Published: Friday, 5th December, 2008 7:00am
World's cheapest electric car
by Alan Bunce
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An inventor is appealing for financial backing to drive forward his designs for the world's cheapest electric car.
Graham North has drawn up top secret plans for the Mass-EV, an electric car you can charge at home and drive for 100 miles before it needs recharging.
It can reach 70mph, will give the equivalent to 100 miles per gallon and is planned to retail at only £7,000.
Mr North wants to make a prototype by 2010, be in production by 2011 and then produce upgrades.
Mr North, 41, from Stone Street in Reading, has a degree in computer science, has worked on software development, electronic engineering and as a mechanic.
Most recently he helped develop an electric car for a company in Hampshire but had long wanted to build his own, with the emphasis on price.
"I just thought 'blow it I'll go for it'. If I can get the investment on board I don't even care if they want a piece of the action," he says. Its specification would roughly equal the Ford Focus C-Max and it will have a life span of around 10 years.
Mr North believes the credit crunch and environmental issues will prompt demand for his budget car - and that his rare mix of technical know-how can create it.
He said: "I just thought, I actually know how to make this. I know how to design a car, I know how to design controls and I know how to put a car together.
"I have probably got a good combination of skills but not on the business side.
"If I can get this made and if somebody wants it, I'm not even worried about making millions of pounds."
He needs £100,000 to make the prototype and around £1m to go into production. Returns, he predicts, are in the region of £47m after five years.
He plans to avoid car manufacturers and dealers, who he believes have little enthusiasm. He wants to persuade supermarkets to sell his car.
"My honest opinion is that they (car manufacturers) have to cater for the oil market. It needs someone from outside to kick it off." Mr North was at Thames Valley Innovation Conference on Tuesday last week to seek investment and may be close to finding grants for his initial £10,000 research costs.
The main obstacles now are financial. His accountant, David Jones in Oxford Road, has helped with sources of finance and Mr North wants to explore more options.
He added: "The irony is the technology hurdles are less. If I had the money, I would make it right now.
His plans are online at www.turbo-electric.com
Contact turboelectric@grahams.idps.co.uk or
0779 321 1967.
