![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/aiti\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2019\/10\/rsz_dmhwtixw-1024x683.jpg\")
Director of Flinders University\u2019s Australian Industrial Transformation Institute Professor John Spoehr says the MoU seeks to harness Flinders\u2019 R&D expertise in support of the manufacture of this EV under licence here in Australia.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt represents an important step in the potential revival of the Australian automotive industry,\u201d Professor Spoehr says.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re seeing a seismic shift in the global automotive industry to vastly different vehicles. Currently the van\u2019s components are sourced from multiple places, but assembly can occur in destination markets provided the necessary manufacturing skills base is present.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Australia\u2019s case, this is a phoenix prospect, where a new era of automotive technology could rise from the ashes of the former industry and re-establish a fresh generation of evolved electric vehicles in Australia,\u201d Professor Spoehr says.<\/p>\n
\u201cFlinders will bring its research expertise to a range of potential applications, from 3D manufacturing of components and development of futuristic composite materials to onboard vehicles systems and advanced i4.0 manufacturing assembly processes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also have expertise in autonomous vehicles and that could potentially be another aspect of future development.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn this collaboration, we\u2019re laying the groundwork to get Australia back into the automotive manufacturing value chain,\u201d Professor Spoehr says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis represents an important workforce development opportunity, because while the cars are flat pack, they can\u2019t be assembled at home \u2013 a skilled workforce will be needed, and the aim is for that to be in South Australia.<\/p>\n
\u201cAssembly generates one tranche of jobs; increasing opportunities for Australian companies to be suppliers by building supply chains that can support the development of existing and future vehicle models creates further jobs and that is our goal.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s exciting to think that a former home of vehicle manufacturing at Tonsley could once again play a role in the re-emergence of vehicle manufacturing through Flinders University expertise in advanced manufacturing and our Research and Development support for \u201cAustralianising\u201d the vehicle.<\/p>\n
\u201cMeanwhile, ACE-EV is considering where in Australia it might locate operations \u2013 should Adelaide ultimately become the site of manufacture it would indeed be a full circle in the domestic automotive manufacturing story.<\/p>\n \u201cACE\u2019s van is made of composite materials meaning it\u2019s lightweight and efficient. It\u2019s essentially stuck together with space age adhesives rather than the traditional nuts, bolts and rivets. And being electric is energy efficient, especially if recharged with renewables. Fewer moving parts mean less maintenance too.<\/p>\n \u201cFlinders\u2019 Tonsley Manufacturing Innovation Hub is ideally placed for R&D support to develop advanced manufacturing assembly processes, like collaborative robots.<\/p>\n \u201cLooking ahead, we could foresee these vehicles \u2013 lightweight, low maintenance and low running costs \u2013 as ideal fleet vehicles, or for tradies.<\/p>\n \u201cThis \u2018business on wheels\u2019 concept would not only be reliable and efficient for getting workers to a job site, but would be an excellent solution for transporting materials and tools where they\u2019re needed on big scale sites such as mines\u2026 especially if Flinders\u2019 research into autonomous technologies were applied.<\/p>\n \u201cIn essence, EV advanced manufacturing holds promise for the regeneration of the automotive industry sector as well as efficiencies for business, supported by Flinders\u2019 research know-how,\u201d Profesor Spoehr says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A novel, flat pack electric vehicle (EV) could soon be largely manufactured and constructed in Australia with local components and ingenuity, thanks to a research agreement […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1684,"featured_media":326,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-media"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/aiti\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/aiti\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/aiti\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/aiti\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1684"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/aiti\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/aiti\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/aiti\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/aiti\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/aiti\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/aiti\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/aiti\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2019\/10\/rsz_vkzuuwdw-1024x683.jpg\")