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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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Last weekend, my wife and I travelled from Rye on the Mornington Peninsular to home in the Goulburn Valley.
The BYD was fully charged when we left, and we had our standard recharge stop at the BP in Cooper street planned out.
When we arrived, one was in use, and the second quick charger free, but despite trying multiple times with both the Evie phone app and the Evie charge card, the charger would stop charging after about ten seconds.
After about ten tries, with the other charger occupied by a BMW that was about 40% full, we gave up.
We have charged here numerous times before, so don't know what the issue was.
I sent an email to the support section of Evie, but hardly surprising that I have received no response.
We had just enough power to make a detour to Avenel on the way home, but both of the chargers were out of service.
The next option was another detour to a charger in Nagambie, that would cut things even finer, so I drove the rest of the way at 85kmhr to conserve battery life.
Before we got to Nagambie , we knew that according to Evie app the charger was in use , so we had to wait for the owners to come out from the pub and disconnect so we could get enough charge to get home.
So the trip ended up taking about 5 hours, when it should have been no more than 3 .5 hrs.
During the trip we passed at least 8 service stations, none of which had EV chargers.
While its great charging the car up for free from our solar panels at home, its those longish trips that cause angst that were never a problem in a gas powered car with a full 600 km range.
We are heading to Melbourne again this weekend for babysitting duties, I think I will take my ute.
I can get to the destination and back on half a tank of fuel.
Mick
 
Yes it is a real problem on long distances, I get the feeling it will be quite some time before the charging issue is resolved.
The article I posted earlier today didn't inspire confidence, where they are saying that none of the charging networks in the U.S are making money.
@JohnDe and myself were saying early in the thread, the Govt's should have been spending more money on charging infrastructure, rather than giving out EV buying subsidies.
The roll out of charging points is slow and the failure rate of chargers is high, as their usage is high.
Also the general public seem to be tending toward hybrids and plug in hybrids, I think the lack of charging infrastructure is driving that, having a backup makes a lot of sense in a lot of areas throughout Australia.
 
Here is an interesting article on the state of play in the EU electric car space and a comment made highlights how tafiffs aren't as counter productive as the media and multinationals would have us believe.

China's electric car dominance laid bare: Chinese car makers BYD, Tesla, Xpeng and others sell more than one million EVs in a month - Car News

Sales of Chinese electric cars are booming despite heavy tariffs effectively locking them out of the US, Canada and the European Union. It was a bumper month for several Chinese EV brands including BYD, Li Auto, Nio and XPeng, as China became the first country to sell one million EVs in a single...
www.carsguide.com.au
From the article:

In response to the tariffs, Chinese car manufacturers are exploring new manufacturing facilities in Europe, Asia and South America to curb tariffs, with EuroNews reporting on proposed plants in Hungary, Turkey and Brazil.
 
Have you tried the Tesla chargers yet? They are a lot more reliable, and I noticed non Tesla's are now charging using them.

I just drove from Brisbane to Sydney and there are so many new Tesla chargers popping up, and I noticed they now have signs with instructions for non Teslas to charge. I saw some MG's charging at different locations.

There is so many Tesla chargers now, it used to be that if you missed one you were screwed, but now Brisbane to Sydney I drive past at least 5 locations that I don't need, so can now pick and choose where I want to stop. Not to mention that I could still use any of the other public brands if I really want to torture myself.
 
sptrawler said:
Are Tesla still rolling out in Aust?
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New Tesla charging station installation was completed last week in a suburb not far from me.

They did stop all installations for a short while, during a restructuring of the department involved in analysis & location selection. But that ended several months ago.

 
sptrawler said:
Are Tesla still rolling out in Aust?
Click to expand...
Hell yeah, there is even a bunch of new ones in WA since we last spoke about it is't there? didn't there only used to be 2, there is 8 now.

As I said above there is new ones popping up every where, just between Sydney and Brisbane I noticed 4 new ones since last year, and in the next 12 months they will be all the way to cairns, so a trip from Adelaide to cairns just using Tesla chargers will be possible with multiple route options eg inland or coastal, There are also a few new sites that have popped up around Brisbane and the gold coast that I have noticed.

According to this article Tesla opened 30 new locations last year.

Tesla opened 30 new Supercharger locations in Australia in 2023, inc 82 plugs in December alone, ahead of peak demand at Christmas

These are just Tesla super chargers, the red are existing, the grey are coming in the next 12 months

 
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IFocus said:
Unbelievable how many Tesla's are driving around Mandurah these days especially down my way.
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Yes two couples we know both have a model 3 and a model Y, what is really crazy is Mandurah with a population of nearly 100,000 and being a tourist destination only has one 50kW fast charger.
Between Perth and Ausralind there are only two 50kW chargers Mandurah and Harvey.
On the Forrest Hwy, there isn't any between Perth and basically Bunbury.
Between Perth and Albany on the Albany Hwy, there is a 175kW fast charger at Williams and a 50KW at Kojonup.
We don't travel to Albany often, or Kalgoorlie any more since the son moved down to Collie, but if I was doing those trips on a regular basis, the EV wouldn't be my choice of vehicle.
But as I've said being retired it works great for what we do.
 
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Saw a Tesla towing a caravan north on the main drag in Falcon yesterday
 
Looks like you would get to Albany pretty easy using the Tesla chargers, Have you tried one yet?

I want to hear what the experience is like from a non Tesla owner. To see how user friendly it is.
 
Value Collector said:
Looks like you would get to Albany pretty easy using the Tesla chargers, Have you tried one yet?

I want to hear what the experience is like from a non Tesla owner. To see how user friendly it is.
Click to expand...
I've never tried a Tesla charger yet, being an RAC member most of the chargefox units give members a 20% discount.
I'm not sure the Tesla chargers here are open to other makes yet, I've never looked into it.
I will have to check it out, next time I go through Williams I will give it a try.
 
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qldfrog said:
ok 140miles range...well what can I say 50% reduction range
not yet a grey nomad option
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One huge difference is the weight of the caravan, UK vans are very light compared with Ozzie vans.

Typical van here is 2tons plus, typical UK van is less than 1 ton (always exceptions of course)

UK vans are OK here for highway travel but fall apart on our country byways even if sealed.
 
qldfrog said:
ok 140miles range...well what can I say 50% reduction range
not yet a grey nomad option
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Towing a van reduces the range of all vehicles, but one handy thing is you can charge car right at your caravan site when you arrive.
 
Value Collector said:
Towing a van reduces the range of all vehicles, but one handy thing is you can charge car right at your caravan site when you arrive.
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My diesel ute goes from using 12 litres/100kms at 100 kms/hr down to 15 or 16 when towing a 2.2 tonne offroad van.
It may come as a surprise, but a lot of caravaners do not stay in Caravan Parks.
yes its possible to tow a van with an ev, as long as its really light, has a low wind profile (as in poptops or hard floor camping trailer).
and you stick to the main highways.
For us although technically possible, its not practical, just far too limiting.
I have charged at Tesla super chargers, and it worked flawlessly.
Unfortunately, not all the teslas chargers are converted to work with CCS non tesla vehicles.
I am told its a software issue.

It will happen, but it does hot help if the charge point are domestic wall chargers like we found out a recent motel stay.

Mick
 
qldfrog said:
what would be the range? ok to move from storage to home maybe?
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The van was a small road van lower profile looked suitable size wise for a Tesla going from my own experience towing a wild assumption I reckon maybe 30% to 40% extra load at 80 to 90 km/hr
 
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