How South Africa nearly beat Tesla - The story of the Joule, a world-first EV

Optimal Energy was founded by visionary engineer Kobus Meiring, who, long before Tesla, began building a commercially viable electric passenger car. In this podcast, veteran and respected motoring engineer and motoring journalist Nicol Louw joins Ciro De Siena to chat about his long-term involvement in the Joule electric vehicle project, in the role of Systems integration engineer. In this truly fascinating and often emotional chat, Nicol takes us through how the project started, how it developed, and just how close they were to hitting the market, before the Tesla Model S or Nissan Leaf were launched. It's a story about the incredible prowess of South African engineering, and the resilient spirit of South Africans who took on the world and came achingly close to starting the EV revolution. 0:00 - Intro 2:10 - Optimal Energy 5:10 - Design 8:10 - The team 9:30 - The prototypes 10:20 - Specs 12:40 - Building the car 16:20 - Battery 18:30 - Range 21:20 - Preparing the car for production 32:00 - The Joule’s competition 33:30 - The demise of the Joule 38:40 - Battery development Visit Cars.co.za at: https://www.cars.co.za Sell your car on Cars.co.za: https://www.cars.co.za/sell-car/ Follow Cars.co.za on the socials:   / carssouthafrica     / carssa     / carssouthafrica     / carssouthafrica   Visit SentiMETAL at: https://www.sentimetal.shop Follow SentiMETAL on the socials:   / sentimetal_productions     / sentimetalproductions   Download the Cars.co.za App here: Apple https://apps.apple.com/za/app/cars-co... Android https://play.google.com/store/apps/de... Huawei App Gallery https://appgallery.huawei.com/#/app/C...