Chinese electric cars on their way to SA

The Chinese technology manufacturer BAIC’s (or Beijing Electric Vehicle Company’s) electric vehicle department, BJEV, recently announced it will be launching its first self-drive vehicle. It will be tested over the course of the next few months on the busy streets of Beijing, and if it performs well there it will be making its way to South Africa. According to Tao Li, spokesperson for BAIC, the South African government is wary of self-drive vehicles, but the company is confident that the BJEV vehicles will work on our roads. BAIC’s plant in the Coega SEZ, an industrial area outside Port Elizabeth, will be completed at the end of the second quarter. The plant will initially manufacture vehicles with ordinary internal combustion engines – to get a foot in the door. BAIC’s Arcfox 7 (see photo below) is a full electric vehicle that can apparently accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in three seconds. It was created by the Beiqi Design Centre in Barcelona and the bodywork (made of carbon fibre) is based on a Formula E race car. >