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Electric cars?

Would you buy an electric car?

  • Already own one

    Votes: 10 5.1%

  • Yes - would definitely buy

    Votes: 43 21.7%

  • Yes - preferred over petrol car if price/power/convenience similar

    Votes: 78 39.4%

  • Maybe - preference for neither, only concerned with costs etc

    Votes: 38 19.2%

  • No - prefer petrol car even if electric car has same price, power and convenience

    Votes: 25 12.6%

  • No - would never buy one

    Votes: 14 7.1%
  • Total voters
    198
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A I said in my original post, the problem is in scalability. Value collector has real world experience which is highly valuable, but the problem is the issue of scalability, not whether one persons experience is positive (excuse the electric pun).
The problems are peak loads.
Car usage has peaks and troughs, and it is the peaks that will be a problem.
Look at what happens at summer holiday time.
Look at what happens at school start and end times.
The AEMO figures quoted are a snapshot in time.
If the peaks of electricty generated with the peaks of vehicle requirements, it would be fine, but that just cannot be guaranteed.
There are other days when wind and solar produce zero, and gas, coal, diesel, or something else has to take up the slack..
The cost of electricity then becomes quite high.
This is also a snapshot in time, and equally useless.
The aims are to remove ICE based cars from the world, a laudable aim.
Its that massive number of EV's that will be the killer, not an individuals use.
Mick
 
mullokintyre said:
Car usage has peaks and troughs, and it is the peaks that will be a problem.
Click to expand...
Most cars are garaged on weekends and outside working hours, and that's when electricity demand is lowest and prices are cheaper, so the opposite of your point seems to be the case.
mullokintyre said:
The AEMO figures quoted are a snapshot in time.
Click to expand...
They are an accurate representation of weekday cycles, and on weekends demand is significantly less and "flatter".
But EV's can be plugged in and programmed to access electricity when demand and prices are low. This is possible at work (aside from charging point availability) or at home.
Moreover, for the high volume driver, fast chargers would be used. Yes we need more, but that's an infrastructure issue rather than a shortage of electricity.
 
probably not a lot of use in continuing this argument.
As I said, I am an electrical engineer by academic quals, but spent most of my life in IT. However the training we did at Uni on Power Generation and distribution networks has not changed the laws of scalability.
We will just have to agree to disagree.
Mick
 
Electric cars have batteries, so charging doesn’t have to occur during peak usage.

for example look at the peak hour traffic times, from midnight to 6am the roads are empty, and the cars are all parked up, that’s perfect for charging at night.

then after 10am once the majority are at work and the school run is finished, a lot of cars are again parked up, that aligns with the midday peak in solar.

Also as pointed out, for most people doesn’t have to occur every day.

watch this 90 second video, it shows an affordable smart charger that allows you to only charge using your own solar, it would be super easy to design a charger controlled over wifi that the grid can control to balance loads.

 
If you are in IT, it shouldn’t be hard for you to imagine chargers connected to wifi, being controlled by the grid operators or electricity retailers.

they would love to be able to switch on and use their excess capacity during peak hours.

watch the video above.
 
If you want, check out this other thread, pretty much every concern you brought up was raised there and debated.

Electric cars? for Aspies, Narcissists and Power Grid people

Sometimes there is a niche interest or problem that needs its own space. Therein lie many truths which the majority of people not only cannot understand but about which they have absolutely no interest. Power in all its manifestations is important. Particularly electrical power. It's economics...
www.aussiestockforums.com
 
not for me , i have never had a driving licence ( but can drive , if i have to )

i do hold VMT , which has ( IMO ) made an awful mess of a niche , that was logical and efficient ( ultra small commercial vehicles )

think pizza delivery .. the scooter could be sitting on charge waiting for the next call they seem to be making 3 wheel versions so plenty of scope for government and business fleet work

if government and business won't readily embrace EV it is probably a one-winged duck , quacks , waddles and not much else

all GOOD inovation thrives on obvious efficiency
 
The only issue with the off peak usage is, that is supplied by fossil fuel generation, which is exactly what we are trying to shut down.
It isn't an insurmountable problem, but it isn't on the plus side of the equation for BEV's.
They are coming but there are a lot of technical issue to be worked through IMO.
 
Not really, as I showed today QLD was in negative rates for a few hours due to solar, and for several days in the past week Victoria has been having a large amount of wind during off peak and high solar times.

Also pretty much 100% of petrol and diesel come from fossil fuels, so worst case scenario you are just swapping oil for a mix of coal, Gas, wind, solar and hydro so you will still be on top.

we don’t have to have a perfect 0% fossil fuel carbon neutral solution before deciding to move away from something that is 100% fossil fuel.
 
technical , or just hoopla

GM had an EV years ago it sold to ( probably leased ) to certain US government agencies

EVs are NOT new technology , new technology has been used on EVs

there are certain areas EVs should be a no-brainer BUT some insist it is an all singing , all-dancing , miracle multi-tool , which risks EVs becoming a mediocre option for almost everything .. wait until they offer a built-in toaster and coffee warmer
 

You are right EV’s only suit 99% of the population at the moment.

Almost all of the reasons people think that EV’s wouldn’t suit them are normally false, or just misunderstandings about how EV’s actually work.

for example the folks that say that they wouldn’t get an EV until there is just as many Ev charging stations as there are petrol stations. however if that person thought honestly about it, and asked them selves how many times a year they would actually go to the petrol station if they could fill up in their garage for 25cents a litre, the answer would be almost never etc for road trips.

people also seem to think that charging an ev is a time wasting exercise, however it takes 20 seconds to plug in, where as you can waste 10mins a week or 8 hours a year at the petrol station.
 
well city councils , and government vehicles that travel short distances a day ( so 300 km a day ) should have been EV as a start

less urban pollution , and a good example for those who do not travel long distances regularly ( and MIGHT choose EV most times but hire a gas guzzler for long trips say the annual holidays )
 

No Cookies | Herald Sun

No Cookies
www.heraldsun.com.au
From the article:
On Friday, Mr Taylor will also announce five companies will share in $25m to deliver more than 400 fast-charging stations for electric vehicles across the country.

More than 100 of the new stations will be located across Victoria.
 
I am involved with the automotive industry, and have been interested in EV's for quite some time. I looked at purchasing about 3 years ago but nothing took my fancy, except for the Tesla but the price for new and second hand was more than I was willing to pay. Until recently.

My wife and I first took one for a test drive in January, we were both blown away, and I ordered one a few months later. I took delivery of a new Tesla M3 LR about 5 weeks ago and it is my wife's daily drive. Every time I drive it I feel that I'm in a vehicle of the future, it makes conventional cars feel old and last century.

The car I own was purchased new in 2014, a Holden VF SS-V Ute. I love it and will never sell it, but I find myself wanting to drive the Tesla. No need to apply the brakes, no gear changes, no need for petrol stations, refueling is just a matter of plugging in at home.

If other vehicle manufactures start building EV's similar to what Tesla has achieved, the automotive industry will shrink by a massive amount. It will take time, 2ith the affects starting in about 20 years. There will be less maintenance required and less spare parts.

I signed up for a free EV charging station trial, AGL come and install a home charge station at home for free. It is connected to the internet and allows AGL to monitor and stager charging times during the day or night, so that when EV's become m stream there will not be an overload on the grid when everyone comes home and plugs in.

Due to the short time we have had the M3 and the COVID issues, we haven't really had a proper chance to test it out. On the first weekend we had it we drove it to a country town about 1.5 hours out from the city on a cold and wet night with just over half charge. I knew that we'd struggle to get home but I also knew that there were charging station near the town. We had our dinner, topped up the charge with a 30 minute pit stop and got home safely.

I took a chance on TESLA shares about 2 years ago, it took me over a year to buy because I could not believe the hype but I haven't looked back since.

We live in exciting times.
 
Hello @JohnDe , welcome to the forum, hope you enjoy your time here, as you can see by the number of your post #3,795 the thread has been running for some time, it started in 2011.
There are many members on the forum interested in BEV's and some own them, so there it is always great to get new input.
I hope chose to participate in many of the threads you find interesting, new ideas are always welcomed on ASF.

We have discussed the AGL BEV trail before, maybe you could explain the conditions attached to the free installation, do you have to grant them access to your car battery during peak periods e.g 6pm to 9pm etc.
 
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UPDATE 1-Fire breaks out in Tesla Megapack unit in Australia during testing​


UPDATE 1-Fire breaks out in Tesla Megapack unit in Australia during testing

A fire broke out in a Tesla Inc Megapack battery unit in Australia on Friday during testing of one of the world's biggest energy storage projects, run by France's Neoen SA, fire authorities said. The fire erupted during an initial trial of the high-profile energy project known as the Victorian...
au.finance.yahoo.com
 
divs4ever said:
EVs are NOT new technology , new technology has been used on EVs
Click to expand...
Electric cars as such have been around longer than any of us have been alive. Some of the earliest cars built were electric.

Hybrids aren't as new as most probably think either. Briggs & Stratton, a company better known for small engines used in lawnmowers and so on, built one more than 40 years ago. It's imperfect but proved the concept could work. Video featuring it is here:
As for charging EV's well I've posted figures previously about that. In short it's very doable so long as it's managed. If everyone just plugs them in and starts charging when they get home late afternoon or early evening well then that's a massive problem yes. Manage the charging though, to spread the load over time, and it's very doable.

As an order of magnitude well a 100% electric vehicle fleet for South Australia would use about the same amount of energy, on average, as the two largest factories in Tasmania and less than the largest single factory in Queensland for example. Or in other words it's roughly a 30% increase in electrical energy consumed in SA - that's very doable and quite cheaply so long as it's not adding significantly to the peaks. So long as it's done smartly and not just by dumping load on the system well then it's not a huge problem. The key is ensuring that approach is the one actually used - that's where any failure will occur, failing to actually do it, but that'll be a human failing not a technical one as such.
 
Which basically goes back to what we have been saying, get the charging technology right, before you get too far ahead of yourself with the uptake.
A bit like building a city in the middle of the desert, then trying to working out where you are going to get your water from.
 

Overview of early electric cars (1895-1925)​


Overview of Early Electric Cars (1895-1925)

One hundred years ago electric cars were a common sight on city streets in Europe and the United States.
www.lowtechmagazine.com

the ability to go extended distances with short gaps for refuelling would have swung some buyers towards petrol and diesel
 
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