Australian cars go electric

All credit to car-maker Blade Electric Vehicles for successfully producing an all-electric 4-passenger vehicle anyone with $48,000 can own – a converted Hyundai Getz. And credit to the government for offering clunker owners $2,000 for trading in their petrol-guzzling, carbon-spewing, planet-killing cars.

No doubt Blade will experience a sales surge as the clunker-drivers, who have held onto their cars not out of financial necessity but rather because they were waiting for the introduction of a truly environmentally friendly vehicle, take advantage of the government's largess.

And who wouldn't want a $48,000 car – $46,000 after clunker rebate – with a 100 kilometer range, one very impressed owner even managing a round trip from Geelong to Melbourne (this is beyond the car's stated range so a top-up charge might have been involved).

Secondhand Blades are also available, a two-year-old car formerly owned by "a government body" priced at only $35,200. This car, if bought new at the current $48,000 price, could have been resold to Blade under a guaranteed buy-back scheme for $21,000. This means that a car that travelled only 3,000 kilometers cost the owning agency $27,000 over two years, or $9.00 dollars a kilometre. There's no doubt about it, clunker owners will be keen to trade up.

Update: An electric car owner overcomes the limited-range problem by carrying "a 30-metre extension cord." I hate to trouble you but could i borrow a power point for a couple of hours?

Update II: Blade buyers do not qualify for the $2,000 rebate:

The four-cylinder Toyota Camry and the Camry Hybrid are the only eligible Australian-made cars.