First Ace electric vans assembled in Adelaide

Former Mitsubishi plant rises phoenix-like back to manufacturing vehicles

The ACE-EV van

Silently, with only a warning beep-beep, the first ACE-EV electric cargo van to be assembled in Adelaide rolls out for its media debut early this morning.

The venue – the Tonsley innovation centre housed in the former Miitsubishi Motors main assembly building – is ripe with irony, a massive industrial structure now re-purposed to house R&D facilities and start-up businesses.

ACE-EV MD Greg McGarvie is beaming as the carbon fibre composite van impressed with not only its silence, but its solidity, its quality and its promise for the future.

"It has taken us a million dollars to get where we are today," McGarvie says.

"My ambition is to work at it until at least 50 per cent of the car comes from South Australia.