Yeah he has one. Problem was the lack of charge stations and that many cars before him. Govt will have to get serious about it. Surely they would know bottlenecks.
Electric cars?
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I wouldn't mind one (lots of features), but the front end looks crap. Another problem seems to be the range towing heavy weight. I wonder how they would go towing a caravan?
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ARB will sort out the front end, there is a lot of room for improvement as you say, a bullbar and a couple of 9" spotties would hide a lot of the uglyness.
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From the Video I posted where they towed a tandem trailer with an F150 on it over the rockies, they said it tows really well, indeed its torque allowed it to out accelerate the accompanying RAM truck even with the trailer attached to the Rivan.
Rivian also reccommended using load levellers, and with its hydraulic suspension lifting capabilities, it is relatively easy to get the chassis line of both the towed entity and the towing entity nicely in line.
So it looks like more than capable as a towing medium.
Until you look at the range.
The guys had to do a top up two thirds through the test.
I was a little surprised at how little the regeneration system refilled the batteries on those long downhill stretches coming out of the Rockies, so that part looks a bit gimmicky to me.
Given we don't have too many mountains (at least not like the rockies), range may be a little better on the flatter areas, but still not great.
Would be useful for towing along coastal areas where EV fill up points are available.
Not sure how useful they would be heading up the Oodnadatta track with a 3 ton kedron behind.
Mick
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They Tow great, even if you get a little bit less range you do get the added benefit of being able to recharge at the caravan park while you sleep, so you might end up making less refueling stops than you would with a petrol truck.
let’s say on your average trip towing a van with a petrol vehicle you stop for fuel twice (once before you leave and one near your destination), with an electric vehicle you will have less stops, because you don’t need to fuel at the start of trip because you just charged at home, and you don’t need to refuel at the end because you will charge at your caravan site, but you will probably charge once during the trip, and that will be during a pee break anyway.
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As an owner of an EV that uses regen braking everyday, I was surprised by the small amount the guys in the video regenerated to, I think their trailer brake settings were messing with them, obviously when the trailer brake is coming on it isn’t using regen.
that said, when towing loads down hill regen braking would be taking a lot of strain off your regular brakes, which is good for safety.
mid was also very cold weather, if the guy had the heater cranking, the electricity recaptured would first be used to run the heater in the car before it charges the battery, Tesla has a bit of an edge there, because they are starting to use heat pumps rather than resistance heaters.
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When using my diesel powered Ranger to tow a 2.5 tonne van, which has an 80 lite tank, I reckon on about 17l per 100 k's travelling at around 95 km/hr , which gives me just on 400 km range for a full tank.
if I had a Rivian, If the battery use was 30% better in OZ given its warmer and not so many hills, the range on towing would still be less than 400kms roughly around 320kms, but for comparison sake, we say both vehicles can make the 400 km's
Charging at the Caravan park is probably not going to work. You get a 15 amp supply to the Van for fridge light maybe aircon, Tv etc.
Lets be generous and say there is ten amps left to charge the vehicle, which means you can charge at 2.4 kw per hour.
Given the Rivian capacity is 136 Kw/hours, that would take a tad over 2 days to recharge.
if the caravan parks have too many vehicles, they are going to struggle to supply 15 amps to lots of sites, and would start charging a lot more for the caravan sites.
The reral problems come when you do not have access to either a caravan park or a powered site.
We have an off road van, completely self sufficient, but even on good days with plenty of sun and putting out an extra 250 watt solar panel,
we will at best be fully charged by mid to late morning, which does not leave much for recharging the Rivian and still running the power in the van.
You are going to have to stay in one place for days at a time
So yes its doable, but not exactly practical.
Mick
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As I was pointing out though, before you leave on your trip you have to visit a fuel station where as the EV would have been fully charged in the morning, so your Diesel powered ranger is already one fuel stop behind the EV from the start, So even if you have to stop an put a bit of charge in the EV during your pee break 3 hours into your trip thats your first time you are actually stopping to charge, so both the ranger and the Ev are equal at that point.
Charging at the Caravan park is completely doable, Tesla's mobile charger only draws 8amps (and can be adjusted to 5amps if needed) and given that we have factored in that 1 charging stop during the pee break earlier in the day you won't arrive empty you probably have 50% charge left, so its not going to take 2 days, even though you might be at the park for a few days anyway.
Then when its time to leave, the ranger needs to be fuel straight away again because it arrived empty after the 400km trip, where as the EV is full (or close to full) and can hit the road straight away, when it stops 300km down the road for its first charge of the day, again its only just catching up with the ranger which has already stoped earlier, they ranger might be stopping some where so the passengers can pee, so technically the EV has still made less stops.
The Ranger then arrives home empty, and needs another trip to the fuel station, but the EV just plugs in at home.
No, because just like you have to do with your ranger, you can still charge at public chargers too, and won't be arriving at the caravan park empty, so you top up while you are at the park, and charge on the road when needed, which as I pointed out will be less than the ranger, due to home and destination charging, and charging while doing other things like pee breaks.
I have done multiple road trips in my EV, and I can tell you that you don't need more stops than I would have made in my old commodore, you basically do about the same number of stops, or less.
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Ouch.... thats going to cost you about $130 to fill isn't it?
The Rivian is going to only cost you $25 to charge, and free if you charge at the caravan park, some people wouldn't see making a 15 min stop to save $100 as much of an inconvenience, especially if as I said its during a normal pee break, and you didn't have to stop to fuel at the start or end of the trip like a regular diesel or petrol.
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Quite correct, but also immaterial.
But if we are going to talk costs, then my ranger cost me 55k to set up as a tow vehicle.
The equivalent EV with similar towing capacity will probably set me back 130k plus.
So I have to travel a lot of "free " miles before I get that 75k difference back
VC you missed the point entirely.
For many of us caravaners, having a completely self sufficient van means we go to places where there is no water, no power, no sewerage.
You can't just pop down to the nearest maxi charge centre and fill up.
I carry extra jerry can of fuel because there is a lot of nothing between places of interest in outback OZ.
Charging an EV in the these places is just not possible, much less practical - yet.
Mick
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3.6kWh with 15A. Not many EV drivers would charge from empty.
Understanding Your Home EV Charger Options - EVSE Australia
Top Tips to help you choose the right EV Charging Station for your Home For those new to electric vehicles it can be confusing to understand what your options are for EV charging at home. In this blog post we break down how vehicles charge, what your charging options are, and how to best get […]
evse.com.au
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Perhaps you did not read what I wrote.3.6kWh with 15A. Not many EV drivers would charge from empty.
Understanding Your Home EV Charger Options - EVSE Australia
Top Tips to help you choose the right EV Charging Station for your Home For those new to electric vehicles it can be confusing to understand what your options are for EV charging at home. In this blog post we break down how vehicles charge, what your charging options are, and how to best get […]
I was talking about charging in a caravan park, where you get to connect one 15 amp lead for your van, from which you need to run all the electric items in the van, and what is left charges up the vans batteries.
Then , when the batteries are charged, it will have some power left over to charge an EV, but it will still be running the elctric items in the van, so at no stage will you have the full 15 amps to charge an EV.
But even if you could get a second plug point at 15 AMPS, at 3.6KWr from 50% charge it is going to take at least 19 hours to get that 50%.
And of course, if you can only allow the EV charge to go down to 50%, you only have 50% of your original range.
Its a catch 22.
To reduce the charging time, you have to reduce the range.
Plus it means you need the vehicle to stay connected for that time, which means no exploring unless on foot.
As I said, its doable, just not yet practical.
Mick
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I did, and I have had your scenario multiple times with a 10A extension cord and the time to charge has not changed by much.
By the way, what power usage does a caravan have? A fridge/freezer, TV, lighting... surely they are not running non-stop 24 hours a day.
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JohnDe
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electric vehicles, charging stations, caravan parks, grey nomads,
As electric vehicles (EVs) continue to make inroads in the Australian market, one of the biggest barriers to the concept really taking off is the...
www.thegreynomads.com.au
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Even with a jerry can, the distance you can travel away from petrol stations is limited, and charging stations can be put pretty much anywhere their is petrol stations because petrol stations require electricity anyway, you could always use your jerry can to run a generator to charge your EV, in those situations turning your Ev into a hybrid for those couple of times a year you need a bit of extra range, but I think the majority of people wouldn't need to resort to that, especially as more and more chargers are being installed every where.
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I think you are missing your point here, picking up 50% charge is still alot better than your ranger, which sits at the caravan park not having its diesel tank recharged, the Ev doesn't require more stops, just the timing of the stops changes a bit, and most charging is picked up when you are doing other things like sleeping, eating or peeing.
Think back to your original argument.
You pointed out that the EV had to stop and charge during the trip, which would be "inconvenient", but what you are failing to see is that your ranger would need more stops.
Ranger Stops for 400km trip.
1, Refuel before or at beginning of trip (to get to 100%)
2, Refuel towards end or after trip.
3, maybe another stop for drinks or bathroom.
EV stops for 400km trip.
(starts full)
1, Recharge once some where along route during a drinks or bathroom break.
(arrives destination with 50%, charges at destination)
Same thing on return trip, say the Ev leaves with 80% having picked up 30% over night, it charges once on way back, then charges at home.
JohnDe
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Ouch. What's that costing you these days?
We don't talk about that
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Caravan power usage depends on many things.
Do they run a compressor fridge versus a 3 way evapourator fridge, and what size is it, do they run a 240 Volt inverter for coffee machines or toasters or kettle. Do they have a small electric heater to keep warm, do they have electric hot water heaters, how often do they run their water pump, do they have an onboard microwave or washing machine.
I have a number of meters set up in my van to determine what current is coming in from solar chargers, what is going out as load for all the 12 volt systems, plus what is going in to the batteries as charge.
Although I don't constantly monitor them, none of these are static.
But I have yet to see any occasion when all available current from the solar controller is going into battery charging.
The controller is rated for a maximum of 30 amps, but even on the sunniest days in FNQ with low batteries have I ever seen anywhere near that figure, probably around 17 to 18 amps max.
The small fridge varies from 3 amps up to nine amps depending on outside temperature, whats in the fridge, how often its opened etc etc.
Unless you hav e a massivley large battery system, say around the 3,000 amp hour mark, there is now way can you run the Air conditioner from battery.
And even then the batteries don't last long.
There is a world of difference between swanning around well populated coastal areas and inland Australia
Mick