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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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CBerg said:
Myself & my brother(older) are both nearing(still a couple of years away) from needing a new car.
I'll go for a hybrid or full battery if the tech is substantially better in a couple of years,
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CBerg, Just out of curiosity what constitutes your base level of "better". Is it the distance before recharging? Is it price?
 
J1eyed said:
CBerg, Just out of curiosity what constitutes your base level of "better". Is it the distance before recharging? Is it price?
Click to expand...
Probably both.

Current range is fine for a run around town kind of car and there’s no argument from me there but I do go for extended trips on the road once or twice a year.
Organising a rental is fine but factoring that in to prices is what makes it a no go at the moment.

I really like the hybrids, the comment about tech improving substantially was more at full electric.
 

What changed my mind on electric cars was playing around on a website called A better route planner. We drive up to Canberra or Sydney once or twice a year. When I started looking how far we could get and how long it would take in an electric versus fueling up an ICE car and having food it really changed my view. Admittedly it didn't take much of a push for me to reach that conclusion.

https://abetterrouteplanner.com/?plan_uuid=c5875bba-a54f-49ce-8735-2184d314a52c
 
Yeah looking at the map south east Australia looks to have pretty good charging access. I used to live in Lismore NSW for a couple of years and was surprised to see the chargers there.

I know in Townsville QLD there must be some chargers somewhere or they charge at home but I have not seen any chargers within a 3 hour drive, north west or south since being back north. Most of my drives typically go inland to avoid the Bruce/A1 traffic.
 

The figures show that driving with autopilot engaged has significantly less crashes and fatalities per million miles than when it’s just a humans in charge.

The old saying two heads is better than one is true here, eg. A “good driver” with autopilot engaged will be better than a “good driver” without it.

360’ degree cameras and radar, combined with ever improving and learning software will give even the best drivers an edge, and compensate some of their failing on days where tiredness or distraction mean there are moments when they are at the top of their game.
 
Something we have discussed for a while, may soon be answered.

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/nsw-looks-at-new-ways-to-tax-electric-cars-20200329-p54exp.html
From the article:

NSW Treasury secretary Michael Pratt and deputy secretary Joann Wilkie confirmed to a budget estimates hearing earlier this month that tax measures for electric cars were being considered.

Treasury said there were a range of options on the table such as distance charging, extending registration duties or even Commonwealth levies on electric cars.


Ms Wilkie said governments would lose "a key source of revenue" through dwindling fuel excise as more people turned to electric and petrol and diesel vehicles were phased out.

"Electric vehicles at the moment are subject to registration duties, like all cars," Ms Wilkie said.

"But apart from that, they do not contribute to taxation collected that is then used for the upkeep of roads. Governments also need to consider ... what sort of infrastructure model we are looking [at] for charging stations."

Ms Wilkie said Treasury was watching all the "policy experiments" around the world.

Mr Pratt told the hearing that "policy formulation" was still in its early days in NSW.


"But generally today the people who own electric vehicles are the wealthier end of society who are not paying a dollar for road transport," Mr Pratt said.
 
An interesting article on electric car battery materials, especially form an investment perspective.
https://www.drive.com.au/news/elect...toxic-waste-report-123555.html?trackLink=SMH3
From the article:
The new study, conducted by a coalition of Canadian researchers, says the transition away from fossil fuels is increasing demand for base metals, with shortages in nickel, cobalt and copper predicted to emerge as early as 2025.

According to the research, an electric car with a 75KWh battery and NMC 811 (nickel-manganese-cobalt) chemistry needs 56kg of nickel, 7kg of manganese, 7kg of cobalt and 85 kg of copper for electric wiring.
 

I guess that shortage depends on what technology wins

https://www.machinedesign.com/mater...ry-design-eliminates-costly-cobalt-and-nickel

 
“
Frankly, I would call it forcibly imprisoning people in their homes against all their constitutional rights… This is fascist. This isn’t democratic. This isn’t freedom. Give people back their goddamn freedom.

— Elon Musk

$ it brings out the best in people
 
Humid said:
“

$ it brings out the best in people
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Lol
I guess staying at home is bad for car sales. I'm sure Elon was close to getting a performance bonus before the lockdown.
 
moXJO said:
Lol
I guess staying at home is bad for car sales. I'm sure Elon was close to getting a performance bonus before the lockdown.
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His opinion might change if he or a member of his family got the virus.

Probably the infection rate of his employees doesn't matter to him, they are replaceable after all.
 
world’s electric vehicle leader..in buying e cars..there is no leadership in using products built by others with no ROI
let's rephrase it with highest penetration of ecar or something similar, I would slo see figures vs China here....
 
qldfrog said:
world’s electric vehicle leader..in buying e cars..there is no leadership in using products built by others with no ROI
let's rephrase it with highest penetration of ecar or something similar, I would slo see figures vs China here....
Click to expand...
The other obvious differences between Australia and Norway, which affects the up take of electric vehicles are:
Norway has an area 4% that of Australia, which also means it has 92,000 klm of roads, where Australia has 810,000 klm of roads. The electric network on the smaller area and road network is much easier to facilitate and also distance anxiety isn't a problem.
It is great to see the rise in electric vehicle sales, but when I was there last year there is still a majority of ICE vehicles on the road there, the sales of new electric vehicles may be climbing but they don't stand out as the main mode of transport there yet.
 
Plus ecar there are genuinely running on renewable whereas here, most are burning coal instead of petrol..not exactly clean..but shuush..
,
 
There may very well be room for an Australian car manufacturer, hopefully one of the rich mining company billionaires, decides to back someone like the Bolwell brothers.
At least with all the overseas manufacturers leaving, it leaves a vacuum that a wholly owned Australian company can fill, there is no point in having a car industry that the taxpayer sends the money to Japan or the U.S.
If you are going to subsidies it, at least have it Australian owned.
There is a truck company looking to kick off h2 truck building in Australia.
https://www.h2-view.com/story/hyzon-motors-australia-launched/
 
https://theconversation.com/amp/hyd...theyre-hampered-by-the-laws-of-science-139899
You all know by now my scepticism about H2, i believe the above article should settle this once for all.no investment or new technology can change basic physic.
So where to for H2?
Well i see a still undeveloped promising field on solar wind farms energy storage with h2 fuel cells acting as batteries and allowing base load from cheap green power, and h2 replacing our lpg train for exports to Asia.
Comments welcome but please read the article from the link
 
Tesla will be holding a Battery Day sometime in June to announce the commercialization of a improvement in battery design and costs that will make electric cars cost competitive with IC vehicles AND give a1 Million mile range for the cars.

Worth checking out the background to the upcoming announcement. Also could partially explain recent sharp increases in TESLA SP.
1 Comment
Battery Day: Why Tesla’s single crystal cathode is important
https://thedriven.io/2020/06/05/battery-day-why-teslas-single-crystal-cathode-is-important/
 
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