Metair builds two electric cars

In July last year‚ Metair launched the internal project with the aim of producing an economical electric car for under R60‚000.

Additionally‚ the project set out to use the company's proprietary start/stop battery technology as its fundamental power source and to incorporate the extensive skills‚ equipment and other technologies housed across its subsidiary companies in South Africa‚ it said on Thursday (14 March).

First National Battery and Supreme Springs led the collaborative effort across the group and from tit was decided to produce two base-vehicle options - one as a retro-fit of an old vehicle‚ and the other a brand new one.

Smiths Plastics & Automold was responsible for the retrofit vehicle.

Both cars were shown to employees at the company's Managing Director's Conference in November last year.

Metair's chief executive Theo Loock said the Met-Elec-R60 project "was a great success".