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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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JohnDe said:
Knock on wood, my worst incident with wildlife was a rabbit and a few nice. I travel on country roads quite a bit, trying to avoid dusk and dawn when the roos like to spot vehicles and play games
Click to expand...
In over 50+ years of legal driving only ever hit two roos. Little damage to the vehicles but major to the roos.
 
Heads up for Victorians e.g @Knobby22 .

Victoria quietly axes $3000 electric-vehicle subsidy

Victoria has axed a new-car subsidy that provides $3000 for electric vehicles, with the program to end this month.
www.drive.com.au

Victorians who have purchased an electric vehicle have until the end of this month to claim their $3000 subsidy.
Buried in its 2023-24 State Budget Papers last month – and first reported by website The Driven – the Victorian Government has quietly axed its $3000 zero-emissions vehicle subsidy, citing a lower-than-expected take-up rate.
"The 2022-23 expected outcome is lower than the 2022-23 target due to ongoing supply delays and a decline in the number of eligible models in the program as vehicle price increases occur across the sector," reads a line in the budget papers.
Despite the claim of "a decline in the number of eligible models in the program" by the Victorian Government, the Australian new-car market is welcoming at least five all-new electric models expected to cost less than $50,000 in 2023 alone.
The Victorian Government extended the program in April 2023, reporting more than 4000 buyers had claimed the subsidy since it was introduced in May 2021.
 
GM have now joined with Ford in adopting the Tesla charging interface as a standard.
From CNBC
If only the Europeans would come to the party, and then before we get to far down the EV path, a single charging interface would exist worldwide.
The bureacrats in Brussels will probably put paid to that practical idea.
Mick
 
Amazing, we were talking about this very issue at the beginning of the thread.
 
Oh well @JohnDe , it looks like people are starting to realise what we said a couple of years ago, just shows we aren't as stupid as some would have us believe.
We were shouted down, for saying exactly what the boss of Kia is now saying.?

Australia’s electric-car rebates are “middle-class welfare” – auto executive

The boss of one of Australia’s leading car makers has dismissed taxpayer-funded electric-vehicle rebates as “middle-class welfare”.
www.drive.com.au
The boss of Kia Australia has again broken ranks with the car industry and doubled-down on his criticism of taxpayer-funded electric-vehicle rebates, and says public money should be redirected to establishing better infrastructure to boost confidence in the emerging technology.
Most states and territories in Australia waive stamp duty or offer generous rebates on electric cars – even though there is a two-year wait on some models and most cost in excess of $50,000.
The state-based cashback schemes deliver a windfall of up to $6000 to buyers wealthy enough to be able to afford a new electric vehicle.
However, the boss of Kia Australia, Damien Meredith, has repeated his criticism of such incentives and described the various programs as “middle-class welfare”.
“I find it mind-boggling that … state governments can give $5000, $6000 … to give that sort of money (to buyers of electric cars).
“For me, it’s middle-class welfare. That’s just my view. I haven’t changed on that and I won’t change on that.
“If you wanted to make an impact in regards to (electric vehicles), that type of money should have gone into infrastructure and let market forces be market forces (in terms of vehicle demand).
“I’ve stated that to government, every working party that’s been put together over the past three or four years. I’ve been a lone voice I might add, but that’s just my view. We should put the money into infrastructure.
 

Better late than never I suppose, though we will be paying for all the waste for years to come.

The roadside assist guys here received large government funding to install EV charging infrastructure, so far they have done a pathetic job; installed slow AC chargers in hotel carparks which require unnecessary travel distance off the highway when closer alternatives are available.
 
Yes over here in the West, Chargefox and the RAC are really the only ones other than Tesla that have put anything in. Albany is about 450Km and there is only 1 fast charger and it is out of service a lot of the time.
A few shops have put in 7Kw chargers but it is still woefully inadequate, thankfully the uptake over here appears to be very slow, I can usually get a free charge up at the shopping centre, when it isn't iced by an acrod holder.
I've done nearly 10,000km and still only paid $2.80 up to now.
 
sptrawler said:
“If you wanted to make an impact in regards to (electric vehicles), that type of money should have gone into infrastructure and let market forces be market forces (in terms of vehicle demand).
Click to expand...

The only qualm I have with that is that there has not been (as far as I have seen) a decent state backed roll out of charging infrastructure anywhere in the world. The only people that seem to understand charging and has rolled out a decent global network is Tesla, and Tesla funded their super charger network privately through the sale of vehicles and charging fees.

Is it possible that Kia just don't want to pay for building their own charging network and instead want the government to do it for them?
 
One of important issues with charging EV cars is compatibility of chargers across vehicles and charging platforms. The idea of having multiple leads is a nightmare.

In that context the latest announcment by Tesla and GM is ground breaking. They have announced a joint charging protocol in the US. The likelihood that other car manufacturers will follow the lead just jumped.

Tesla’s NACS enjoys domino effect as EV charging companies adopt the standard​


Fred Lambert Jun 9 2023 - 3:40 am PT

317 Comments




Tesla’s connector, now known as the North American Charging Standard (NACS), is truly living up to its name as the GM announcement gets the domino effect going with EV charging station companies now adopting the standard.


When GM CEO Mary Barra and Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced their cooperation for General Motors to integrate NACS as the connector in its future electric vehicles, they basically declared that the connector is now the new standard in North America.

They have a good argument for it, considering it is already the most popular connector thanks to how big Tesla’s fleet is alone, and now with Ford and GM on board, it will be hard to stop.

We expect a domino effect to take place and all other automakers and charging station companies operating in North America to announce that they will adopt NACS.

It has already started with Flo, a Quebec-based EV charging station company with over 90,000 chargers, announcing it will offer NACS on its charging stations and “supports broader use” of the standard.
FLO chief product officer Nathan Yang commented on the announcement:
EVgo had announced that it will also add NACS connectors to its charging stations even before Tesla opened the standard.
Now we expect other charging station companies to make similar announcements as soon as today and more to come in the coming weeks.
The dominos are falling.

Tesla's NACS enjoys domino effect as EV charging companies adopt the standard

Tesla’s connector, now known as the North American Charging Standard (NACS), is truly living up to its name as the...
electrek.co
 
Well the door for Common Sense has been opened.
 
farmerge said:
Hmm sometimes it takes a while to catch up. How much out of date gear has to be got rid of first bfore compatality is here.
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It is already compatible, the CCs2 is used in Australia by Tesla and most others, for example my Tesla and @sptrawler ’s Kona use the same plug.

It’s just that in the USA Tesla used their own design, (which apparently is a bit better), and most others used the ccs2. But now Tesla is allowing others to use their design so they are switching.

I think is Australia we will stick with the ccs2.
 

Maybe. Rising fuel prices will be the biggest incentive to going electric and now that we will have fuel efficiency standards that will provide manufacturers a bigger incentive to send cars here.

I sense a willingness of consumers to take up EV's but the lack of charging stations and lack of supply of the vehicles is a disincentive that governments and industry should look to rectifying.
 
Good morning
Article rcw1 found very interesting, published via New Corp Media today (14/06/23); rcw1 likes Toyota's:

Toyota's EV showcase lifts shares​

Toyota’s electric-vehicle strategy is turning a corner, evident in its latest technology showcase.

The US-listed shares in the world’s largest automaker rose more than 5 per cent overnight after an event in Tokyo that showcased its next generation of EVs—an unusually large move for Japan’s most valuable company. It likely helped that investors have flocked back to the EV theme lately, with Tesla up almost 50 per cent in just one month.

A series of presentations Toyota released on its website gave a comprehensive defense of its technological ambitions. It said its new EV due to launch in 2026 will have a headline driving range of 1000 kilometers, or about 620 miles. That is roughly twice as far as its current flagship bZ4X model can go on a single charge, despite having a battery that it said will cost 20 per cent less.

The company, which isn’t usually given to hype, also mentioned a “technological breakthrough” in solid-state batteries that it hopes to commercialise in 2027 or 2028. Toyota has been working on this potentially game-changing technology longer than most. It detailed its plans for hydrogen fuel cells, another historic focus for the company.
– The Wall Street Journal
 
Some good news for WA EV owners -

 
Tesla is really starting to roll out these large format charging stations now, this is the new 62 bay charger recently opened in Santa Monica. Complete with a toilets, cafe and lounge area.

No wonder GM and Ford have signed up to use Teslas network. As vehicle numbers grow here I expect we will see similar stations pop up in busy areas.

 
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