Cambodia: �Telepathic� Car Symbolises Auto Industry

The gold-coloured convertible turns heads on impoverished Cambodia�s roads � not least because of creator Nhean Phaloek�s outlandish claim that it can be operated telepathically.

�I just snap my fingers and the car�s door will open. Or I just think of opening the car�s door, and the door opens immediately,� says the 51-year-old as he proudly shows off the homemade car, named the Angkor 333-2010.

Onlookers gasp as he demonstrates the trick, and with the fibre-glass vehicle having cost him $5,000 and 19 months of labour he is in no mood to reveal the remote control system behind it.

But as with a handful of other Cambodians who make their own curious cars, he dreams the two-seater will help foster an automobile industry in the country, still poor after decades of conflict.

�I am very excited and proud of this car because many people admire me and keep asking me about how I can make it,� he says, adding that it reaches speeds of up to 100 kilometres (62 miles) ?per hour. Kong Pharith, a 48-year-old former maths and physics teacher who has also produced his own car, says an auto industry is about to blossom in Cambodia.

�Our works will be part of a motivating force for the next generation to access new inventions and show the world that Cambodia has an ability to do what you think we cannot,� he says.

The inventor, who first came to national attention in 2005 for building a solar-powered bicycle, thinks he has now hit on a truly unique product with his orange, jeep-like vehicle with solar panels on its roof. Kong Pharith says it took him four months to design and put the final polish on his �tribrid� car which operates on solar energy, electricity and gasoline, hitting speeds of up to 40 kilometres per hour with its 2,000 watt motor.

�I�m really happy about my achievement but not very satisfied with it yet,� he says, adding that Cambodia�s lack of modern technology and materials are a minor obstacle to efficient manufacturing. The dream of building cars in Cambodia may not be far-fetched. Officials have announced plans for South Korean automaker Hyundai to open a plant in southwestern Cambodia, assembling some 3,000 vehicles per year.

Cambodia did actually assemble cars in a factory during the 1960s, before the country was caught in the maelstrom of the Vietnam War.

The Angkor 333-2010 is the third he has built, and his first to talk. When Phaloek slams the door a voice out of the dashboard moans: �Why do you close me too strongly?�

�Dozens of local and foreign guests have come and seen my car,� Nhean Phaloek says with a smile. �One British man told me that it is the Cambodian James Bond car.�