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BMW Drivers Club Melbourne

The Future Really is Electric | July Members Meeting at SEA Electric

8 Jul 2019 10:28 AM | Anonymous


The world is constantly changing, whether we like it or not.  I have to be brutally honest here..  I am at the age where the thought of owning or driving an electric vehicle, frankly, left me cold.

Like many of similar vintage to me, when we think we know best, we simply have to be presented with a few brutal facts to make us finally stop and think.

Never has this been brought so drastically to the fore, than it did at our latest BMW Drivers Club meeting, held in Dandenong at a modern industrial facility, building electric commercial vehicles.

We were invited by fellow club member Warren Fairweather, who, along with other members of his family, own and operate SEA Electric Trucks.  This relatively new company kindly opened their doors to show us what they believe to be the way forward for the trucking and transport industry.

We were greeted with a massive spread of food, tea and coffee, the quality and quantity of which would put some catering businesses to shame.

Proceedings began with a talk by newly appointed Regional Director (Australia and New Zealand), Mr. Mark Cameron.  Mark has had a long career in the truck and transport industry, and obviously knows that trade well.  Some of the figures Mark quoted in his speech frankly shocked me, and for the first time ever made me question the world’s carbon emissions, and what MUST be done to reduce it.  Even in the last couple of days, every time I see a diesel engine truck on the road, I think of what it and other trucks driving around are pumping into the atmosphere, all of them at frightening levels.

Enter SEA Electric.  A company that is obviously forward thinking, and excited about what they are doing.  At this moment in time, they have the ability to provide companies with fully electric vehicles from 4 to 24 tonne GVM.  Which is really only the start, with constant and rapid improvements in battery technology and performance.  The sky truly is the limit.

Production numbers are also about to increase, with plans to have a second facility in regional Victoria within the next 2 years.

We were then invited to walk through their large, pristine facility, and were able to view all variants of the vehicles into which they are implanting electric “Hearts”- Mini Buses, Delivery Vans, Garbage Trucks, 6 Wheelers, and even a couple of cars, the Brand of which you would never have imagined could or would have become “electrified”.  I wont drop any names but some of the logos on vehicles being prepared were of some very high profile, and what I would describe as visionary and  “forward thinking” organisations.

It’s a well worn saying, but we really could have eaten our meal off the factory floor, such was the pristine condition of the entire premises.

So, what was the big thing I got out of this night?  The answer will be similar to most others that attended, that we must start to think more of the environment than ever before.  Maybe not for ourselves, but for our children, and our children’s children.

I offer a vote of thanks, to Warren and Tony Fairweather, (not forgetting Mrs. Fairweather, too) Mark Cameron, and all the staff at SEA Electric, for opening our eyes.

The future for road transport it’s bright, it’s clean, it’s sustainable.  And most certainly, it’s Electric..

Steve Garth |  Member #40
BMW Drivers Club Melbourne



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