Thread: Would Australia have enough Electricity (now) if everyone switched to EV ?

Some very good questions - answers to what I know in red below.

Originally Posted by DazzaTD5

As someone that is very much a layman with regards to EVs, power generation etc I dont have the facts or knowledge but the questions that pop into my head are...

*According to targets set this time next year there will be, what 200K EVs on the road? going from about 6K of EV sales currently?.
*Where will the infrastructure be to charge them? what about households that have 4 or 5 cars, where do they charge their EV?- EV would need to be the one in or closest to the garage - if it's like my place, a quick shuffle to get the EV near an outlet would work fine in most cases.
*4 or 5 cars is quite common, just drive around my area (Rivervale W.A).
*I was told that you can simply put charge plugs in the curbs, sounds great, so this time next year it will be all set up and running? Curbside charging infrastructure is a long way off and very expensive - easier to run a lead to a 15 amp outlet beside the house, etc
*So all the EV being charged out the front of a household, how long before local thieves steal the charge leads or simply unplug them as a laugh? Yeah, I can see that happening.
*Who is building the infrastructure? Gov? (the NBN cost so far is something like 50B to 90B )e Private enterprise is so very slow - Gubment are asleep at the wheel on EV's here.
*I was told the private sector could build the infrastructure? ​Yes, but without a business case and return on investment, no one will touch it as neither stack up
*I read that typically over the life of a vehicle that EVs are round 20% cheaper? They talk about "life of a vehicle" being 10 years.
*When did 10 years become the end life of a vehicle? Agreed - it's a push from the OEM's to get you to spend more money on crap vehicles
*After 10 years and replacing a EV's battery whats the cost then?i Very high - despite promises of falling prices for batteries - this hasn't eventuated yet. Was talking to a solar installer yesterday who was telling me prices had risen slightly for batteries over the last 5 years and he wouldn't recommend them for residential use any time soon.
*What happens to the old battery? I'm sure some form of recycling some of their products will happen at some stage but at the moment, land fill

*A mate that is an electrical contractor said (vaguely remembering) that charging an EV will be like every household having a additional hot plate on? Then some - to charge overnight off a standard power point it would be running pretty hard - but it's still cheaper than putting petrol in your car
*I dont know what it's like where you live, but here in Perth W.A last week we had some hot days that clearly everyone had their air con running, well there was power outages all over Perth which was hampered by repair crews not being able to do repair work due to the fire danger. One of the biggest issues and not easy to overcome

*I could EASILY drive a EV as my daily at absolutely no inconvenience to me what so ever. (I mean something like goingbush's EV Land Rover).
*I would need a plug on the front of my house with a long lead that would likely get left out the front when not plugged into my EV as I dont park my vehicle under the carport and is often on the front lawn.

*Lastly if a petrol/diesel vehicle is called a ICE then shouldn't a electric vehicle be called a EM or ED (electric motor/drive) or should a ICE be called a HV (hydrocarbon vehicle) or a FFV (fossil fuel vehicle) or ICEV (internal combustion engine vehicle).
*My pick is ICEV

Originally Posted by PhilipA

Well now that Natural Gas is considered "green" this will be a lot easier! LOL
And I look forward to our first Nuclear power station.

Regards PhilipA

A few Nuclear power plants coming to Australia Philip. They will sink of course N Subs I mean.

The E.U. including some gas and Nuclear in Green is interesting but off topic. On energy we all use in in our Landies electric, petrol or Diesel.

The energy required to:

1. Extract oil
2. transport to refineries
3. Make a litre of fuel
4. Transport it to consumers
5. Pump it into our trucks

Suspect the cost is one of the reason fuel costs are currently about $1.60per litre ish for petrol or Diesel and $0.36 per kWh for electricity? (Possibly a lot less if Solar on the roof is used)

What is clear is changes in demand are occurring world wide. Even those Monster RAMs are going EV (2024) I am thinking of selling my quirky one as there none available now for several months and some option to be a true disco replacement are as normal "Coming one day" With 7 years left on my mg's warranty it just might sell, I hate the idea of tire kicker so probably won't. Kids driving in a year or two can have it likely.

Still amazed by all the feathering at the massive wind farms. So much power not used except at peak time still offers options once better storage or cheap power use can be rolled out.