Go-carts with lithium-ion batteries, page-13

Thanks MB, I am reasonably well informed about all the promises that the mainstream manufacturers have made about their future EV portfolio and have observed with interest the introduction of Formula E but until now knew nothing of E Carts.

The VW group weren't alone in being a little reluctant to embrace the EV revolution some years ago but "dieselgate" changed all that because they knew it was going to be a long way back from that unfortunate misdemeanour if they followed the conventional route. VW realised their best chance of a less painful redemption was to change tack completely and commit the majority of their substantial R&D budget + a bit more to developing EVs (instead of cheating emission tests. )

Now that they can see that their gamble will pay off VW are doubling down on their investment and will make their "skateboard" publicly available to other manufacturers. That seems like a very public spirited gesture, it will be a huge benefit for low volume EV producers and increase the availability and cost effectiveness of specialist EVs but in the long term the VW group will gain PR from being known as a "standard" platform and benefit from subsequent increased economies of scale. Europe will need all the help it can find to compete with China who are well advanced with the production of low and medium cost EVs.

Other major manufacturers will (and already are) also making their skateboards available for everyone or at least sharing them so no one will have a monopoly but having a limited number of platforms for the worlds mainstream EVs can only be a plus for their availability and uptake. The only downside to all this is that at current rates Australia will be one of the last countries in the world to embrace the EV revolution and it is unlikely we will ever benefit from their manufacture apart from supplying the raw materials.