Electric cars?

[JohnDe]

Handy software update for the Tesla, downloading now. Other manufacturers are slowly catching up. Now we just need the infrastructure to catch up :-(

Automatic Supercharger Rerouting

If you're navigating to a Supercharger and it suddenly becomes more congested before you arrive, Tesla will now calculate whether there are any nearby Supercharger that may be less congested.

If Tesla believes that it can reduce your total travel time by navigating to a less congested charger, it will reroute you to a Supercharger that's less busy.

 

[sptrawler]

The power system is a hugely complex issue, far more complex than E.V's and also far more critical to society. Some of the smartest people in Australia will be working out how to best move forward, it won't be done on a forum.
I don't know the topography of the dam in question, but maybe there is the option of putting in more hydro at a later date and pumping the overflow to their dams.
Who knows but it probably isn't something that can't or won't be engineered out, it isn't problem at the moment because there is at call generation available, by the time the issue is a problem it will be resolved IMO.

 

[basilio]

Back to electric cars. This nifty little cross between a scooter and car looks interesting.

Sneak Peek of Nimbus, a Three Wheeled Electric Vehicle With a Steering - ROBOfluence

It is 2022, and electric vehicles are all the rage around the world. And so is the Nimbus; it is a compact EV that allows...

robofluence.com

 

[JohnDe]

National Press Club address: Q&A session​

29 June 2022

Energy supply, emissions reductions, electric vehicles


GREG BROWN: Greg Brown from The Australian. Mr Bowen, Labor's pre election modelling assumes electric vehicles will account for 89% of new car sales by 2030, well above the former government's prediction based on their policies on 29%. Now, experts, including the Grattan Institute, say they can't see how this will be achieved based on Labor's already announced policy initiatives which you went through today, noting that free trade deals do make the tariff exemption largely redundant. So what is the assumption behind the massive growth in EV sales under Labor? And will the government need new policies in this space, such as vehicle emission standards, to make the 89% prediction a reality?

CHRIS BOWEN: Thanks, Greg. But to be clear, the assumptions in the modelling are just that. They're assumptions, they're not policy decisions in relation to those figures. So we didn't have a target of meeting, you know, any particular EV rate. So that's not a policy decision, that's what the modellers have worked through. Some of that will be natural increases; others will be as a result of policies. But we're very committed to increasing the penetration of electric vehicles and increasing the penetration of electric vehicles at an affordable rate. And there'll be a lot of flow-through impacts of our policies that we've already implemented - I mean in the process of implementing and have announced.
For example, one example, our commitment to take the Commonwealth fleet to, in the first instance, 75% no emissions: very important. One, because the Commonwealth has a big fleet, 10,000 cars. But, secondly, the Commonwealth turns over its cars every 3 years. That leads into the second-hand market. At the moment you can't buy a second-hand electric car in Australia and, as we all know, if you really want an affordable car it's almost certainly a second-hand car. So if you're in the market, if you're in the place of the market as many young people are, for example, buying their first car, they'd love an EV but you can't get one second hand.
When the Commonwealth fleet starts to roll through and we have the Commonwealth disposing of its electric vehicles in 3 years after they've been purchased, you start to get the second-hand market. Same with private fleets, our FBT discount and our tariff discount has its biggest impact, I'm happy to concede, on fleets. Again, big proportions of car sales in Australia are fleet. But again, they turn over, depending on the company, every two, three or four years. Flow through to second hand.
So there's a lot to do. And, yes, in relation to the second part of your question, we have an electric vehicle strategy which we will now develop in office, as we said we would from Opposition, and we'll consider further policy positions to add to and build on what we've already committed to.

GREG BROWN: So vehicle emissions standards, are they on the table as we move forward?

CHRIS BOWEN: We will consider all viable options to build on the policy announcements we have already made and are implementing.

 

[qldfrog]

Ok back to car,so that ICE car or hybrid you just bought,are you really going to save the planet because you ae going to put it in a scrapyard in 5y even some Green rabid PHD in social science must have some doubt..probably not.
Here come e fuel ....
Sure,you will not give extra money to China, will not dig more holes and will still enable the toothless/peon to travel and clog the roads and airports annoying the super-rich but you will be co2 emission (balance) free...if that is part of your belief,and more importantly in my opinion,you will be able to run an economy different from middle age without burning precious diseappearing oil resources.
From their ABC

Porsche-backed company wants to build Australia's first commercial e-fuel plant in Tasmania

Porsche wants 80 per cent of its cars to be electric by the end of the decade, and is developing a synthetic fuel to power those that will still run on liquid fuels. So what are e-fuels and why choose Tasmania as the site to make them?

www.abc.net.au

 

[JohnDe]

"Australian battery industry research is set to take a significant step forward" About time, we have everything here except the commitment. A massive battery manufacturing industry here could set us up for all sorts of manufacturing industries for decades, but it will only work if all involve commit to it 100%, including government.

I'm not convinced, though I hope.

Australian battery manufacturing sector a step closer with FBICRC precursor pilot plant

Researchers and industry professionals working under the FBICRC banner will use Australian-produced nickel, cobalt and other materials to refine manufacturing techniques needed to produce cathode precursors at scale.



Australian battery industry research is set to take a significant step forward on Monday as the sector launches its first pilot manufacturing plant to produce key precursors for use in electric batteries.

For the next 18 months researchers and industry professionals working under the banner of the Future Industry Battery Cooperative Research Centre (FBICRC) will use Australian-produced nickel, cobalt and other materials to refine manufacturing techniques needed to produce cathode precursors at scale.

FBICRC chief executive Shannon O’Rourke told The Australian the pilot manufacturing centre would produce about 8kg of precursors a day – about three tonnes a year – in the first major scale-up of battery-making techniques for the industry.

FBICRC is backed by a swath of Australian and international mining and technology companies, including BASF, BHP’s Nickel West Division, IGO and Cobalt Blue. It is also backed by the CSIRO and major universities including Curtin and the Queensland University of Technology.

Mr O’Rourke said that while the volume of precursors produced in the Perth-based facility would be relatively low, the pilot plant was a necessary step before moving to an industrial-scale pilot. He said it would help the industry to establish a consistent process for the technically challenging precursor manufacturing process.

In addition to the researchers and scientists working directly on the pilot, all of the 19 companies that had so far contributed to the FBICRC would have the right to access the data produced, and many were also keen to have their staff work with, and learn from, the scientists and engineers running the pilot plant, he said.

“There are two key benefits that the participants get when they participate in the project. The first is they get to work with the facility …” he said.

“The second thing is the intellectual property that’s created throughout the life of the project – all of the participants have equal and full access to the intellectual property. At the end of the project, the participants share in the value of that IP to the extent of their contribution.”

While Australian governments and industry – and the broader public – were extraordinarily keen to establish an Australian battery manufacturing sector as quickly as possible, Mr O’Rourke said, the complex nature of the chemistry involved meant that Australia needed to build up its own expertise to ensure the industry could be established successfully.

Mr O’Rourke said the chemistry was so complex that the failure rate of batteries produced in the international “giga factories” that fed the global electric vehicle industry was as high as 20 per cent.

“This first phase is primarily all about consistency. So we’ve already produced precursors at lab-scale successfully. This plant will enable us to move from that lab-scale through to the first step out of that. And we need to make sure that we get the parameters right and then run them consistently. So it’s a capability building exercise,” he said.

“If you skipped the scale step, and you didn’t produce the right result, you’d be lost.”


The precursor materials produced in Perth will be sent to QUT for further refinement to produce cathodes, and eventually to produce homegrown batteries for research purposes.

The $18m project will run for the next 18 months, and Mr O’Rourke said the FBICRC has had a warm reception for its future plans from the new federal government of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, and was still hopeful of winning support for a $750m battery research and development institute the FBICRC says will be needed to scale up the Australian industry further by establishing an industrial-scale manufacturing plant.

“We’re moving from gram scale at the laboratory bench, to kilogram scale – which is what this facility is – through to tonne scale at an industrial pilot,” he said.

Australia can compete in manufacturing. With this facility we will have greater capability. We’ll be able to undertake rapid prototyping and we’ll be training the workforce of the future – I think it’s going to happen sooner than everyone thinks.”

NICK EVANS​

RESOURCE WRITER

​

 

[JohnDe]

'Watts Under the Bonnet' - Is range anxiety an outdated concern?

 

[sptrawler]

Now this sounds like a nice EV, whether you are a petrol head or not, but you need deep pockets.

2024 Lucid Air Review, Pricing, and Specs

The 2024 Lucid Air's big battery and compact motors—both designed in-house—allow it to deliver unbeatable range and heroic acceleration performance.

www.caranddriver.com

 

[basilio]

Now this sounds like a nice EV, whether you are a petrol head or not, but you need deep pockets.

2024 Lucid Air Review, Pricing, and Specs

The 2024 Lucid Air's big battery and compact motors—both designed in-house—allow it to deliver unbeatable range and heroic acceleration performance.

www.caranddriver.com

Certainly an interesting read. One has to check out the performance figures for the Lucid air in the story. They are mindblowing..
What did catch my eye on Car and Driver however was this piece. A restoration work that overrides the original manufacturer.

​

This Peugeot 604 Is One Man's Obsessive Restoration​

Harjeet Kalsi wasn't afraid to tackle the obscure French luxury car—after all, he'd already done an Aston Martin Lagonda.

By Brendan McAleer

Jul 3, 2022

View Photos


John Brendan McAleerCar and Driver

Manufacturing the “turbodiesel” badge affixed to the back of this 1984 Peugeot 604 took Harjeet S. Kalsi two full weeks. With painstaking precision, he recreated the original font, milling a single thin piece of aluminum, micron by micron. Prototypes were made and discarded. He then mixed two batches of resin, getting the tint just right before pouring them into the millimeters-deep cavity. The excess was carefully hand-sanded away, and the piece then buffed to a spotless sheen. That's how much effort went into just the badge.

This Peugeot 604 Is One Man's Obsessive Restoration

Harjeet Kalsi wasn't afraid to tackle the obscure French luxury car—after all, he'd already done an Aston Martin Lagonda.

www.caranddriver.com

 

[JohnDe]

An interesting concept. It could work, but pricing will have to be at the premium end of the market and cost of doner stock will be a problem.

Developing a cutting-edge facility for converting any pre-1996 vehicle to electric power

Home - Iconic EV

A boutique garage offering a custom service for converting iconic pre-1996 vehicles to electric power.

iconicev.com.au

 

[JohnDe]

Why Electric Vehicles Are Becoming More Popular In Rural Areas

For a long time, there's been a stereotype that's portrayed electric vehicles as crippled woke vehicles only wealthy urbanites can afford to drive (or indeed can actually make use of because of very limited range).

But as new data shows this week, there's more growth in electric vehicle sales in some rural areas than in major cities.

Here's why we think that's the case - and why we think EVs are well suited today for modern rural life.
------
00:00 Introduction
01:44 Subscribe and Support!
02:06 The Rural-urban shift
04:33 What About Charging?
07:09 Fuel prices, larger commutes, play a part
08:39 EVs are becoming more acceptable to conservatives
10:05 Rural owners are more likely to have space to generate power
11:51 Thanks, and Goodbye!

 

[sptrawler]

I wondered when the Federal Govt would say "hang on a minute, you State Govts are taking over our fuel excise tax", it has taken a while for the penny to drop.?
Not the sharpest tools in the shed.

Albanese government seeks to pull plug on Victoria’s electric vehicle tax

Federal Labor has joined a legal bid to strike down Victoria’s controversial electric vehicle tax, opening up a fight with several states over who should control billions of dollars of road user revenue.

www.theage.com.au

From the article:

The Commonwealth collects around $12 billion in fuel tax every year, but that will gradually shift to state coffers if more motorists adopt electric vehicles and states levy their own distance-based user charges.

 

[SirRumpole]

I wondered when the Federal Govt would say "hang on a minute, you State Govts are taking over our fuel excise tax", it has taken a while for the penny to drop.?
Not the sharpest tools in the shed.

Albanese government seeks to pull plug on Victoria’s electric vehicle tax

Federal Labor has joined a legal bid to strike down Victoria’s controversial electric vehicle tax, opening up a fight with several states over who should control billions of dollars of road user revenue.

www.theage.com.au

From the article:

The Commonwealth collects around $12 billion in fuel tax every year, but that will gradually shift to state coffers if more motorists adopt electric vehicles and states levy their own distance-based user charges.

Well, we knew it had to happen, EV drivers can't expect to get off scot free, but it's a bit of a hoot watching Federal and States slug it out over who gets the revenue.

Maybe they should take it to National Cabinet and agree to a 50/50 split.

 

[Value Collector]

Well, we knew it had to happen, EV drivers can't expect to get off scot free, but it's a bit of a hoot watching Federal and States slug it out over who gets the revenue.

Maybe they should take it to National Cabinet and agree to a 50/50 split.

Ev’s don’t get off entirely scot free.

1, we still pay rego.
2, we still pay GST on electricity purchases.
3, we produce extra profit for the government by adding demand to state owned electricity infrastructure.

And probably the best part.

4, we lower air pollution which costs the government Many billions per year, a cost that ICE car owners get off Scot free on.

 

[SirRumpole]

Ev’s don’t get off entirely scot free.

1, we still pay rego.
2, we still pay GST on electricity purchases.
3, we produce extra profit for the government by adding demand to state owned electricity infrastructure.

And probably the best part.

4, we lower air pollution which costs the government Many billions per year, a cost that ICE car owners get off Scot free on.

Fair point on emissions.

Extra profit for government ?

EV owners will be adding to demand for power alright which is where we already have a problem that infrastructure isn't keeping up with demand.

EV's are a tiny bit of the problem at the moment, but there are governments that will be dreading a rapid takeup of EV's because they know that the infrastructure isn't there to support it and it will cost billions.

 

[Value Collector]

Fair point on emissions.

Extra profit for government ?

EV owners will be adding to demand for power alright which is where we already have a problem that infrastructure isn't keeping up with demand.

EV's are a tiny bit of the problem at the moment, but there are governments that will be dreading a rapid takeup of EV's because they know that the infrastructure isn't there to support it and it will cost billions.

Yep, up here in Queensland the government still owns a fair bit of electricity infrastructure, and they have already mentioned that the higher utilisation of these assets will increase the profits generated by them, This would be the same in other states too, especially Tasmania.

As we have discussed before, if the extra demand from EV’s is applied to the grid during times when low demand normally causes the network to be unprofitable, this higher demand / increased utilisation is very good for the grids profitability,

Building more infrastructure will cost billions, but it will also generate billions in revenue, and as discussed a decent chunk of the extra demand will be met with exisiting infrastructure that currently sits idle for many hours a day.

 

[Value Collector]

I guess a main point to remember is that the grid isn’t struggling to meet demand 24/7, the majority of the time there is a lot of excess capacity just sitting there doing nothing, that only exists to meet those couple of hours of peak demand.

If cars are charged over night after 10pm and before 6am they can use all that extra capacity that is doing nothing, this means the owners of that capacity which is some cases is the government, will get to put those assets to work earning money when otherwise they wouldn’t be earning anything, this not only helps the owners earn more from their existing assets but it also helps reduce the cost of running the grid, because it doesn’t cost anything extra to use some of this infrastructure such as transmission lines, but their running costs can be spread across a larger customer base on a per unit basis.

See the peak in demand in the chart below, that’s the peak in demand when you can say the grid might struggle, but it’s only at that peak for 2 hours or so, either side of that peak is a lot of opportunity space to charge cars easily, without putting extra stress on the grid but instead actually increasing its profits and incentivising more investment.

 

[SirRumpole]

I guess a main point to remember is that the grid isn’t struggling to meet demand 24/7, the majority of the time there is a lot of excess capacity just sitting there doing nothing, that only exists to meet those couple of hours of peak demand.

If cars are charged over night after 10pm and before 6am they can use all that extra capacity that is doing nothing, this means the owners of that capacity which is some cases is the government, will get to put those assets to work earning money when otherwise they wouldn’t be earning anything, this not only helps the owners earn more from their existing assets but it also helps reduce the cost of running the grid, because it doesn’t cost anything extra to use some of this infrastructure such as transmission lines, but their running costs can be spread across a larger customer base on a per unit basis.

See the peak in demand in the chart below, that’s the peak in demand when you can say the grid might struggle, but it’s only at that peak for 2 hours or so, either side of that peak is a lot of opportunity space to charge cars easily, without putting extra stress on the grid but instead actually increasing its profits and incentivising more investment.

View attachment 144178

EVs will have to compete with a lot of other off peak devices as appliances get smarter. Clothes driers, dishwashers, washing machines as well as hot water systems, so the off peak time is going to get more crowded as time goes on.

 

[mullokintyre]

he UK show , Fully Charged, has released a video aimed at Australian watchers, extolling the virtues of the BYD Atto3.

Interestingly, he looks at what the average bread and butter vehicle owners might be lookng far, as distinct from what the well heeled owners might expect.
Mick

 

[Value Collector]

EVs will have to compete with a lot of other off peak devices as appliances get smarter. Clothes driers, dishwashers, washing machines as well as hot water systems, so the off peak time is going to get more crowded as time goes on.

All those devices you named are already being used extensively, if some of them switch to being used during off peak times, then that will open up more capacity during the traditional peak times.

Hot water systems switch on at about 10pm or 11pm depending on where you are, and finish in heating in about 2 hours so still plenty of time to charge cars, also more hot water heating will probably begin to occur during the solar power peak times, that’s when I heat mine.

Not to mention that the growth in home batteries will also take away peak hour demand, eg homes with batteries will be drawing zero from the grid during peak times, as they would have a full battery by the time people get home from work and starting cooking.

————————

Also, a major thing will begin to happen I believe.

As the traditional off peak times begin to see growing demand, producing electricity during these times will become more profitable. This will be a massive incentive for companies to invest in more wind power assets, because at the moment excess wind power during these times is not sold at a profitable price.

So increasing demand during offpeak times increases the number of hours each day wind project owners will potentially be profitable which will incentivise them to build more, which will also add to peak capacity as well.