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Joule of Africa
Thu, 2010/01/14 - 2:35pm — Brock van Deventer
For most of us climate change is not a priority in our lives. Yes, we constantly read about it in the newspapers and we’re bombarded by doomsday scientists on Discovery Channel babbling on about catastrophic worldwide repercussions if we, the ordinary folk on the street don’t drastically change the way we lead our lives.
While I understand the need for people to change their views, and accept climate change and ultimately reduce our carbon footprints, what really can the man on the street do to bring about this drastic change? Well, environmentalists and the like would have people believe that cars are one of the biggest producers of CO2 and green house gasses, and that we should all ride bicycles or buses to work and become vegetarians because cows the world over are farting too much and making it too hot!
That’s fine if live in a country with a viable public transport system like England or any European country for that matter. But what about here in Africa? Where public transport is akin to working for a Mafia boss, you never really know if someone’s going to take you out. Simple, we carry on driving cars like there’s no tomorrow.
Celebrities are snapping up Toyota’s Prius’, but that’s actually because they feel bad because tucked away in their garages are Range Rover Sport’s and Ferrari F430’s with their beautiful…ahem, I mean god awful V8 engines belching CO2 and generally being a menace. Honda just released its FCX Clarity that uses Hydrogen to make electricity, apparently emitting pure water vapor from its exhaust tip. Wow! That sounds awesome, I’ll take one, but where in Africa will I be able to refill with Hydrogen when I battle just to find 50ppm diesel. Anyway over the next three years there’s only about 200 available under a leasing and research programme in Japan and the US, so I couldn’t buy one even I wanted to.
What about something proudly South African, something that will satisfy the economentalists and be easy on the pocket, a home grown jewel from the rough? What about the Joule?
“The Joule is Africa’s first battery electric engineering masterpiece from Optimal Energy. The silent passenger vehicle complies with UN-ECE safety standards offering an optimal, no-compromise, zero emission urban driving experience.”
Optimal Energy, the company behind the Joule, is a driving force with a vision to change attitudes with regards to climate change and challenge perceptions on what we think an urban vehicle should be. “The world’s finite energy sources are being used inefficiently and urban transport plays a major role in energy wastage and the increase in climate changing pollution. Optimal Energy aims to change that by specialising in and delivering class leading solutions for urban transport. It is Optimal Energy’s vision to establish and lead an electric vehicle industry in South Africa and to expand globally.”
The Joule is a bold and futuristic design and will seat five comfortably and with a 700 liter boot, should be practical too. Joule is not only sleek and sophisticated, it comes standard with all the expected modern conveniences including Bluetooth compatibility and iPod connectivity, making it practical to boot.
The Joule accelerates from 0 to 60km/h in under 5 seconds giving it very brisk city performance. It should reaches 100 km/h in under 16 seconds with a top speed of 135km/h and a nominal driving range of 300km.
Developed entirely on location in Cape Town, the Joule includes a competitive full warranty and roadside assistance that come as standard. Its rechargeable lithium-ion batteries are recyclable and contain no heavy metals, making the Joule an environmentally sound investment. Maintenance is expected to cost approximately half of that of petrol or diesel equivalent vehicle, and represents a substantial saving on fuel and running costs. Using one normal 220 Volt home outlet and the Joule’s onboard charger, it will charge the 300km battery pack in approximately seven hours. The Joule will cost between R235 000 and R285 000 and should go into full scale production towards the end of 2012.
Now if only that green, clean burning electricity came from an eco-friendly, renewable energy source like a wind or solar farm instead of a filthy great natural resource depleting, coal fired power station.
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All rights reserved. © topCar 2009. Published in South Africa by Media24
Comments
Farce
I'm afraid if you do your homework, Joule is a complete farce.
Kobus Meiring, who heads up Joule, headed up Rooivalk.
Sales of Rooivalk? - ZERO, NADA, ZILCH
Next, who on earth will buy an SA vehicle that will be three years behind its competitors and that has not been Euro NCAP crash tested? Optimal Energy have yet to make any mention of testing.
Meiring claims that the company aims to produce >50 000 or more Joules which will qualify the company to receive large cash incentives in meeting MIDP incentives. GM for the record only made 48 000 vehicles in the 2008 period.
These three factors alone should have the warning bells clanging loudly, but alas, all I see is a waste of taxpayer's money.
Joule Farce
Yep cannot agree more......Building 50K vehicles / year vs 6 Rooivalk helicopters, not possible. Selling 50K vehicle to the public (80% Europe and 20% local) man I sincerely hope you have an after sales support structure in Place. Tom, [filtered word] and Harry are a liitle bit more demanding that the SA Defense force
Renewable Energy Source for Motor Vehicles
Imagine your daily commute being from JHB to Centurion or Paarl to Cape Town. What if you had a Fiat Uno or an Opel Corsa that had an electric power source and could cover the daily commute of say 200kms on a single charge with kms to spare? It would be great to come home in the evening, plug your vehicle into an Eskom socket for overnight charging and be on your way again the next day. Alternatively, some solar-powered device had already started charging your car's spare battery during the day. All you need to do in the evening is top it up for use the next day. Imagine that instead of burning calories at a gym, you (and other members of you family, could get on an exercise cycle and generate enough energy with a couple of hours' exercising, to assist charging your car battery.
Joule of Africa
What we need is an incentive, such as a huge tax deduction, or VAT exemption, on all low-emission, energy-saving vechles such as the Joule, Toyota Prius, Honda Instinct and Clarity. This will increase the demand for these vecles, forcing manufacturers to comply. Eventually, other manufaturers like Ford and Crysler will come to the party, bringing their electric or hybrid vehicles to south Africa.