Some news on how well our Governments are tracking towards EV uptake in Australia. The Electric Vehicle Council (EVC) has handed out a series of F grades to the Morrison Government as well as the WA & NT governments. The ACT got a B, Qld and NSW got Cs, Victoria, Sth Australia and Tasmania got Ds. ACT was the only State/Territory to get a 100% rating in one policy area and that was for the Govt Fleet Target.
From the article the the policy settings used as criteria were:
Setting an electric vehicle sales or fleet target
Investing in public charging networks
Developing and implementing a national electric vehicle strategy
Providing electric vehicle purchase incentives and subsidising home charging installations
Providing tax incentives for electric vehicle owners
Public awareness initiatives
Setting electric vehicle targets for government fleets
Transitioning to electric bus fleets
Mandating electric vehicle readiness requirements for new buildings
Developing electric vehicle industry development strategies and incentives
The article also notes that the Federal Govt have lots of Fossil Fuel backing and I wonder if this is perhaps why there has been so little progress at the Federal level.
The article also has a link to a piece about an opportunity that Australia has in developing an EV Car industry, one that has limited time to take advantage of.
Depending on the battery technology chosen updating Australia’s approx 19M road vehicles to battery could consume up to 1/3 of this. That’s not considering grid and off grid storage or off road use for rail, Agriculture, mining, recreation, and air transport.
The potential for domestic value add based on Australia’s up to one million new vehicles sales annually is tens of billions of Aussie Gumnuts every year. Hopefully they are still worth something against the Wan or USD in future currency terms.
The alternative of export of lithium at US$7,250 per tonne LME? If battery grade lithium carbonate the first million Tonne exported from Australia will earn approx AU$10B. If Exported as low grade mineral it’s worth even less. Next to nothing in value compared to use converting all road transport to battery electric over 20 years.
Talking about Telsa and range anxiety…yesterday we had a last minute booking from a group who when booked said that they needed a place to charge their Tesla. They had driven from Queenstown, but the fast charge point in Queenstown had a range of connectors, but none for Tesla. They could only use a 10A charge for a few hours before departing. Initial range in the vehicle after the short charge indicated it would make it to Miena…but on route, the range disappearred faster than the kilometres travelled.
They had planned to drive to Miena for an overnight stay but in Deloraine, the range indicated in the car (60km) would not have allowed them to make it (as there was a 1000m metre climb and 70km drive). The car owner indicated that from experience, 60km is maximum under ideal, flat and conservative driving conditions. Instead, they had to make an impromptu booking for the night. So we were fortunate to have them stay with us, and as good hosts we didn’t charge for the battery top-up.
If they had run out of charge on route, it would have been a very expensive tow back to one of the major centres in Tassie. Leaving in the morning we wished them all the best and they indicated that they would be stopping in Campbelltown and plan to use the fast charge there for another top-up, as the battery capacity was marginal for them to make it back to Hobart. Just hope that the charging station in Campbelltown had Telsa port for connection. Otherwise they might have had an unexpected night away somewhere else.
This identifies two issues…problems associated with driving long distances in an electric vehicle and car manufacturers using their own proprietary connection plugs for charging.
Can’t afford the many tens of thousands to install a waterproof public fast charger … and also would never get a return. Happy to provide a 10A supply if and when needed.
Edit: Also happy to host a public charger if someone else pays the capital, operating and maintenance costs.
Enough to recharge many overnight. Note the .ong list of compatibles. Not quite thousands, although it does need an electrician to install. $1395 GST inc.
Long haul transport is one of a very few fields in which the cost, complexity and inefficiency of hydrogen might be warranted.
“The Project Portal platform is designed to provide the target performance required to support port drayage operations. The truck generates more than 670 horsepower and 1325 pound feet of torque (approx. 1800 Nm) from two Mirai fuel cell stacks and a 12kWh battery, a relatively small battery to support class 8 load operations. The concept’s gross combined weight capacity is 80,000 lbs. (36.3 metric ton), and its estimated driving range is more than 200 miles (320 km) per fill, under normal drayage operation.”
Better to provide a three phase outlet (5 pin) as a 3P 32A circuit will deliver 22kW rate of charging. Easy to use with portable electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE).
One way for the ABC to grab a headline. Two refuelling explosions (2008 & 2012) in 20 years of operation is not what any would want as an outcome. The busses will remain as part of the fleet of approx 1200 buses up until 2027. A change in refuelling to half fill appears to have been successful.
The stop gap of buying more diesel buses with Euro 6 compliant engines seems counter productive, as new buses typically have a service life of up to 25 years. Hence they may still be in service in 2050?
As a broader topic this item is also considering how Australia moves it’s non private use transport off high emissions technology.
Note: As an aside GHG emissions caused by the transport sector have risen steadily by more than 60% since 1990. In comparison emissions due to electricity generation have fallen since peaking in 2009 and are now approx 35% higher than in 1990.
WhichCar Australia has published an article saying using Telsa’s supercharging stations is more expensive (per 100km travelled) than modern petrol car equivalent…
