Thread: EV general discussion

Originally Posted by scarry

Bloody dangerous though, hanging off them doing repairs,dont ask me how I know

The Solar pumps can also be controlled remotely, which is great.

I can imaging. One of my favorite Uncle repeatedly PTSD like tells me about TELLING me to "stay on the ground" to find me at the top of the windmill he was trying to repair and a lot of embellishment about him having to try and hold me as well as most of the windmill

He is a legend in my view but no way was I at risk of falling even aged 8. I was bring the spanners he dropped back up to him.

Originally Posted by Homestar

When I will buy one? Probably never - can’t see them being viable or affordable in the timeframe I’ll need cars within my lifetime. I would like to convert an old series or similar to EV for tooling around town, etc but not sure if I’ll get the chance for that either.

I think by the time EV’s are cheap enough for joe public, we’ll be moving to hydrogen/fuel cells not batteries so they will have the range and quick fuelling capability we need. Batteries are the problem with EV’s, not the rest of the vehicle, you just need something else to make the electricity. 👍

Tasmania have opened up an electric highway fast charging network, only for bitumin roads though.

Electric Highway Tasmania’s charging network boasts twelve 50kW charging stations across the state at Burnie, Devonport, Scottsdale, St Helens, Swansea, Derwent Bridge, Queenstown, Kempton, New Norfolk, Geeveston, Hobart, and Launceston, where the ceremony was eld.
Two ultra-rapid charging stations at Campbell Town and Kings Meadows are also part of the network, offering charging rates of up to 350kW.
“With Tasmania now being 100 per cent self-sufficient in renewable energy, we are ideally suited to benefitting from more electric vehicles in our state,” said Clive Attwater, the managing director of EHT.


Tasmania opens Electric Highway fast-charging network, paving way for EV rentals (thedriven.io)

Originally Posted by NavyDiver

Fully agree to waiting for a suitable range, capability and other needs before jumping. Suspect it might be a bit faster than you might think. RFX new gen 3 battery is possibly 30% cheaper even at the lower volumes they are making. I happily still use the stupidly expensive ones I brought years ago which have paid for themselves several times over now

Quantimscape, Toyota and others newer much cheaper much higher capacity and charge rates solid state batteries are probably the infliction point in price as it is cheaper to make them and the GIGA scale manufacturing plants under construction.
None of us had or could afford solar in 1976. Farmers wind mills are now often solar pumps now I hear. That may also giving us an indication of the significant changes bought about by lower costs.

Try the price graph in this link for some idea/possiblity of what is about to occur with Batteries and Hydrogen options. Solar PV module prices - Our World in Data

Solar has moved from over $100 per KwH to about $0.38 is interesting? Cheaper than a windmill is a little sad as I like windmills

Slowly but surely, EV's are making inroads. However the cost in Australia is still a big stumbling block for most people. There needs to be some kind of tax incentive for manufacturers to get the ball rolling.



"Electric bus maker BusTech Group says it will open a factory in NSW – its fourth in Australia – after the NSW government made the company an official supplier in its move to completely decarbonise its bus fleet by 2030.
Bus operators in NSW, contracted to the state government, had already put in orders for its ZDI buses, the company said, though it would not say how many.
“We use a supply chain that is over 95 per cent located in Australia,” said Kasia Pitman, the company’s director of sustainability. “This not only creates economic benefits and generates employment opportunities, but also ensuresthe lowest carbon emissions manufacturing footprint of any bus available in Australia.”
BusTech joins BCI, Yutong, Nexport BYD Gemilang and Nexport BYD Volgren as certified suppliers of electric buses to the NSW government.
Late last year, the NSW government announced it would put 120 electric buses on the road, 50 of which would be in Sydney with the remainder yet to be allocated a location."





Electric bus maker BusTech plans NSW factory to meet state demand (thedriven.io)

Originally Posted by bob10

Slowly but surely, EV's are making inroads. However the cost in Australia is still a big stumbling block for most people. There needs to be some kind of tax incentive for manufacturers to get the ball rolling.



"Electric bus maker BusTech Group says it will open a factory in NSW – its fourth in Australia – after the NSW government made the company an official supplier in its move to completely decarbonise its bus fleet by 2030.
Bus operators in NSW, contracted to the state government, had already put in orders for its ZDI buses, the company said, though it would not say how many.
“We use a supply chain that is over 95 per cent located in Australia,” said Kasia Pitman, the company’s director of sustainability. “This not only creates economic benefits and generates employment opportunities, but also ensuresthe lowest carbon emissions manufacturing footprint of any bus available in Australia.”
BusTech joins BCI, Yutong, Nexport BYD Gemilang and Nexport BYD Volgren as certified suppliers of electric buses to the NSW government.
Late last year, the NSW government announced it would put 120 electric buses on the road, 50 of which would be in Sydney with the remainder yet to be allocated a locat



Electric bus maker BusTech plans NSW factory to meet state demand (thedriven.io)

Several Buses running peak morning and afternoon can be charged over night and in between making battery recharge times and range acceptable if the battery cost is low. The charging infrastructure for thousands of buses at the same time is possibly a big issue to resolve? May be the issue is the same as pointed out in peak times and charging points in some overseas locations.

Suspect Hydrogen to refuel quickly and to recharge/power while moving will be cheaper and reduce weight by more than halving the batteries required and especially if the lay off periods may not occur for many which run peak and non peak .

"Switching to electrified fleets seems like a no-brainer but why hasn’t that happened yet? In fact, Tesla unveiled its Semi truck back in 2017… what happened to it? Why isn’t it on the road yet?

Turns out, current EV technologies have quite a few critical issues that keep the electrification of commercial flee
ts from being viable — from operational, infrastructural, and dollar-and-cents perspectives.

Even the almighty Elon Musk can’t defy the law of physics. A closer look at the Tesla Semi will show us how current EV battery technologies are limited in their application and what we can do to make electrification viable at a commercial scale.

For example, let’s say a truck without a battery pack weighs 7 tons. That leaves us 29 tons for battery weight and payload. To cover a longer range so the truck doesn’t have to stop halfway to charge for hours (which is expensive because any minute a truck isn’t on the road is costing the trucking company money,) it’ll need a bigger battery — which means a smaller payload.
So you can either cover a greater range but carry a smaller payload or have a lighter battery pack, which requires that you sacrifice range to carry more payload. .......



This trade-off doesn’t make business sense when compared to diesel trucks, which can carry over 20 tons with a range of 900 miles — more than the 300-mile and 500-mile range of the two Tesla Semi variants.
Furthermore, today’s EV batteries come in a “monolithic” block — you can’t adjust the weight and size of the battery based on how far a truck needs to go on a particular trip.
While Tesla Semi’s 0-60 acceleration is impressive (but no truck driver will ever need it unless they want to get fired,) it left out a crucial piece of information that anyone in the trucking industry would want to know — what’s the weight of the empty truck (including the battery pack?)"

Link to whole yarn


They are a fossil fuel based generator to extent the range and reduce the amount of batteries required for a Battery based truck which has several of the same issue as a Bus I think.

Originally Posted by bob10

Tasmania have opened up an electric highway fast charging network, only for bitumin roads though.

Electric Highway Tasmania’s charging network boasts twelve 50kW charging stations across the state at Burnie, Devonport, Scottsdale, St Helens, Swansea, Derwent Bridge, Queenstown, Kempton, New Norfolk, Geeveston, Hobart, and Launceston, where the ceremony was eld.
Two ultra-rapid charging stations at Campbell Town and Kings Meadows are also part of the network, offering charging rates of up to 350kW.
“With Tasmania now being 100 per cent self-sufficient in renewable energy, we are ideally suited to benefitting from more electric vehicles in our state,” said Clive Attwater, the managing director of EHT.


Tasmania opens Electric Highway fast-charging network, paving way for EV rentals (thedriven.io)

Doesn’t change my mind or bank balance - won’t be affordable or viable for me within any timeframe I’m likely to buy one. By the time they are affordable enough they’ll be no point me buying one as I’ll be running out the last decade or so on whatever I have then. I don’t change vehicles often enough - I usually buy 15 to 20 year old vehicles and get 5 to 10 years out of them. Not sure what EV offerings will be viable to buy when they’re that old.

Originally Posted by Homestar

Doesn’t change my mind or bank balance - won’t be affordable or viable for me within any timeframe I’m likely to buy one. By the time they are affordable enough they’ll be no point me buying one as I’ll be running out the last decade or so on whatever I have then. I don’t change vehicles often enough - I usually buy 15 to 20 year old vehicles and get 5 to 10 years out of them. Not sure what EV offerings will be viable to buy when they’re that old.

I honestly don't think any one is trying to make you do any thing you don't want to do. But there are many, many people in this country that need to get their head around this new technology, and they shouldn't be held back. Like it or not, this is the way the World is heading.

Originally Posted by NavyDiver

Several Buses running peak morning and afternoon can be charged over night and in between making battery recharge times and range acceptable if the battery cost is low. The charging infrastructure for thousands of buses at the same time is possibly a big issue to resolve? May be the issue is the same as pointed out in peak times and charging points in some overseas locations.

Suspect Hydrogen to refuel quickly and to recharge/power while moving will be cheaper and reduce weight by more than halving the batteries required and especially if the lay off periods may not occur for many which run peak and non peak .

"Switching to electrified fleets seems like a no-brainer but why hasn’t that happened yet? In fact, Tesla unveiled its Semi truck back in 2017… what happened to it? Why isn’t it on the road yet?

Turns out, current EV technologies have quite a few critical issues that keep the electrification of commercial flee
ts from being viable — from operational, infrastructural, and dollar-and-cents perspectives.

Even the almighty Elon Musk can’t defy the law of physics. A closer look at the Tesla Semi will show us how current EV battery technologies are limited in their application and what we can do to make electrification viable at a commercial scale.

For example, let’s say a truck without a battery pack weighs 7 tons. That leaves us 29 tons for battery weight and payload. To cover a longer range so the truck doesn’t have to stop halfway to charge for hours (which is expensive because any minute a truck isn’t on the road is costing the trucking company money,) it’ll need a bigger battery — which means a smaller payload.
So you can either cover a greater range but carry a smaller payload or have a lighter battery pack, which requires that you sacrifice range to carry more payload. .......



This trade-off doesn’t make business sense when compared to diesel trucks, which can carry over 20 tons with a range of 900 miles — more than the 300-mile and 500-mile range of the two Tesla Semi variants.
Furthermore, today’s EV batteries come in a “monolithic” block — you can’t adjust the weight and size of the battery based on how far a truck needs to go on a particular trip.
While Tesla Semi’s 0-60 acceleration is impressive (but no truck driver will ever need it unless they want to get fired,) it left out a crucial piece of information that anyone in the trucking industry would want to know — what’s the weight of the empty truck (including the battery pack?)"

Link to whole yarn


They are a fossil fuel based generator to extent the range and reduce the amount of batteries required for a Battery based truck which has several of the same issue as a Bus I think.

Now that the companies like BHP are focusing their business around the materials needed for renewable energy, and EV batteries, and the US and EU have decided they must push ahead with renewables and EV's, those problems will be overcome. Just a matter of time. If Australia doesn't get on board early, we will fall into the usual trap of relying on the rest of the world to supply us with the wherewithall to have our own EV industry. We have the expertise and knowledge in this country to be able to export EV's and EV technology to the world,if given a chance to develop same, instead of the other way around. Everyone cried when our car industry closed down. Now is the chance to build something worth while in the EV industry, from square one. I don't know, is it the Australian inferiority complex that's holding us back, or an out of touch leadership?

Originally Posted by bob10

I honestly don't think any one is trying to make you do any thing you don't want to do. But there are many, many people in this country that need to get their head around this new technology, and they shouldn't be held back. Like it or not, this is the way the World is heading.

My head is all over the tech - that’s not the issue and I don’t think you’re giving people in general the credit they deserve. You can’t force people to uptake a tech they don’t want because it is too expensive and doesn’t meet their needs. The world will head where people want it. EV sales in Australia suggest that will be a slow shift. Go buy yourself an EV and I’ll keep driving a Camry or my 101.