Eco Investor September 2015

Unlisted Companies

Custom Solar Car on Display

Melbourne electric vehicle technology startup EVX Ventures will exhibit a one quarter scale model of a custom solar sports car at the world's largest automotive speciality parts trade show in Las Vegas. The exhibition is a step to gain exposure and hopefully pre-orders as part of the company's plan to become a maker of bespoke solar powered sports cars for the high net worth market.

Called the Immortus, the solar car is aesthetically pleasing and will have true sports car performance, said EVX co-founder and chief executive, Barry Nguyen. It is a limited edition bespoke sports car powered by the sun. It is inspired by the world portrayed in post-apocalyptic movies and is designed to exhibit toughness and endurance.

However, all of the components of the car are proven off-the-shelf technologies.

A rendering of a solar sports car EVX would like to custom build.

EVX Ventures is a collaboration with the electric vehicle R&D group at Swinburne University of Technology and engineers who have designed and produced award winning solar racing cars. The engineering team is led by electric vehicle expert, Dr Clint Steele.

Whilst designing the solar car, EVX has identified some innovations which it believes have global commercial potential. One is the concept of a hybrid retrofit kit that can enable current petrol cars, light trucks and fleet vehicles to be converted to plug-in hybrid. The kit can also increase acceleration after braking and turn two wheel drive vehicles into all wheel drive. Another innovation is a lightweight air cooled battery box with multi-industry applications. A third innovation is a regenerative shock absorber technology which recharges batteries by absorbing the bumps on the road.

Mr Nguyen told Eco Investor that EVX is seeking seed capital of around $1.5 million to build a working road prototype of the car and develop the hybrid retrofit kit, which has attracted interest from a Melbourne original equipment manufacturer.

The full scale working car will be used to attract sales. The strategy is to sell the car as a low volume hand-built custom car to early adopting ultra high net worth individuals. The likely price is around $0.5 million per car.

The Speciality Equipment and Marketing Association says its SEMA Show 2015 in November will attract over 100,000 industry leaders from over 100 countries. Mr Nguyen hopes the SEMA trade show will lead to new global partnerships, customer feedback and possible pre-sales.

Meanwhile, EVX has made its R&D progress without government funding so far. "With the strong leadership of Dr Clint Steele, we have succeeded in keeping our approach lean through working with final year engineering students and new graduate engineers," said Mr Nguyen.

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