Folly of ditching the Joule will come back to haunt us as world buys into great idea
Electric car would have created jobs and cutting-edge, sought-after skills
Do you still remember the Joule, the South African electric car designed and developed by Optimal Energy, a Cape Town-based company?
It was a project supported financially and otherwise by the state through the Department of Science and Technology’s Innovation Fund and the Public Investment Corporation.
The state supported this initiative for a number of very good reasons:
Firstly, although South Africa has been assembling cars for decades, none of the companies producing them are South African.
Our country spends billions subsidising these companies to remain here but they occasionally threaten to leave what they call a small market which is also far away from export markets.
Secondly, this country would find it difficult to enter the automobile manufacturing industry through the far advanced internal combustion engine technology. However, it could do so through the emerging new technologies such as electric cars or those running on fuel cells. The decision has been made to start with the electric car option.
Thirdly, for environmental reasons, South Africa has decided to contribute to cleaner energy by embarking on the electric car initiative.
Fourthly, it is important that we give our scientists, researchers and engineers opportunities to work on technologically advanced projects that add value to our innovation prowess.
Almost all the research, development and innovations relating to the cars we drive are done in the country where the auto manufacturer originates. South Africans only assemble the vehicles or manufacture a part to the specification of the car maker.
With our Joule, small and medium size companies would have been contracted to produce parts such as mirrors, nuts, air conditioners, door handles, lights, airbags and many such things needed in building cars.
This would give our people skills and jobs.
The Joule was ready for mass production and commercialisation when, probably as part of the triumphalism on the part of those who toppled Thabo Mbeki, the project was scrapped in 2012.
Maybe palms were greased by big international companies who felt threatened by such a venture and set out to kill the project.
In the last few weeks, there has been a flurry of policy pronouncements by governments around the world relating to the internal combustion engine. It is clear that there is a determined effort by many countries to reduce air pollution.
Norway announced that all cars sold in the country from 2025 onwards should emit zero pollutants. This means that vehicle manufacturers can only sell cars powered by electricity or fuel cells.
Within a few years after 2025, there will be no internal combustion engine automobiles in Norway.
India announced the prohibition of the sale of petrol and diesel cars in their country by 2030. With a population of 1,1-billion people, congested and smogfilled big cities, this is a huge boost to world efforts to move towards cleaner energy.
France and the UK announced their plans to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2040. The move is likely to be towards electric cars and less towards fuel cell-driven ones.
Countries, such as Spain, Holland, Austria, China, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Portugal and Korea are at different stages of policy formulation in this direction.
Looking at all these developments, it becomes abundantly clear how regrettable, foolish and shortsighted our decision to dump the Joule was. We were ahead of the pack in so many ways.
When the Joule was first unveiled at the Paris Motor Show on October 2 2008, it was the sleekest and most beautiful of the lot. We had every reason to be proud of ourselves.
I wonder if we have already sold our patents to the highest bidder. If not, why can’t we revive the Joule project?