Finding the designer of SA’S elusive electric car
The search for the Joule, South Africa’s only electric vehicle, led to a conversation with Keith Helfet, the legendary designer of some of the world’s most beautiful Jaguars. It turns out that the man from Calvinia had designed the Joule
IFor me as a designer, the ultimate prize is to create an object of desire. Emotional appeal was our competitive advantage. Design and desire have been my driving mantra
t’s daunting sitting across a coffee table with the man who has designed some of the most beautiful Jaguars in the world and has been described as a visionary. But the problem doesn’t last a minute because he’s so unassuming and self-deprecating.
“I signed up to do engineering at the University of Cape Town,” he explains, “but I was a waste of space because of surfing and drinking. I loved machines, but the degree was all mathematics and thermodynamics. I wanted to design cars. So I dropped out and built a car on the chassis of an old Triumph Spitfire using foam offcuts and 700 pounds of plaster of Paris. The engine didn’t work. The general feeling was that I was a harmless lunatic. Then I finished my degree.
“When I broke it up, my father was so upset. He said, ‘All that work for nothing.’ I said that wasn’t for nothing. I now know what I want to do – design cars.”
Don Pinnock: “It’s a big jump from there to Jaguar. What were the steps?”
Keith Helfet: “My degree was engineering but my passion was design, so I thought I’d do a postgraduate degree at the
Royal College of Art. I had no idea how difficult it was to get in. I pitched up for the interview among around 100 other applicants, cringingly unequipped. I knew nothing. They said, ‘You have three weeks to hand in your portfolio.’ I said, what’s that?
“All I had was the plaster of Paris car, so I presented that. I think they’d never had an applicant who’d designed and built a full-sized car. I was one of only five students accepted.”
DP: “And Jaguar?”
KH: “At the time, Jaguar was a cottage industry within Leyland. It had been started by Sir William Lyons, who basically designed most of the early cars. In my opinion, he’s one of the greatest car designers ever. After I joined, he chose my design for the new sports car. Then, for five-and-a-half years, he became my tutor and mentor.
“He was the guru. He influenced my design language, my style for the rest of my life. Soft, flowing shapes which I just loved, not hard-edged, which was the fashion at the time. Jaguar designs look fast. Around classic Jaguars, other sports cars looked awkward. Jaguars stood out.”
DP: “Do you have a design principle that you work to?”
KH: “For me as a designer, the ultimate prize is to create an object of desire. Emotional appeal was our competitive advantage. Design and desire have been my driving mantra. It’s what I called the book I’ve just written.”
DP: “So how did you end up designing the Joule?”
KH: “A lawyer I was dealing with in Cape Town said there were some guys doing a start-up and needed a car designer. They [were creating] an electric car. I said, you’re kidding. But if they’re serious I’m interested. So he connected me with Kobus Meiring in 2006. At that time electric cars were hippy-type things and not serious. I said to them if you’re serious and not just making a statement, I’m interested.”
DP: “So you joined the project?”
KH: “You don’t know what you don’t know if you’ve never done something before. But South Africans have such a can-do mentality that’s hard to find in Europe or America. So yes, I did. But they didn’t know the implications of starting from scratch and I had to spell it out for them.
“The car had to be competitive in the petrol market and it had to be attractive. It had to be as competent as the best of those vehicles. Then I started sketching, computer modelling. We created what we call the egg crate you fill with foam and then take moulds in fibreglass.
“We completed a full-scale shell – no engine – for the Paris Motor Show. Then they created four full prototypes, great little five-seaters. They had about a 250km range, good enough for the city.”
DP: “I guess the next step was to take it to production?”
KH: “Yes. They were planning to make around 50,000 a year. But they were beginning to lose deadlines against promises and they were consuming a lot of money. The marketing person took the car to Paris and Geneva motor shows, but she didn’t know how to promote it once there. It got no publicity and no funds. The primary funders got worried and pulled the plug. The Joule hit a skid pan and went out on a whimper.”
DP: “How did you feel about that?”
KH: “I loved doing it and it was great to work with South Africans. However, I did express my very real concern that they just didn’t get all the expertise they needed to progress from prototype to 50K production. They were losing credibility with the funders. Things began to unravel.
“But those four guys were visionaries. They saw an opportunity and it is the future. They started to make it happen in the forefront of any serious attempt in the world. My work there was important to me.”
DP: “There’s just one working prototype left.”
KH: “Yes, and it looks like it’s in terrible shape. If something’s not done, it’s going to end up a wreck. It should be rescued.”
Keith has things to do; it’s time to wrap up. He looks at my R1100 BMW bike as we part company. “Nice design,” he says. He should know.