Proposal for homegrown emergency services EV attracts interest from industry and two state governments
It captured the imagination of Australia’s decimated automotive industry when it was proposed in June and now the prospect of a homegrown electric emergency services vehicle has attracted the attention of at least two state governments.
The so-called Electric Police Car project is based around a battery-powered, autonomous, multi-purpose, modular vehicle platform that would be designed, developed and manufactured in Australia and employed by local police, ambulance, fire and rescue organisations.
In a statement issued today by the Society of Automotive Engineers – Australasia (SAE-A), chairman and CEO Adrian Feeney said the project was one step closer to the feasibility study stage.
“SAE-A has some good news to bring this challenging COVID year to an end – our so called ‘Electric Police Car’ project has been making some very pleasing progress in recent weeks,” said Feeney.
“Thanks to a lot of behind-the-scenes effort, we can report that we have piqued the interest of two state governments and a slew of automotive industry leaders in supporting the project.
“At present there is sufficient interest from people close to the Victorian government to give us real hope of this financial support.
“Even stronger political interest has been expressed from South Australia, who have contacted us requesting we meet with the South Australian treasurer early next year.”
The SAE-A says 90 Australian companies have expressed interest in the project, collectively covering more than half of the technologies required to engineer and build the vehicle.
If it reaches production, the self-driving vehicle would first appear as a general duties police car, before being followed by “modified versions suitable for ambulance, fire and rescue, SES and even the high-speed police pursuit version, just as a start”.
“One of the most encouraging aspects of the project is the strong interest expressed by our own members and the Australian automotive engineering and manufacturing sector in general,” said Feeney.
“More than 130 people, representing 90 companies, responded to our request for expressions of interest in being involved in the project. Based on [our] analysis of the capabilities represented by these companies, they cover 13 of the 21 major vehicle systems required to design and build the proposed car.”
Asia-Pacific’s peak auto engineering body says at least one Australian company has signed a memorandum of understanding to help assemble the proposed vehicle, with more expected to follow by the end of first quarter 2021.
The project is being led by program director Murray Longe, who has selected KPMG as the preferred consultant to produce a feasibility study once funding can be found.
Following the its virtual media launch in June, SAE-A established a Steering Group of industry leaders to contribute expertise and experience to the project.
They include Jim Griffin from Multimatic Engineering Australia; Brett Longhurst from Bremar Automation Australia; Allan McKenzie from Wade Group in NZ; Bernie Quinn from Premcar; Professor Bernard Rolfe from Deakin University; and Rob Veitch from transportation design company Delineate, which created the concept rendering pictured here and whose clients include Tesla, Google, Honda, Ford and Nissan.
Back in June, SAE-A cited the potential use of Australian technologies including the AEV Robotics digital vehicle platform (also pictured here) designed in Croydon, Victoria, and composites employed by the Melbourne-made Bolwell Nagari 500 performance coupe.
The SAE-A previously said its vision for a 21st century police car could be produced in volumes of 50,000-100,000 per year for both domestic and export sales, and that the COVID-19 pandemic illustrated the importance of local auto manufacturing – in particular low-volume, high-tech and highly specialised vehicles.
“For a project that was officially launched to the public and the media on 23 June, our electric, autonomous, composite, modular special vehicle project has made remarkable progress in just six months,” said Feeney.
“Stay tuned for significant developments in the New Year. Not only is the whole world hoping for a better year than 2020 in every way, but the Australian automotive engineering and manufacturing sector now has a very specific reason to look to 2021 with optimism.”
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