Electric car is still on the charger

What happened to Cambodia’s electric car? The short answer is, the wait continues.

More than seven months after its owners unveiled the new and improved Angkor EV 2013 to great fanfare, they are chronically short of funding and assembly is taking place in piecemeal fashion.

Seang Chan Heng, general director of Heng Development, the company producing the Angkor EV model, said yesterday that backing to get the country’s first personal-use electric car out on the road is not what it could be. Chan Heng said the project needs an additional $100 million, and she is on the hunt for business partners. …

In March 2011, Chan Heng signed a memorandum of understanding with the Chou Leang Alliance Group and car designer Nhean Phalloek in a $20 million deal that included a manufacturing factory in Kandal province and foresaw a workforce of 300. …

If it comes out, the Angkor EV 2013 will enter a growing car industry, though it remains to be seen whether an electric vehicle can gain market share in a country where consumers can spend the same amount of money for second-hand cars, which account for the majority of purchases. …

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/electric-car-still-charger