Living with Electric Vehicles

[Ridge Runner]

I found this video that confirms many thoughts a few people have had of how practicle EV's are, This model is meant to have a 380 mile / 611.42 Km range, When put to the test with some of the everyday Items and people loads the facts are ridiculous, and the Cost per Mile or 1.609km is totally stupid.

Enjoy,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmQJUW-VyRY

 

[mxt sniper]

Ridgerunner,

I agree with you, EV is ok for suburban/city travel, maybe day to day driver with in 40-50 miles, but when it comes to prospectors, and towing heavy loads, EV fails dismally, range diminishes to under 90 miles on a charge, pretty useless for me. We are caught in a huge squeeze now with gov's pushing for EV, and rising gas prices, it will end badly I fear. It will take away freedoms and rights for sure. Best start researching local gold fields close as possible for future use.

Dave

 

[Davent]

Yep, 13 hours to charge from fully flat.
The thought of a "mandate" to go EV terifies" me much more than the effects of climate change.

 

[bicter]

Have to start somewhere!!
Fortunately I'm not old enough to recall the transition from horse and cart to steam driven automobile. Initially the horse and cart were much more effective.... greater range, more economical, carry a larger load etc..... with time and innovation, steam transitioned to petrol driven which improved all of the previous shortcomings utilising a non-renewable energy source.
The next transition is taking place now and, as I see it, is still at the steam engine stage of development.

DaveNT, the pollies are too smart to globally mandate the use of EV's especially while they're still at such an early stage of development and farmers, transport industry etc have a huge investment in petroleum based products.

 

[user 22230]

My part of the world you would need to tow a trailer to carry the extension lead around :lol:

 

[Jaros]

I think telstra are selling 5klm cable drums --Yust yolkingk!!

 

[Rodt]

This topic has been getting a lot of airtime on other forums for a while now.

Without understanding all of the comments about the technology one thing is very clear in that the technology is improving all of the time. When you do a google search and look at some of the specs for the 4wds (eg: Ford Electric F Truck) it is amazing the amount of power and torque they are talking about compared to the diesel / petrol offerings that we have now.

There have been jokes going around about carrying a generator in the back in the event of an emergency flat battery but when you think about it that isn't so bad an idea I reckon. Only applicable to 4wds though

Brave new world

 

[condor22]

There's another downside - I don't know all the details, but a friend's sister bought an EV new, not sure how old it is, but not old old, lol. The battery is stuffed and she can't sell the car without replacing it and they are not cheap.

Which kind of says to me, don't buy one second hand and if you buy new, be prepared to write it off when it's time to replace it.

 

[Jaros]

Well if it's a regular fault it should be under warranty and the manufacture be liable --it's the bloody repair times that kill ya.--that's basically why 2nd hand cars are so so dear now. For Christ's sake whinge your heart out to them.

 

[user 4386]

Yep, 13 hours to charge from fully flat.
The thought of a "mandate" to go EV terifies" me much more than the effects of climate change.

I would not panic. At present we have only a couple of fast-charge stations in Australia, and the batteries for the appropriate EVs are around $US33,000 each - otherwise you are limited to a short travel range and lots of recharging (at home being the slowest of all).
And finally (but most important of all), you have to have power before you can have recharging stations that operate on that power. Have you noticed many high voltage power lines in the outback? The other issues could change with large take-up, might even be good in urban areas for general commuting and shopping, but most of Australia will be out of range for a very long time (we are still a country where even petrol stations are up to 1000 km apart)!.

 

[Nightjar]

Getting on with life here and enjoying while we can before the curtain comes down.
We do our bit for the environment.
But quite frankly I'm not getting my jocks in knot worrying about climate change, electric cars, etc etc.
Live a very simple life enjoying the sunrises and sunsets and not wasting time in front of the ***** box watching the oop: that rolls out of there.
One event that is certain there will be more hospital cases from ebike prangs than covid within 5 years.
***Remember yesteryear when coffee would shorten your life now they're saying it extends it.*** :lol: :lol:

 

[saau]

G'Day Condor

Is this EV in Adel. ?

The battery is stuffed and she can't sell the car without replacing it and they are not cheap.

Yep. the BAT packs are the most costly part of the EV, which make and model is it ?

be prepared to write it off when it's time to replace it.

I have some experience recycling EV BATs and it depends on what happened to the packs.

 

[Ridge Runner]

One of the major issues I have with them Is this vehicle is meant to have a range of 380 miles / 611kms but on its own it only achieved 231 miles / 371.67 kms so already it has lost 239.3 kms, Towing that tiny lightweight Van that dropped down to 100miles / 160kms,

Over here in town to charge it costs 0.33p / $0.6138c per Kwh, If I was going to Scotland which is about 650miles / 1045.85kms I am going to use 500Kwh of electricity using the Motorway services because thats the way you have to Drive they charge 0.44p / $0.818c per Kwh thats going to cost me $409.20c "One Way" and I would have to stop 7 times which takes 40 minutes to charge plus all the stuffing around time wasted that always happens when you interupt your travel time is going to add another 7 Hours to the Journey.

$410.00 to travel 1050ks and wasting 7 hours is ridiculous and then you have to do the same on the return trip at a cost of $820.00, Where as my Van on a trip can average 64.2 mpg or 4.4L / 100ks, But When towing it's going to use a 5.7L / per 100ks and I would only have to fuel up once for the return trip,

Over here they have the charging points at nearly every Highway servo but the electricity cost 2.5 X more than it does at my house and doing such a trip is also going to add another 14 hours+ to the travelling time, Which is unworkable not to mention try in to plug the thing in in some of the worst weather condition on the planet and 90%+ of the power generated here is made by fossil fuel powered power stations so how can that be considered as being Geen,

My Van is in the second lowest emissions group possible next to being a Hybrid or an EV and I can do the above journey at less then 25% of the cost and save 13 and a half hours,

As pointed out already EV's can only work as City Cars, because even here where they do have the charging points the range and running costs just don't work.

 

[Ridge Runner]

Ridgerunner,

I agree with you, EV is ok for suburban/city travel, maybe day to day driver with in 40-50 miles, but when it comes to prospectors, and towing heavy loads, EV fails dismally, range diminishes to under 90 miles on a charge, pretty useless for me. We are caught in a huge squeeze now with gov's pushing for EV, and rising gas prices, it will end badly I fear. It will take away freedoms and rights for sure. Best start researching local gold fields close as possible for future use.

Dave

Yeah it just can't work, I have driven the highways here and seen the same vehicles have to pull in and charge up over and over, In my post above that is based on total highway driving on smooth paved roads, not going bush, and just towing a light weight camper under 900kgs, The rigours of driving Outback roads and Bush tracks would reduce the fuel/power range even more than what that video shows.

 

[user 22230]

Willing to bet a few dollars , (four hundred mill actually) that there are probably around four thousand new custom order car owners not big fans of electric cars or lithium batteries at this very point in time :awful: 8.( 8.( 8.( 8.( 8.(
Boot space in electric cars will now have the spare wheel and a car size one of these included with it. :awful:

[video=480,360]https://youtu.be/Tph5hza8dnU[/video]

Actually not a lot has changed as I had an electric car decades ago and even then i had trouble walking fast enough to keep up with it before the lead ran out

 

[user 22230]

I think telstra are selling 5klm cable drums --Yust yolkingk!!

5 Km ? Jeezus that wouldn't even get me to the road much less a destination. :8

 

[bicter]

Yep, 13 hours to charge from fully flat.
The thought of a "mandate" to go EV terifies" me much more than the effects of climate change.

I would not panic. At present we have only a couple of fast-charge stations in Australia, and the batteries for the appropriate EVs are around $US33,000 each - otherwise you are limited to a short travel range and lots of recharging (at home being the slowest of all).
And finally (but most important of all), you have to have power before you can have recharging stations that operate on that power. Have you noticed many high voltage power lines in the outback? The other issues could change with large take-up, might even be good in urban areas for general commuting and shopping, but most of Australia will be out of range for a very long time (we are still a country where even petrol stations are up to 1000 km apart)!.

I recently read an article saying that some of the Nullarbor plains roadhouses are installing EV charging stations. They're evidently going to be powered from used cooking oil. I understand they are a containerised solution.
It may appear odd to be using cooking oil to recharge EV's as it doesn't appear to be an environmentally friendly technique, however it would allow EV's to transit between locations that provide recharge facilities from renewable energies.

Just did a quick search and found this https://thedriven.io/2022/01/24/explainer-how-to-cross-the-nullarbor-in-an-electric-car/
It appears there are now EV charging points at roadhouses sufficient to get you across the Nullarbor.

In the fullness of time, EV charging locations will be a lot more widespread.
Next step is to improve the battery capacities and recharging rates for them to be competitive with existing transport options.

One small step at a time.

 

[Ridge Runner]

The only way is to buy Hybrid models where they run on batteries and unleaded then they can use the Batteries in Town and the Engine for bush travel, There's no way can you put all your eggs in one basket by relying just on battery power,

Another point is how well do all those electronic doodads fare with the beating the Outback roads will subject them too, ?? food for thought Ay.

 

[user 22230]

I can comfortably do a 1700 K drive in under 24 hours, stopping to piss and fuel up and a power nap if required. Soooooooooo if one has two, three or more charging stops one is going to most likely need to hire a room for at least one night one would assume? There goes the economical electric trip ? This is without adding all other factors like a break down? How far away would the nearest repairer be? Quite frankly, thoughts of electric vehicle transportation being practical in any country that has vast uninhabited areas such as Australia, travel outside city areas in the near future is literally pissin in the wind. {)

 

[Redfin]

Charging stations, from what I can gather at the end of 2020. Orange is three phase.