Living with Electric Vehicles

Prospecting Australia

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World’s Longest Electric Vehicle Highway — Now Under Construction in WA:
https://cleantechnica.com/2023/01/10/worlds-longest-electric-vehicle-highway-now-under-construction/
But will it reduce emissions? This is the power distribution network, 71% of power is generated by fossil fuels still and that is the electricity going into your car. In fact I wonder the percentage will be in WA? Chargers every 200 km along a route that has thousands of km with no mains power, only on-site generated power. I can see that it will probably ultimately occur given the potential for solar development, but at the moment that would be an awful lot of expensive battery storage.

Cart (or EV) before the horse I feel....

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Battery leakage leaves no puddles 🤣


I don't think we should be banning anything - give people choice and it will reach equilibrium. For example I can imagine getting an EV runabout in town but keeping my petrol 4x4 for longer trips. With time the EV recharge coverage will increase, batteries will improve - but I stillk see recharge time being an obstacle for a long time on lengthy trips.
 
Once recharge is easily obtained things will be better no doubt. But if intended use of vehicle is for length of trips greater than the capacity of battery can deliver then it becomes impractical unless change over points are along route. No waiting to re charge in other words. In rural areas this won't be in my lifetime :rolleyes: 🤔
 
Once recharge is easily obtained things will be better no doubt. But if intended use of vehicle is for length of trips greater than the capacity of battery can deliver then it becomes impractical unless change over points are along route. No waiting to re charge in other words. In rural areas this won't be in my lifetime :rolleyes: 🤔
I suspect smaller batteries will be a development but I can't see a small enough batteries for simple changeover (works fine now on scooters). But humans are clever.....I pre-date TV, lasers, moon exploration. mobile phones and electronic voice recognition, CT scans, electronic limbs wired to brains and the abolition of smallpox.....
 
Yeah, a new coal fired power station.

There's still hope.;)
I suspect smaller batteries will be a development but I can't see a small enough batteries for simple changeover (works fine now on scooters). But humans are clever.....I pre-date TV, lasers, moon exploration. mobile phones and electronic voice recognition, CT scans, electronic limbs wired to brains and the abolition of smallpox.....
The complete engine on a Challenger tank comes out on rails complete with extended lines ect...it can be changed in a couple of hours...You could easily do similar with a vehicle battery pack, but it would require design standardisation across industry which is probably the biggest hurdle...

Apparently the next big thing for rechargeable batteries is Salt Ion...*if* it lives up to its promise it will be a major improvement over current Lithium Ion technology.
 
I am really looking forward to EV vehicles of the future as they offer so much potential. One aspect that is not talked out much is the huge decrease in noise...Imagine currently living in a city, town or near a major road...the traffic noise must be terrible and a real blight on people's lives....The widespread introduction of EV vehicles will certainly improve those people's quality of life...

That said, I think EV vehicles are a long way from being practical at the moment for all the reasons already mentioned, and while I agree we have to start somewhere, I have no intention of being an early adopter....
 
The complete engine on a Challenger tank comes out on rails complete with extended lines ect...it can be changed in a couple of hours...You could easily do similar with a vehicle battery pack, but it would require design standardisation across industry which is probably the biggest hurdle...

Apparently the next big thing for rechargeable batteries is Salt Ion...*if* it lives up to its promise it will be a major improvement over current Lithium Ion technology.
It is already being experimented - up on a hoist and swap in less than 30 minutes (batteries tend to be large and underneath). But super-fast chargers can now charge in 15 without that hassle. I can't imagine it catching on unless they can miniaturize batteries. The big potential is if they can simply increase battery range while keeping in that 15 minute charge range.

One other problem is battery warranty - at around $35,000 and a 7-8 year warranty, would you be happy to simply swap your battery for one that had an unknown remaining life or reliability?
 
I am really looking forward to EV vehicles of the future as they offer so much potential. One aspect that is not talked out much is the huge decrease in noise...Imagine currently living in a city, town or near a major road...the traffic noise must be terrible and a real blight on people's lives....The widespread introduction of EV vehicles will certainly improve those people's quality of life...

That said, I think EV vehicles are a long way from being practical at the moment for all the reasons already mentioned, and while I agree we have to start somewhere, I have no intention of being an early adopter....

I don't think we hear much noise from the engines of modern cars but the tyres have got a lot more noisy. You really notice the noise in a van if your tyres are half worn out and even if you've got used to the noise you the enormous difference with some brands of tyre. I used to have a Subaru Forrester, it was a great vehicle that did over 400,000km before I sold it but it suffered from road noise on the Bridgestone tyres. At one point I bought a set of Continentals and all at once the vehicle was almost silent even when the road surface changed.

The other thing that makes a huge difference to noise is the type of road surface. Some roads give a nice quiet ride while others sound like you're riding on steel. Perhaps we'll see some improvements in these areas if the car you're driving is silent.
 
$35000 ÷ 8 years is $87 a week, add charging costs it certainly isn't a cheaper option then fuel.
That is around 40+ litres of petrol cost, so at 10l itres/100 km, it is the same cost as 400 km of petrol driving - and it is for super-fast charge (otherwise cheaper). It is a saving overall based on careful figures that I have seen, but only with regular use not if it sits in the garage. And not as much of a saving as most people think, but a saving. Also there is a second-hand and a reconditioned battery market and they can cost only 15% of that. The issue that I see is that at 10 years you must replace a battery or else you have an unusable an unsaleable car, so it is really payment in advance for km that you may never do in it. I suspect the resale market for EVs may prove awful.

But not a big market yet because so few people in Australia have EVS at present. Around 40,000 registered to April 2022 out of something like 22 million registered vehicles - so a tiny percentage (0.02%). But growth is rapid.
 
I think you'll find that warranty duration isn't the same as battery life.
That's probably true , but anytime after that period you would have to prepare to pay that cost , say you double that and get 16 years it's still costing you $43.50 a week plus power usage charges. It makes me sick when politicians come out and make remarks if people aren't happy with fuel cost then go buy an electric car. Who has 100k to pluck out of their A hole for one and be prepared to possibly fork out another 30k in 8 years if the battery dies.
 
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