The latest news about Optimal Energy, Joule - The electric car

The matter of charging infrastructure and who takes responsibility for this has become a hot topic lately. The mass-scale adoption of electric vehicles in the near future is dependant upon the development of a public charging infrastructure that could service EVs of all types.

Forget carbon foot printing. Forget global warming (well, not entirely because it is one enormous problem). Forget the price of petrol. The primary reason we should be looking at sustainable energy is that the alternative is just such an unutterably horrible idea.

The Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) recently announced that it will invest R11.7 billion in Green Industries over the next five years, and that funding for the continued development and commercialisation of Joule has also been approved.

Optimal Energy, the Cape-based company that is developing South Africa's electric car, is seeking about R500 million in additional funding to industrialise the Joule.

The South African market looks ready to buy into the Joule, the country’s first stylish electric car. Although it will only be mass-produced late in 2012 and go on sale in 2013, there’s already a considerable demand for it, said Jaco van Loggerenberg, spokesperson for the car’s developer, Optimal Energy.

The Joule electric car project would receive its last payment from the Department of Science and Technology next month, following a substantial budget cut, Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor said yesterday