Previous Page
The Interview
Darren Liberty Electric C
Green Automotive Company Acquires Liberty Electric Cars Ltd.
Q
Can you give an overview of Liberty Electric Cars Ltd and its
organisational structure?
Liberty Electric Cars Limited (www.liberty-ecars.com) is a UK based company that designs, develops, manufacturers and markets electric vehicle technologies for use in its own converted vehicles and for sale to OEM's for incorporation into their production. It provides a full aftermarket program to electric vehicle users to ensure the longevity of their vehicles and has partnership arrangements in other European countries. The Liberty team can count on over 200 man years of experience in the automotive industry and specifically 70 plus man years in the EV sector covering some 2,500,000 miles.
The senior management team has a wealth and depth of knowledge and expertise in a variety of fields and industries and is currently made up of; Barry Shrier (Chairman), Ian Hobday (Chief Executive), Darren West (Chief Financial Officer), Jevon Thurston-Thorpe (Head of vehicle Development), Petra Beitl (Head of marketing), and Clive Southwell (Head of operations).
Q 38
What are the main areas of Liberty Electric’s expertise?
Our main expertise is obviously electric vehicles of all shapes and sizes. We are still very proud of the two 100% zero Emission
Electric Range Rovers that we designed and built. They showcased our unique proprietary battery pack and drive-train. Despite being built some two years ago their specifications are still hard to beat - a 200 mile range on a single charge, 100mph top speed and 0-60mph in circa 7 seconds. Since our R&D days we have morphed in to a holistic EV company. What I mean is we offer all things to all companies in the EV Supply chain:
•Our E-tech team can help OEM’s design and build new vehicles,
•Our E-parts team (www.difflock.com) ships parts to some 200 countries to keep vehicles on the road,
•Our E-care team provides the best after sales care support “money can buy” for Electric vehicles,
•Our Going Green team (www.goingreen. co.uk) offers an array of new and used Electric vehicles – bikes, scooters, cars, vans, trucks etc
Our E-tech team are presently working on two very prestigious projects:
MOTORE Liberty has received an award of funding from the Technology Strategy Board in the UK for the development of a rare earth free electric vehicle motor technology.
The project will provide a sustainable and
affordable solution for EV motor production that is central to meeting the future demand for widespread electrification of road vehicles.
By using an innovative hybrid material comprising laminate and soft magnetic materials, novel motor topology and power electronics and performance monitoring the motor will provide a sustainable replacement of the permanent magnet motors used today.
DELIVER Liberty Electric Cars is participating together with Volkswagen, Fiat, Michelin, IKA and HPL Proto in the prestigious EU program DELIVER to design fully electric light commercial vehicles with the goal to reduce the environmental impact in urban areas. The DELIVER project is co-funded by the European Community’s 7th Framework program.
Q
Green Automotive Company has recently acquired Liberty Electric
Cars Limited. Can you discuss the acquisition?
The deal was an all paper deal in which the shareholders of Liberty Electric cars swapped their shares, in Liberty, for shares in GACR. At the current share price of $0.50 it valued the complete deal at around $47m. This meant that all of our shareholders (including those last in) showed a very healthy return on their original investments. Ian Hobday and I have been elected to the Board of GACR and it is the plan of the GACR Board to get the