ABC EV discussion today

Discussion about EV/Battery charging infrastructure, Electric highways etc.
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Nagaman
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ABC EV discussion today

Post by Nagaman »

Goulburn Valley regional radio @ 10:20 for those interested.
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Chuq
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Re: ABC EV discussion today

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Is there a link to it?
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brunohill
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Re: ABC EV discussion today

Post by brunohill »

It was just some nutter from the bush near Wangaratta throwing some curved balls like this:-

Why electric cars are more country cars than the city cars


I remember when I was a kid, at my grandparents farm, against the fence outside the house there were about 20, 44 (200 litre)gallon drums. There were about 4 drums of Standard (petrol) for my grandfather's HD special Holden, 5 Drums of Super (petrol) for my uncle's flash automatic HR Premier Holden, and the rest were diesel for the Massey Ferguson tractor. Some time in the 1970s they made it illegal to store fuel like that, which was probably a good thing.
Luckily you can still get away with storing a jerry-can in the shed, because once every couple of months, I would be two thirds of the way home from town when I would realise that I had forgotten to get fuel. This would mean I could not get to work in the morning or I could not get back into town to get more fuel.
At one stage I also worked out of town, it was a seventy five km round trip that did not pass any service stations. I would drive my Suzuki (which has less range than most EVs) to work for 4 days then my ute to work for 5 days, and then I would have to make a special trip to town with jerry-cans in the back of the ute, to get more fuel so I could go to work. The Suzuki and the ute were on their last legs and I needed something reliable to get to work so an EV was a no brainer.
There were times when someone would ring to catch up with you in the town 80 km to the west, but I would only have enough fuel for 50 km. This would mean I would have to drive 25km east to get more fuel then travel 105 km west. With an EV I can have a full tank every morning or a top up in a couple of hours.
I found a few more added advantages of EVs on country roads. If you have to take some quick evasive action to avoid some wild life, the cars are very stable, with little body roll, as they have a very low centre of gravity because of the batteries in the floor. If you have to brake in a hurry they are also more responsive because of the regenerative braking. When you remove you foot from the throttle, they have already started braking before you have even gotten your foot on the brake pedal.
In the city there are many service stations usually within a short distance from one another. In the country they can sometimes be few and far between but there are many power points.
antiscab
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Re: ABC EV discussion today

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brunohill wrote: Sun, 04 Apr 2021, 09:57 It was just some nutter from the bush near Wangaratta throwing some curved balls like this:
I love it, EV's allow you to be way more self sufficient than any ICE car (including via biodiesel)
Matt
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Chuq
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Re: ABC EV discussion today

Post by Chuq »

Spot on, that's exactly the kind of argument I put forward when people say "cars are only for cities". The ability to fuel up from home is even more of an advantage for those who have vehicles which are almost exclusively used on their own property (tractors, ATVs, motorbikes) as well as those who live some distance from the nearest service station. I would imagine that solar/battery systems are quite popular on farms where they may have unreliable grid connections or parts of the property that would otherwise require costly poles and wires, so they understand the economic benefits.

Disclaimer, these are just assumptions, I have very little experience with farms!
Nagaman
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Re: ABC EV discussion today

Post by Nagaman »

We have the premium FIT and I expect we will go to storage around 2025 .
I doubt that you would want to still be a dirty generator by then unless the Feds outlaw clean energy .
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brunohill
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Re: ABC EV discussion today

Post by brunohill »

Chuq wrote: Sun, 04 Apr 2021, 14:19 Spot on, that's exactly the kind of argument I put forward when people say "cars are only for cities". The ability to fuel up from home is even more of an advantage for those who have vehicles which are almost exclusively used on their own property (tractors, ATVs, motorbikes) as well as those who live some distance from the nearest service station. I would imagine that solar/battery systems are quite popular on farms where they may have unreliable grid connections or parts of the property that would otherwise require costly poles and wires, so they understand the economic benefits.

Disclaimer, these are just assumptions, I have very little experience with farms!
Unless you have a farm that makes money you also pay fuel excise to run ATVs, motorbikes,block splitters,chain saws, mowers,generators, etc. If I have to pay an EV road tax then I would expect that I should be able to claim back the excise I pay on fuel that is not used on road vehicles.
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jonescg
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Re: ABC EV discussion today

Post by jonescg »

Those fuel stories sound awful familiar. My folks lived 35 km east of Warwick in Queensland. Lovely spot, and we were prettymuch self-sufficient on water, food, energy (firewood, solar hot water and a very expensive off-grid solar array consisting of 80 W BP panels).

I got into EVs after a long search for a more self-sufficient mode of transport. Love my pushbikes, but I'm not riding 90 km a day. Biodiesel? Too much work, messy, a hassle to source methanol and reagents, and one bad batch and the engine is toast. Ethanol? Forget it - the energy required to distill the mash exceeds what you can get out of the ethanol, let alone drive more than 5 km on it. Pyrolysis products? Gasifiers? I'm not a process engineer, so they're out.

EVs, end e-bikes in particular, smash it out of the park.
AEVA National President, returning WA branch chair.
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