BEVs WIll Only Succeed When Affordable, Says UK Developer

Paul Myles

TU-Editor

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5th March 2020

BEVs should be as cheap the average car if automakers are going to persuade consumers to go electric.

That’s the opinion of a start-up from Manchester in the UK which has spent the past two years designing and developing a low-cost EV that can retail at the same price as an eight-year-old hatchback rather than competing on price with new vehicle. The company, MeV Ltd, was founded in 2019 by Dr Tony Keating of Keating Supercars and Tim Harper a former European Space Agency with the mission to drive down EV costs using their knowledge of automotive engineering and advanced materials.

The result is the company’s BeeAnywhere concept which has been designed as a two-seat urban vehicle, controlled via the user’s smart phone and claiming the comfort, range and performance demanded by the urban environment.  The company is currently building pre-production vehicles.

BeeAnywhere was developed using the combined expertise of the National Centre for Motorsport Engineering at the University of Bolton with advanced composites from the University of Manchester’s Graphene Engineering and Innovation Centre. The resultant chassis design and composite body allows the vehicles to be assembled from a minimum of parts, reducing production and component costs.

Keating, said: “Emissions free transport should not be limited to those who can afford to pay a premium. The BeeAnywhere makes electric vehicles affordable, stimulating mass adoption and offers the potential to displace millions of older polluting vehicles, especially if backed by a scrappage scheme.”

Harper added: “For the UK to achieve targets set out in the government’s 2019 Clean Air Strategy there needs to be a rapid switch to electric vehicles. Currently there are no viable alternatives to conventional vehicles at an equivalent price point and the targets will not be met simply by charging for entering Ultra Low Emission Zones (ULEZ).

— Paul Myles is a seasoned automotive journalist based in London. Follow him on Twitter @Paulmyles_