We’ve been seeing Vega making waves for over half a decade to become Sri Lanka’s first car. We would rather call it as such, all what we built so far are not from the roots as this. It’s no easy building a car, especially a one in this complexity, needing 100 million lines of codes in its management software.
Let’s look back. Started from Upali Mazda we only see assemblies including Micro who only wanted to make advantages of local taxation. There were few exceptions including Kapla but cannot agree to call it cars!
Delivering the first Upali Mazda
We blame the politicians for killing the project of Visionary Mr. Wijewardena, but similar projects (not necessarily automotive) died even without any political barriers.
But the same politicians paved way for MICRO Privilege, although it wasn’t sustainable. Not only, some may remember infamous brand EMPEROR, the so called Made in Sri lanka car costing the country with billions of tax money.
So…it’s not the politics blocked Sri Lanka becoming a car producing nation. Then what, is it the policies? Let’s look at the global scenario.
Australia shut its car production years ago including once blooming Holden and Toyota. UK was in the brim until India become the savior, but still not out of red. Saab of Sweden died but Volvo saved by China.There are many sad endings, including some European and Japanese giants ended up in buyouts. Collaborations too were common in the industry highlighting one prime ingredient for sustainability and success in a global economy.
Economies of Scale There were few factors contributing to be a car producing nation. Cost effective labor, cost of energy, component manufacturing and land mass. But couple of factors stood out during the past couple of decades over others.That is Sufficient home market (China & India) & Per capita income (USA, Japan) giving an edge over others. Germany conquered the premium segment…and with Volkswagen with the massive european market and their alliances with the rest of Europe. This again proves the topmost factor as EOS.Korea’s two brands had to merge to sustain and now successful globally with the help of EOS. EOS played a major role in taking advantage of the global sourcing and economics, atop all other reasons to be a car making country!
Sri Lanka, the wonder of asia! Do we have any of the above advantages? The answer is a big NO, and it’s not the corruption or policiless politics which hampered the development of the country. So no wonder few infamous brands hoodwinked us in the guise of Made in Sri Lanka.
VEGA ~ will it go the extra mile? These no way the Founders of Vega Dr. Harsha Subasinghe and Dr. Beshan Kulapala not knowing the facts. And they are developing a truly Sri Lankan car from the drawing board! EV rev is not exposed or estimated the budgets but sure it’ll be a multi million dollar project. VEGA is different, attracts a niche and it will be beyond the price tag of Million Dollars a piece. Still, can Vega overcome all these barriers and achieve commercial success?
We’ve got a case study.
RIMAC of Croatia has become the tech service provider to Aston Martin, Koenigsegg, and Pininfarina. Not only, Porsche now owns 10% of Rimac and they just signed up with Hyundai for performance EVs.
REMAC Concept One, with Richard hammond. Not to ask why RH is here!
Remac C_Two @ Geneva Motor Show
Vega is a project by local geniuses from software development to mechatronics. No wonder that they acquired wealth of of knowledge and trade expertise en-route. And the holding company, CodeGen built a global business already.
Vega team would have mastered the Architecture, Body dynamics, Ergonomics, Aerodynamics, Battery chemistry, Hardware, Firmware and Software in delivering its performance, safety and more.
Team Vega Now where to? With the wealth of knowledge developed over the years the opportunity presents to follow the route of REMAC, and VEGA must have built the bridge already with China and India, open to Sri lanka over Europe. But what about the car, which inspired youngsters to elderly. And moreover not only the local EV fraternity, even petrolheads. For sure VEGA will build the prototype but will it ever hit the intended market, the Hypercars or rather EV exotics? One should not forget all Hypercar makers will be with their EV versions within the next couple of years. Additionally over 10 unconventional pure EV hypercars will be debuting soon, the ones like below.
Aspark Owl CodeGen, the parent of VEGA delivered results and they are an exemplary team with passion. But passion and talent alone won’t deliver results, we recall the failure of Toyota F1 team, being the most funded ever. By now Team VEGA would have well achieved the target of Hyperlearning, but the car! Let’s revert to the founder/CEO of REMAC which has filled its order books for 150 units of C_Two’s priced at 2.3M$ a peice ( 400M LKR). But we need knowing that REMAC make more money by selling their technology and components. “Of course I’m very passionate about helping other manufacturers build their cars. But if the shareholders decide it doesn’t make sense to produce our own cars, they we’ll have to find another CEO.” …..and another thing in common with both CEOs Mate Rimac and Harsha Subasinghe, they both are Vegetarians!
