An Australian company will produce thousands of delivery vans and minibuses every year from a new electric vehicle factory in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley.
The Victorian government announced the plan with Melbourne-based SEA Electric on Tuesday.
SEA Electric has already developed a range of electric drivetrain models for commercial and delivery vehicle market. The company has a factory in Dandenong where it assembles electric delivery vans and mini buses.
About five years ago SEA made a decision to invest heavily in electric vehicle (or “EV”) tech so it would be ready to start production when the cost of lithium-ion batteries dropped below $US300/kwH.
“That was our milestone — it was a milestone for other big original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) as well — set by a range of analysts back in 2010,” SEA Electric boss Tony Fairweather told Stockhead.
The forecast was $US300KwH by 2025 – but it actually happened in December 2016.
“We were ready and came to market in January 2017 – we have been swimming quickly ever since,” Mr Fairweather says. READ MORE
