Classic Ride: Blade Electron

The forgotten homegrown history of Australia’s first EV. 

Here’s a pub quiz question that’ll stump even the most dedicated student of motoring history: What was Australia’s first commercially available EV?

If your first instinct was to answer, “the Mitsubishi i-MiEV”, that’s understandable, but you’d be wrong. In fact, it was a pioneering little vehicle called the Blade Electron. If you’ve never heard of it, that’s hardly surprising: only 50 of them were ever made, between 2008 and 2014. And if you don’t remember seeing one on the road back then, that’s not so shocking either, as the Blade Electron was somewhat incognito. It used the body of a Hyundai Getz—a 40kW/90Nm electric motor and 16 kWh prismatic lithium-ion phosphate battery replaced the 1.4-litre four-litre petrol engine and 45-litre fuel tank.

But the Blade Electron is well worth remembering—not just for its notable place in Australian automotive history, but as a genuinely remarkable achievement.

It was the passion project of Ross Blade, a vocational education teacher from New South Wales with no background in cars or engineering but with a deep interest in politics.

“The Blade Electron was born out of the belief that oil, by 2006, had become a driver of Machiavellian mischief,” Ross writes in his upcoming history of the vehicle. It was his view that a reliance on fossil fuels was the catalyst for negative geopolitical actions across the globe (including Australia’s actions in its dispute with Timor Leste over the revenue rights from oil platforms in the Timor Sea) that drove him to seek change.

Oil and gas were, and still are, central to most modern economies. Ross realised if you disrupt oil, you can disrupt everything from the school run to global trade. It was what happened to personal mobility that concerned him the most. So, he asked a fundamental question: “what technology could mitigate that risk, given enough time and effort?”

He landed on EVs.

But then Ross did something truly remarkable. Not content to just answer the question, he decided to build the solution. After a 12-month research phase, he began to experiment with the concept of a short-range EV. It would get you 80 kilometres with intermittent charging. It was enough to get most people to the shops or the kids to school, but it was clear from Ross’s research that Aussies wanted at least 100 kms in range.

He landed on lithium-ion phosphate as the safest battery chemistry available and sourced the batteries out of China at about a quarter of the price they were available at home. He worked with Ballarat University to design and build a battery management system. He acquired an AC system from a Canadian company. Research by the US Department of Defence showed a one-pedal driving system with regenerative braking was the key to achieving that all-important 100 km range.

The innovations were coming thick and fast. Ross was able to close the efficiency gap between city and highway driving and even demonstrated its ability to tow a load (bearing in mind the Electron’s body was a GETZ, Ross describes that “load” as “a modest trailer load to the local tip”). In 2009—after the vehicle was commercially available—the Electron became one of the first vehicles in Australia to operate with full Vehicle-to-Grid and Vehicleto-Home charging functionality (enabling bidirectional power flow between the car, the grid and the household).

The first commercially available Blade Electron hit the roads in Victoria in 2008. It cost just $48,000.

“We would buy the Hyundai GETZ new and we’d take them through second-stage manufacturing, and they would be approved as one-offs through Vic Roads,” Ross said.

“When we got to the sixth vehicle, that’s when the politics started.”

The Blade Electron had come to the attention of the larger vehicle manufacturers— themselves racing to develop the EVs they hoped Australians would one day rely on.

Ross received just $167,995 in Federal funding to develop and produce his EVs. At the same time (2008) the Federal Government announced $6.2 billion in assistance to local vehicle manufacturers to produce “A New Car Plan For a Greener Future”.

The odds were stacked against him. He faced continual pressure from regulators to prove his vehicles were safe. Ross said the Blade Electron rose to every challenge, including an expensive crash test, but by 2014, with just 50 Electrons on the road, it was clear his incredible ride was over.

“I was having a meeting with senior public servants in Victoria and one of them said, ‘we’re really surprised you’ve lasted this long’,” Ross said.

For all that, Ross said he has no regrets and no anger.

“If you wound the clock back and said, ‘would I do it again?’ Absolutely. It was the right thing to do and it was the right time to do it.”

“I try to look at it in a positive light."

“But was Australia the right country to do it in? Probably not. If I was based in America, it would likely have been a very different story. If I had my time over again, I’d do it in America.”

While many Australians might not recall the Blade Electron, it’s certainly a vehicle worth remembering. Fortunately, it’s remarkable history has been recorded. Not only is Ross writing the story of the Blade Electron, but he’s donated one of these historic vehicles to the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney.

And that’s as it should be. Because the Blade Electron should be more than the answer to a difficult quiz question. It should be remembered for its proud and pioneering place in automotive history.