ACE EV electric vehicles to be made at Aldom in Adelaide

Automotive manufacturing will return to Adelaide under a deal for Wingfield company Aldom to make electric vehicles under contract for Queensland company ACE EV.

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Automotive manufacturing will return to Adelaide under a deal for Wingfield company Aldom to make electric vehicles under contract.

Queensland-based company Australian Clean Energy — Electric Vehicles aims to enter the market with a van for trades and commercial buyers called the ACE Cargo.

The Cargo is an adaptation for Australian conditions of a vehicle made by partner companies from Taiwan and Germany, ACE EV managing director Greg McGarvie said.

“We’re taking 100 orders for 2019,” Mr McGarvie said.

“Then we’ll be taking orders for the launch of our ute (the ACE Yewt) in the first quarter of next year, and then the ACE Urban (light city car) in the last quarter of next year.

“We’ll be looking at a production run of 500 and then working up to 15,000 a year.”

ACE EV is a private company which has been working on the project for the past four years.

Mr McGarvie said it needed to raise $20 million with a mix of equity from investors and debt from finance providers.

The ACE Cargo electric vehicle being produced by ACE EV. Vehicle to be manufactured at Aldom Motor Body Builders, Wingfield, Adelaide, South Australia. May 2019. Picture: ACE EV

Once running, it would then seek some $130 million to ramp up to full manufacturing.

Mr McGarvie will sign a heads of agreement with Aldom today.

The deal would support 10 to 14 jobs at Aldom, which makes truck and trailer bodies and special orders for motorsports and mining.

Mr McGarvie said a target retail price of about $40,000 had been set for the ACE Cargo.

The base model had a range of 250km.

A 360km-range model would also be available with both using lithium phosphate batteries designed by Samsung and Panasonic.

ACE EV were working with a Singapore group to use a graphene interface and extend the range by 40 per cent.

Recharging will be possible through standard residential and commercial premises’ power points.

The Cargo would run for 100km on about $3.60 of recharge electricity.

Maintenance costs would be very low, Mr McGarvie said.