Aussie auto start-up: 'We must get this right'

Convinced it will get only one shot at a successful launch, the automotive start-up Ethan Automotive will delay the reveal of the name, design and engineering details of its first model if revisions or modifications are required.

That first model, expected to be an SUV, is officially slated to break cover around the end of the first quarter and form the basis of the company’s pitch to private investors for the $750 million it is seeking to get its vehicles off the drawing board and in to production by the end of 2018.

But that debut could go back as far as mid-year if necessary.

“We are going to get one shot at this and it’s got to be right,” chief operating officer Matthew Newey told motoring.com.au.

“So I am happy to delay the program at relevant stages to ensure that we are keeping true to the specific point of the model being different to what has come before.

“It is important that it is different, that it is not the same as what has gone before. So everyone who is involved in the project is focussed on making sure it is unlike everything people have seen from an Australian manufacturer before.

“Be that the brand and the marque that we are talking about, be that the design and the engineering of the vehicle, be that the technology we are going to include.”

Ethan, which is the brainchild of a couple of property developers, is the one of three entities proposing to continue building cars after the Ford (2016) and Toyota and GM Holden (2017) close their local assembly plants.

The others are Adelaide-based Red Automotive Technologies which wants to build an electric SUV and the other is Punch Automotive, a Belgian company that wants to take over Holden’s Elizabeth plant in Adelaide.

Ethan’s business model initially called for a combination of $1.5 billion in private and government money to design and engineer a three-model range comprising an SUV, passenger car and coupe all based on the same modular architecture and built at a new plant with annual output ramping up to 30,000 per annum.

However, disinterest from federal and state governments prompted a turn to private equity and a cut in the start-up capital target.

Ethan is understood to have engaged both design and engineering consultancies to aid with the initial product development, while marketing exerts are helping develop the marque and model names.

“We are progressing. Branding work is progressing, design and engineering work is progressing,” Newey said.

“We have a significant milestone at the end of March and the beginning of April and that milestone is basically a review of the first stage; how are we progressing and when will be ready to go to market with those initial designs and engineering package.

“The end of March into the first week of April is for me to review if we are ready or whether we need to fine tune and revise somewhat.

“And if there is a fine-tune and revise program that needs to happen, then it may be a couple of months after that.”

Newey confirmed that initial discussions were underway with private equity and industrial investors, while the design, engineering, brand and naming work would support a comprehensive document that will be issued to interested parties.