By RON HAMMERTONFLEDGLING Australian car company EDayLife hopes...

By RON HAMMERTON

FLEDGLING Australian car company EDay

Life hopes to become the fi rst electric vehicle

brand to offer a mass-produced vehicle with

a light, compact and powerful supercapacitor

battery energy storage system developed by

Australian research agency CSIRO.

Melbourne-based EDay ? the brainchild

of former Holden Innovation director Laurie

Sparke and one-time motor dealer Robert

Lane ? also plans to add a petrol powertrain

alternative employing an advanced directinjection

fuel delivery system developed by

Perth?s Orbital Corporation.

While neither system will be available when

the fi rst EDay car, the electric-powered E25,

is launched in a 100-car trial in Victoria early

next year, EDay is already working with the

CSIRO and Orbital towards the introduction of

both technologies at the earliest opportunity.

EDay?s vehicles are being developed

by what is claimed to be China?s largest

independent automotive designer and ?original

design manufacturer? ? an unnamed company

that is said to have developed more than a third

of current Chinese domestic vehicles.

EDay showed one of its prototypes ? the

E15 hatchback ? at the Australian International

Motor Show in Melbourne this month, but it

has two others, the larger E25 hatchback and

HS11 hybrid sports coupe concept.

The E25 ? which will be the fi rst to hit the

road in Australia ? is based on an existing

petrol-powered fi ve-door hatchback already

on the market in China, but with styling

modifi cations specifi cally for EDay.

Orbital is already working with China?s

fourth largest motor manufacturer, Changan

Automotive ? a manufacturing partner with

Ford, Mazda and Suzuki in the world?s biggest

market ? on a project to apply its patented

FlexDI air-assisted direct-injection fuel system

to a four-cylinder petrol engine to meet tighter

fuel consumption rules in China.

The Orbital-Changan project, announced

in May, is partly funded by a $440,413

grant from the Australian government?s now

defunct Green Car Innovation Fund.

Orbital technology is set to boomerang

back to Australia in EDay?s Chinese-built

range of city hatchbacks that will be offered

with a choice of three powertrains ? electric,

petrol and dedicated LPG.

?Orbital is doing brilliant stuff with their

injection technology and we are waiting to

pick that up as soon as it is available,? Mr

Sparke said. ?We start with EV and then

petrol and LPG.?



The fi rst EDay cars will be powered by

electric motors hooked up to lithium-ion

batteries with a 160km range and top speed

of 100km/h.

EDay says it hopes to lease the cars at a

rate that is effectively half the current price

of Mitsubishi?s $48,800 i-MiEV, and offer

complete refurbishment ? including new

batteries ? after two years.

?We are confi dent we will enter the

market with a car about half the price of

an i-MiEV or (Nissan) Leaf, and within a

couple of years have technologies that will

put us ahead of them,? Mr Sparke said.

?As soon as we get ourselves sorted out

over the next fi ve or so years, we are going

to be competing in a lot of the market.?

Mr Sparke identifi ed the CSIRO?s

supercapacitor technology as one of the

advances EDay hoped to introduce.

Brought to market by the CSIRO?s Sydneybased

commercial spinoff Cap-XX for a range

of electrical devices such as cameras and mobile

phones, the hybrid supercapacitors combine

battery electrodes and capacitor electrodes to

halve the

requirement for batteries, cutting the

weight of energy storage packs for cars.







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