – it’s just a very cumbersome process. We got R5 million for the first year, which was really a feasibility study, a paper study, with a promise of R10 million to follow. While they initially requested we get additional funding from an industrial partner, they later came to believe – as we do – that this was too big to hastily involve someone else. So they gave us their full backing to nurture this project to its completion. And since 2008 the IDC have also started backing us. So the IDC and the Innovation Fund are shareholders in Optimal Energy.”
Read the rest here.
Read the Biophile .pdf here.
Watch extracts of Gerhard Swart's presentation below:
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