The Society of Automotive Engineers – Australasia (SAE-A), the peak body for Asia-Pacific mobility engineers, says a reborn Australian car industry could more than repay its investment.
SAE-A Chairman and CEO Adrian Feeney said the key to financial success was to embrace the most suitable technologies for a low-volume, highly specialised car design.
"What we propose is not a 20th century mass production concept, but rather a 21st century high-tech manufacturing exercise that plays to our Australian strengths," he said.
"The car factories we once had were billion-dollar plants with a hugely expensive foundry and engine shop, body presses and weld lines just to produce the basic body and driveline.
"By contrast, our police car proposal would use the same type of efficient low-volume body production already used to perfection by Paccar to build Kenworth trucks in Melbourne.
"The driveline would be electric, with proven savings in materials and manufacturing costs, backed by Australia's wealth of lithium and emergent battery industry.
"And we should never forget that all these technologies will preserve a level of expertise that will be priceless next time we face a crisis such as a pandemic."
The focus on police and emergency vehicles is a key element of the SAE-A proposal.
Mr Feeney said the market for these vehicles would reward high-level expertise that could produce exactly what the various police forces required.
"Australian police forces buy up to 5,000 cars each year, each with tens of thousands of dollars in special equipment added," he said.
"Our approach would put the money and effort into producing a modest volume of highly specialised vehicles, while avoiding the massive capital costs of a big-volume factory.
"We've seen this sort of thing before, with specialist manufacturers building postal and ambulance vehicles, not to mention our thriving coach and truck manufacturing industries.
"By targeting a market with very specific needs, we can own that market long term, and by dramatically reducing the capital cost, we completely re-write the financial equation."
Mr Feeney said SAE-A looked forward to generating interest from government and the private sector, with a view to a feasibility study to take the concept to the next level.