It was recently announced that The Joole project was cancelled due to a lack of funding.
If funding is such an issue it sparks the question: “Why are there not a any South Africans like Elon Musk?” Wait a moment, you might interject, was Elon Musk, not born and breed in South Africa?” Well, this may be true, but this man, whom I might say is a close contender to be my greatest living, (unassisted) breathing hero, does not completely identify with South Africa. He moved to north America when he was barely an adult and made his billions from PayPal in California. The only give away is the strange combination of flat South African accent and blend of North-American twang that makes him sound strangely Australian. He has been and still is the champion of the Electric Car. He took his money he made from PayPal and invested vast amounts into producing a viable Electric Car. The Tesla is the car that makes people realise the potential, the viability and the sheer sexiness of Electric. I would go as far as saying that Tesla is pushing the entire auto-industry to reconsider their reliance on the internal combustion engine. With much reluctance. This reluctance is probably due to the internal combustion engine lending itself to a very important principle needed in business: “Sustainable.”
The internal combustion engine lends itself to designed obsolescence. A business technique used in almost all industries to assure that their market is always there. If you make cars you will need to have your customers coming back, otherwise it just won’t be viable to produce ion the masses that they do. The internal combustion engine’s vibration and heat ads to the ageing effect of the car.
It is only now that the industry is waking up to the fact that the life span of a battery, and the sheer proportion of the cost price of the car that will insure returning customers, albeit a lot later. Rav4 EV’s from the mid 90’s still do okay with little damage to their bodies compared to the ageing that their brother Rav4 went through. But any battery ages, and in time your range on a charge becomes less and less. But this is only after 10 to 15 years.
So, the Joole project got shelved due to a lack of funding. If only we had a South African internet billionaire…