Not exactly an unbiased source, but interesting perspectives on the viability of hydrogen:
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A great point @PhilT in that if you are going to recharge at home it may be worthwhile investing in connecting your EV charger to an Off Peak or Controlled Load tariff. This may mean having a new meter installed, and will require some new wiring being put in place even if not going to Off Peak/Controlled Load rates. The fitting may also require a charging station being purchased and installed. These costs need to be considered as well as the purchase price of the vehicle.
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A conventional car driven about 300,000 kms over its lifetime will require about 30,000 litres of fuel (at 10 litres per 100 kms) — that’s the size of a fuel tanker — at a cost of about $50,000.
An electric car could be powered by about 10 solar panels — costing about $200 each.
If we didn’t import all that fuel, we could afford some pretty good roads with the money saved — however it is collected.
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Not a conventional car around here.
Certainly not an everyday mileage either.
Where do you get such data? There are plenty of govt statistics from the ABS et al that stand scrutiny. 
The average annual mileage for a vehicle in Australia 13,301km. Enjoy the add.
We are more than willing to replace a current Toyota with a Battery Electric Vehicle when they become affordable. They remain an expensive luxury for all but the wealthy or very high mileage drivers (>50,000km pa might be the break even NPV and DCF analysis).
It’s worth noting that at the current phenomenal rate of expansion of lithium rechargeable battery manufacture:
It is forecast there will be sufficient capacity in 2023 for 25% of all new cars to be Battery Electric.
That still leaves 75% to be ICE.
The forecast for hydrogen is for minimal impact other than for high capacity applications such as buses and long distance haulage.
Note:
Personal first hand experience, Toyota Camry sedan with 30,000km on the clock. Mixed cycle use averages 7.9l/100km.
That might be 1,051l pa. Or just $1,513 of fuel each year. Doubt it will still be around in 23 years time to run up 300,000km.
A view on the hydrogen fuel cell vs battery electric vehicle comparison from an unexpected source. Yes, it’s a year old, but now freed from it’s political innuendo worth another look.
Two observations on hydrogen stand out in comparisons.
The low energy recovery/conversion efficiency of commercialised fuel cells.
The high relative cost per kW or lifetime kWh of commercial fuel cells, as evidenced by the high cost of a hydrogen fuel cell powered vehicle.
P.S.
The current overall energy efficiency of the hydrogen fuel cycle for vehicles is approx 30%.
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Problems with batteries. It’s obviously far more complicated than this article implies. There are many battery chemistries, for example. We will have to get a lot better at recovering and reusing what we extract from our country.
The potential for Australia is obvious. All we need is leadership that won’t sell us out.
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One option might be to ensure that ownership of the battery or materials remains with Australia. The product is effectively leased for life. Never sold!
Simply selling the raw mineral does not add much value. Secondly, if the product can in the future be successfully recycled and remains in demand Australia would gain no further benefit. All benefit of the one time only mined Aussie minerals would go to who ever owned or purchased the scrap batteries and their recycling business.
Australia has a habit of not thinking long term. Short term benefits often go to a select few. This is often at the expense of any longer term benefits to the nation.
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Australian EV sales tripled in 2019 whilst ICE vehicle sales decresed to their lowest level since 2011.
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They would only need to double every year for the next ten years for new car sales to become 100% EV.
That would see the end of new ICE passenger vehicle sales by 2030 and perhaps an end to ICE on Australian roads by 2040. Perhaps it might take a little longer?
The rate of change of handheld power tools from 230V power and two stroke petrol has been accelerating. It shows how quickly we can adopt new technology.
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When all else fails, brew your own:
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An article regarding electric bike delivery services including Australia Post.
Perhaps I will finally receive the Express Post envelope my sister posted a month ago?
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More on the subject of sound effects - this time for London’s electric buses:
Yet another electric passenger aircraft concept. I do wish they’d stop referring to “electric jets”. Interesting comment about weight distribution.
Before anyone objects, I know there’s not yet an electric aircraft that can fly London-Sydney non-stop. It will be interesting to see whether lighter-than-air craft can fill that role (bearing in mind that - Hindenburg notwithstanding - the Zeppelin fleet reportedly had a better safety record than heavier-than-air craft in the day).
What proportion of the world’s aviation is those longer flights? How many of those longer flights are really necessary? Can the world afford to pander to those of us who are in such a rush?
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Holden bites the dust, in part because of electric vehicles:
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It will be interesting to see how aviation develops in Australia. On some routes, pure electric aircraft will do the job. Other markets may simply become no longer viable. Some that aren’t practical at present may become an option because of electric aviation.
An article regarding Chinese owned London Electric Vehicle Company is expanding production of its TX electric vehicles.
As outlined in some of my earlier posts, parts of the car industry is concerned about the potential environmental impacts of lithium mining, particularly in the Andes alpine deserts which contain a significant proportion of the world’s cheap and easily extractable lithium resources.
Both Volkswagen and Daimler have now commenced environmental assessments of lithium mining/extraction in such as areas as they are concerned with the potential long term impacts (and maybe also the impact on their ‘green’ electric vehicle reputations where lithium extraction is proven to be unsustainable).
If the car and lithium battery industry chose lithium sources other than those with sustainability or environmental concerns, selectively sourcing lithium has the potential to impact on the price of lithium products bought by the consumer. Restricting manufacturing supply will push up prices of both lithium and the associated manufacturer products.
Optionally that may be good for Australia as a supplier, with very large reserves of lithium in WA. Mining in Australia has proven very capable of scaling production up and driving production costs down.
There are a number of alternate battery technologies which are also just one step off being as good if not better than lithium based batteries. Also several stationary battery alternatives that if scaled another level in production have potential to compete. These could take some pressure off the market for lithium.
There may also be options to produce batteries that use significantly less lithium and last longer. Also reducing the demands on supply and lower cost of lithium.
https://www.greencarcongress.com/2020/02/20200204-hq.html
Conflicted?
Is it reasonable to ask Chile to give up on exploiting it’s lithium reserves? Perhaps if Chile was paid to keep it’s lithium in the ground (salt pans)? It seems unlikely given the global drive for zero carbon. And possibly hypocrisy in trading off one environmental outcome against another. The greater global community accepted China progressively increasing mining and importing more coal over the previous two decades. Some of the prosperity of China has gone towards production of solar panels, inverters and lithium batteries. Chile may see it’s economic outlook similarly.
An article regarding concerns that the rollout of electric vehicles will overload charging facilities which have not been properly planned.
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Researchers are working on developing lithium batteries which are more enviromentally friendly.
