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BL PREMIUM
08 August 2021 – 00:05 DAVID FURLONGER
Plans by a South African-US consortium to build electric cars in the Eastern Cape, including a $1.5m (about R22m) “hypercar” bearing Nelson Mandela’s signature, must overcome formidable obstacles to succeed. The Mandrolli Auto consortium, which includes Mandela’s granddaughter Ndileka Mandela, says it had been promised $9bn by the African Diaspora Central Bank to develop and manufacture electric cars. Its plans were announced last week. In an interview this week, Mandrolli CEO Tami Mase says the partners are scouting out potential manufacturing sites in East London and Gqeberha and exploring development of a harbour near Coffee Bay on the Wild Coast. She says actual manufacture is about five years away. The first product, the hypercar, is in the early stages of development. “At the moment, all we have is the design,” she says. US co-founder B Taylor says he has secured global partners to develop, engineer and manufacture the prototype. Mase says Mandrolli had held talks with …
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