All-electric Commodore ready for evaluation
EV Engineering announces conclusion of Commodore EV production with seven examples hitting the roadFollowing its proof of concept in February this year, Melbourne-based EV Engineering has today announced the completion of the build phase of its all-electric Holden Commodore.
To date, seven battery-switchable examples of the Commodore have been produced; the vehicles set to take part in a trial whereby performance, reliability and customer experience will be evaluated. EV Engineering CEO Ian McCleave says he anticipates the trial will see the cars travel up to 50,000 kilometres over the next two years.
“We have also spoken with the majority of other large Australian fleets and they have a strong appetite to trial a large electric car as part of their vehicle mix. This shows that there is clear customer demand for the kind of car we’ve developed, which is great news for an industry that is facing a swing away from large petrol vehicles,” stated Mr McCleave.
“We have demonstrated that it is possible to engineer and build a fully electric version of one of Australia’s most popular large passenger cars, with no compromises on safety, comfort or performance,” he said.
“The cars have surpassed our expectations, and many people have said they are the best electric cars they have ever driven. This gives us confidence that in the next phase we will achieve our second project goal of demonstrating the customer attractiveness of a large electric car,” Mr McCleave concluded.
The seven completed cars include two Calais wagons and five Calais sedans. Each is powered by a 145kW/400Nm electric motor and has a range of approximately 160km -- though it is anticipated that in real-world driving the all-electric models will deliver a range of between 120 and 150km before re-charging is required or a battery swap is required.
The battery exchange system, similar to that sampled by motoring.com.au in Denmark takes less than five minutes to complete. While a full charge at a 15AMP power point takes approximately eight hours.
Capable of accelerating from 0-100km/h in just 8.5 seconds the all-electric Commodore is no slouch, with roll-on figures quoted at just 4.3 seconds for the 60 to 100km/h run. It boasts a top speed of 138km/h.
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