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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 21.9%

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

    Votes: 78 39.8%

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

    Votes: 37 18.9%

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

    Votes: 24 12.2%

  • No - would never buy one

    Votes: 14 7.1%
  • Total voters
    196
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basilio said:
Anyone else seen "The Blue Bandit " ? This Dutch guy has travelled 95,000 k around the world in an electric car. Finished in Sydney.
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EV's have certainly come a long way since the converted Charade. Can't believe that was over a quarter century ago now......

http://www.members.iinet.net.au/~stott@netspace.net.au/images/iemcev.jpg

iemcev.jpg

Car was a standard Daihatsu Charade converted to electric power.

I can't remember all the specs but top speed was ~80 km/h and they were just deep cycle lead acid batteries under the bonnet. Charging from a regular 10 Amp power point.

A rather long list of people took it for a drive at the time, including a few politicians of all persuasions.

Owner was the Integrated Energy Management Center - a joint project of the Australian Government, Tasmanian state government and the Hydro-Electric Corporation.

Can't remember the exact date but about 1994 give or take a year or so. :2twocents
 
Look up the mid 70's City Car for a laugh or three.

The best idea for EV's was abandoned - place the battery in a transmission tunnel and simply drive through a battery bay, change the battery, grab ya Macca's and drive off. Peace of cake.
 
PZ99 said:
Look up the mid 70's City Car for a laugh or three.

The best idea for EV's was abandoned - place the battery in a transmission tunnel and simply drive through a battery bay, change the battery, grab ya Macca's and drive off. Peace of cake.
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It is a good idea, but to get the capacity like the Tesla, the battery takes up the whole subframe between the front and back axles.
 
SirRumpole said:
Lock up yer utes and Landrovers people they'll be illegal under a Labor government. :roflmao:

A good plan on the surface, but I reckon Labor should be talking to the Europeans and Japanese, they build better cars than the Yanks.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-04...to-resurrect-australian-car-industry/10985458
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Like you say a good plan, but will fail for the very same reasons the last car industry here failed, small market, high relative wages, and only viable if the tax payer is funding it ad infinitum.
As you mention, get the Japs involved and not the Yanks.
We would be far better off starting a battery manufacturing industry here, we have the raw materials, the batteries are compact and it is a growing market we could conceivably compete in.
Unlike cars, batteries wouldn't be hampered by inefficient shipping limitations, you would container load to capacity. Just my opinion.
 
Just spitballing - Instead of waiting while a battery charges, why not standardise the batteries to an extent and make them removable so they can be swapped out? Then they can charge while waiting for another client.
Obviously size/weight is a current issue but with more advances in the tech it might be feasible.
 
sptrawler said:
Like you say a good plan, but will fail for the very same reasons the last car industry here failed, small market, high relative wages, and only viable if the tax payer is funding it ad infinitum.
As you mention, get the Japs involved and not the Yanks.
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We had 3 car manufacturers here for our population for a long time, surely our market could support one ?

The yanks and Japs were crazy to all bail out at once. If I was head of say Ford Australia and two of my competitors bailed out, I'd be licking my lips in delight having the market to myself, almost. What a defeatist attitude they had and good riddance.

Time to get someone serious about manufacturing here, and by the way, all countries subsidise their car industries.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/meghab...estic-electric-vehicle-industry/#702fca29610a
 
SirRumpole said:
We had 3 car manufacturers here for our population for a long time, surely our market could support one ?

The yanks and Japs were crazy to all bail out at once. If I was head of say Ford Australia and two of my competitors bailed out, I'd be licking my lips in delight having the market to myself, almost. What a defeatist attitude they had and good riddance.

Time to get someone serious about manufacturing here, and by the way, all countries subsidise their car industries.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/meghab...estic-electric-vehicle-industry/#702fca29610a
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Yes we have been through this 1000 times, in the end people weren't buying Australian cars, why do you think they would buy an electric one?
When they can buy a miriad of foreign ones, which no doubt will be better made, more current as they change models quicker due to economies of scale.
I know you really don't believe, we would ever get a car manufacturing base back, I've read enough of your posts to know that.
It all sounds wonderfull and is vote catching, but isn't practical.
Making batteries for them and energy applications, is practical and achievable.IMO
 
sptrawler said:
Yes we have been through this 1000 times, in the end people weren't buying Australian cars, why do you think they would buy an electric one?
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We weren't making vehicles the people wanted, ie SUV's not family sedans. That was the fault of the manufacturers who just stuck to what they knew and were afraid to innovate.

Make the right product here and the people will buy it.
 
SirRumpole said:
We weren't making vehicles the people wanted, ie SUV's not family sedans. That was the fault of the manufacturers who just stuck to what they knew and were afraid to innovate.

Make the right product here and the people will buy it.
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Then people's taste changes and the foreign makers that sell 100 of millions of cars, re tool and meet the new fashion and demand.
Meanwhile our manufacturers, who make 200,000 cars, are meant to compete. Come on Rumpy you aren't really serious are you? I know you are trying to support silly Billy's cause, but it is a ludicrous suggestion, even Tesla with a great product, is struggling to get up and running.
 
sptrawler said:
Then people's taste changes and the foreign makers that sell 100 of millions of cars, re tool and meet the new fashion and demand.
Meanwhile our manufacturers, who make 200,000 cars, are meant to compete. Come on Rumpy you aren't really serious are you? I know you are trying to support silly Billy's cause, but it is a ludicrous suggestion, even Tesla with a great product, is struggling to get up and running.
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Only batteries make electric cars more expensive.
Tesla's are unashamedly upmarket, and Musk is clawing back hundreds of millions in research in order to stay in business.
Electric cars themselves are incredibly basic, so building them would be a doddle. Equipping them with the latest electronic gadgetary is also getting cheaper every year.
I presently see the major drawback to success being the AI for autonomous mode unless an Oz manufacturer teams up with a developer.
A huge advantage would be that if the step were taken, tooling would be cutting edge, amd production lines highly automated. The downside would be not as many jobs as before, although one thing Australia has always been good at is devising novel and functional "options".
 
sptrawler said:
Then people's taste changes and the foreign makers that sell 100 of millions of cars, re tool and meet the new fashion and demand.
Meanwhile our manufacturers, who make 200,000 cars, are meant to compete. Come on Rumpy you aren't really serious are you? I know you are trying to support silly Billy's cause, but it is a ludicrous suggestion, even Tesla with a great product, is struggling to get up and running.
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The basis of the operation could be the government car fleets, the savings in running costs could pay off the initial outlay quite quickly, and the sale of the vehicles on the second hand market would also recoup the investment.

C'mon sp, we have to do something in this country besides pulling stuff out of the ground. No point in training engineers and scientists here if they have no jobs to go to.
 
Oh well we will just have to agree to disagree, the market place here isn't big enough and the major auto companies have based their RH drive production in SE Asia so I can't see it happening.
Like I said, I believe we have an inside running position, on battery manufacture it will be interesting to see if anyone builds a manufacturing plant here.

On to something else, the early stages of autonomous vehicle automation, is starting to surface. I believe the EU is going to legislate, that intelligent speed assist technology, will be required in all cars in the early 2020's.
https://etsc.eu/briefing-intelligent-speed-assistance-isa/

This will put a bit of a damper on fast cars, which will assist the uptake of electric, also it will be interesting if the police pull you over and access the historic speed data recorder.:eek:
 
sptrawler said:
This will put a bit of a damper on fast cars, which will assist the uptake of electric, also it will be interesting if the police pull you over and access the historic speed data recorder.:eek:
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But if a computer is doing the driving, they can't arrest you can they ? :cool:

Maybe they could book the car for driving under the influence of a virus. :)
 
SirRumpole said:
The basis of the operation could be the government car fleets, the savings in running costs could pay off the initial outlay quite quickly, and the sale of the vehicles on the second hand market would also recoup the investment.

C'mon sp, we have to do something in this country besides pulling stuff out of the ground. No point in training engineers and scientists here if they have no jobs to go to.
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I think a valid point was made about the retooling. You'll never break even from domestic sales so you need an export market. But we can't compete against China, Korea etc.

And it looks like you guys are typing quicker than me :)
 
SirRumpole said:
But if a computer is doing the driving, they can't arrest you can they ? :cool:

Maybe they could book the car for driving under the influence of a virus. :)
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You can over ride it, by putting your foot flat to the floor, that should register a good speed by the time you are pulling in after overtaking someone.:roflmao:
 
PZ99 said:
I think a valid point was made about the retooling. You'll never break even from domestic sales so you need an export market. But we can't compete against China, Korea etc.
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I think there is a better chance, of shoe and shirt manufacturing coming back to Australia, the way we are going. :D
Basket weaving seems to be making a big comeback.:roflmao:
 
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