Gold Coast possible location for electric car manufacturer ACE-EV $35m headquarters

The Gold Coast are in the sights of an Australian electric vehicle manufacturer for its new $35 million global headquarters.

AN AUSTRALIAN electric vehicle manufacturer eyeing off the Gold Coast and Adelaide for its new $35 million global headquarters base hopes to seal the deal by June.

ACE-EV (Australian Clean Energy Electric Vehicle) founder Greg McGarvie has been in talks with the Government of South Australia and the Queensland Government about where to site his HQ.

Australian Clean Energy Electric Vehicle Group managing director Greg McGarvie with former Liberals leader John Hewson unveiling the ACE Cargo Van in Sydney.

South Australia has presented a strong case, but Mr McGarvie said he had not yet had productive discussions with the Queensland Government.

“I’ve approached them. Lots of talking, but nothing much is happening at this stage,” he said.

“I’m a Queenslander and I’d like to see it here, but we want a hard decision to decide between South Australia and Queensland.

“I’d prefer to have something pretty clear and definitive before June this year.

“We’ve got $35 million in the budget to set up an edge cloud data centre and all the other bits and pieces.”

Adelaide has already been chosen for the proposed $295 million ACE manufacturing base.

Mr McGarvie is now scouting for suitable premises connected with fibre optic cable to forge forward with the HQ.

“We’ve had a look at one site (on the Gold Coast). It’s a new site which has been built,” he said.

“I was very impressed with the people who developed it and it had a lot of thought go into it.

“It would be the ideal site, but at the moment we just haven’t had any encouragement to select that site.

“We’re also looking at what’s called Lot 14 in South Australia.”

ACE has already snagged a $5 million Federal Government grant and built its first vehicle – the ACE Cargo van – at the Motor Trades Association of Queensland Workshop at Eight Miles Plains in 2019.

ACE-EV managing directory Greg McGarvie launched his company's first electric vehicle last year.

“I’m pretty positive. Our team offshore – we’re very fortunate to have some of the smartest on the planet working for us – they’re very excited and they want to see this happening in Australia,” he said.

“In reality, transport is useful, very useful, but it’s time now to get rid of vehicles going around burning oil, polluting the air and stealing our oxygen at the same time, causing health problems.”

ACE is now working on a trial of its vehicle-to-grid technology, which allows power stored in an electric vehicle’s battery to be put back into the grid or to homes.

“To execute a trial properly we need about $15 million. We’ve applied for more (government) funding and we’re waiting on the main funds, which are offshore funds,” he said.

ACE’s manufacturing facility is expected to have a capacity of 24,000 units per year.

Mr McGarvie hopes ACE will kickstart Australia’s car manufacturing industry, which has been left in the doldrums since Holden, Ford and Toyota ceased local production.