The truth about EVs, long-distance driving & regional recharging | Auto Expert John Cadogan
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- Опубликовано: 8 сен 2024
- If you own an electric vehicle (or you're thinking about buying one) here's how it's going to play out for long-distance driving in Australia.
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Finding the nearest charger in unfamiliar terrain is more than half the battle here - but provided you’ve got a smartphone and signal, the Chargefox app has you covered - seamlessly. It’s actually pretty easy to find the needle when the app deletes the haystack for you.
It’ll find you the nearest charger, give you real-time information about the charger’s status - like, is it operational and/or being used by some other EV owner. And it’ll integrate with Google Maps to give you turn-by-turn instructions to get you there.
You also start the charger, stop it, and pay for the electricity within the app - no lining up with the liquid-fuel customers, no paying at the cashier and no having the two-for-one Kit-Kat diabetes meal deal inflicted upon you. So that’s nice.
Plugging in - well, they have tried to make it look as much like conventional refuelling as possible. The outlets look like fuel bowsers, and the process is pretty easy. Now, the time to recharge kinda varies, because the outlet needs to talk to the car, and not fry the battery - but you’ll get from near zero to 80 per cent charge fairly fast.
The car will make a fair bit of noise during this fast-charge process because the cooling system is doing the mad voodoo of heat exchange, keeping the battery within acceptable temperature limits.
Generally, depending on the EV, and the state of charge, you’ll be looking at a half-hour stop, ballpark. Maybe 40 minutes. Which, hypothetically, isn’t a bad way to travel. Like, 300 kilometres is going to take you roughly three hours, and by then (if you kicked off at 80 per cent) you’d be down to about 60 kays range in the Kona, and you’d stop for half an hour, be back up to 80 per cent, repeat. You’d probably Hoover up a burger, and let the kids burn off a bit of latent energy.
To me, that’s not much of an imposition, logistically, for most people. And I’d have to say, as a Chargefox virgin, I found the whole process pretty simple, and totally reliable. Even gentle and intuitive. I just went with the flow. Like, a politician could do this. (Not a cabinet minister, obviously, but a hard-working back-bencher? Sure. It’s that easy.)
According to the app, which has a map showing every charger nationally, you can basically drive from Port Douglas up north to Adelaide , using the Chargefox network. But you can’t go any way you want. You essentially have to follow the coast.
Sydney to Brisbane: no problem, just not via the New England Highway. Gotta go via the coast. Rechargers at Port Macquarie, Coffs Harbour, Ballina, Byron - then wherever you want, north of that.
Sydney to Melbourne on the Hume: no prob. Canberra? Yep. Also Cooma and Batemans Bay. Melbourne to Adelaide - OK. But essentially nothing in regional NSW and regional Queensland - away from the coast.
Even the Blue Mountains is a recharging desert, and as for Bathurst, Dubbo, Cobar, Broken Hill … I’m hearing crickets.
There are rechargers around Perth and down to the Margaret River. You can even charge up in Kalgoorlie, but to get there in the Kona you’d need to go via Albany and Esperance. Which is kinda the long way round...
I have just heard that Apple are working on releasing an electric car soon. They are having a bit of a problem at the moment installing windows
Awesome video as always John, as a pragmatic Tesla owner for the past 5 years and an avid road-tripper I have no illusions about the state of EV charging in Australia.
A recent trip to Tasmania has given me a new found respect for the non-Tesla DC charging options out there. Greatly increases choice of destinations. I had my old girl adapted to allow CCS2 charging so now can use supercharger network as well as all the other non-Tesla options.
The supercharger network has the advantage of being much more reliable and having lots of charges to cater for surge demand. Most of the sites are at least six stalls, some up to 10.
The funny thing is it is actually a lot of fun (at least to me) to plan road trips based on where I can actually get to.
And even though Australia is way behind the rest of the world, it is unbelievable how much has changed in the five years I’ve had my car.
John, as always a great video. You are an honest reviewer and enjoy all of your thoughts. I bought a 2017 Hyundai Ioniq in January this year. I installed 2 home chargers: one on grid and the other on my 5KW solar system. The car was a strange call for sure for my wife, daughter and I to get use to. Well it did not take long.. within a week I had to stand in line to use it!! My Rav4 and truck are rusting in the driveway as the fuel prices have soared her in Cali as well as the traffic. The EV has solved all these issues for us.. Cheap to drive, diamond lane access and smart cruise control make traffic and driving a breeze!! We will be a full EV family this year.. Thanks for your advice as always..
I live in the Bunya Mountains QLD and own a Kona EV. With a little planning I don't have any problems owning an EV in the bush except for maybe the skips that bounce off the front of the car. We regularly travel the New England Hwy down to Newcastle. Leave home fully charged. Stop in Warwick for a quick stretch of the legs etc and 15 min on the charger. Then to Glen Innes and a charge to around 90 % (about an hour) whilst having lunch. Then to Newcastle via Thunderbolts way picking up around 3% battery charge on the way down the Barrington Tops. There are now high speed chargers at Warwick, Tenterfield, Glen Innes, Armidale, and Tamworth so no real problem on the NE Highway.
Glad you came to the same conclusion as myself on the Kona EV John, I love it. I will be lining up for another EV later down the track with one proviso: I refuse to pay a tax per KM for owning one. Especially when a petrol Kona is half the price and half the GST.
Wait...you think you’ll be allowed to get away with paying no “fuel tax” and get it for free all the time? You’ll be paying, sooner or later, and it WILL be about the same as driving a petrol vehicle. Tax has to come from somewhere.
This blokes humour never misses 😂
Yep want him as my uncle lol
I'm in the States and just bought a Model 3 Performance. I ended up driving it from Houston to southern Colorado (just over 1000 miles each way). I used Tesla's Supercharging stations with ease. Average charging time was 20-25min. Also I use a Splitvolt charger at home that automatically switches the dryer in my garage back and forth from dryer to ev charging for level 2 charging. No way would I every go back to a ice car again.
Fastest car I've ever owned and I traded in my modified zo6 Corvette for the Tesla and the Tesla can drive itself!
There's only two negatives I can say about the Tesla 1 I think the Corvette looked better and 2 I kind of miss the rumbling engine. Other than that the Tesla beats it and every single way. One thing I didn't even think about before I bought the Tesla was since it mostly uses regenerative braking and you don't have to use the brakes so you don't really get brake dust on your rims which is just another small amount of awesomeness about the car. One other thing that I didn't really think about before I bought the car was 0-60 times compared to an ice car. Let's say you have a new mustang 5.0 that does 0 to 60 in 4 seconds. In order to get it to do the 4 seconds you have to rev up the engine dump the clutch or slam it into gear all of that to make it go that fast. Basically make a huge scene every time you want to do that. If you don't and just simply press the gas pedal you're 0 to 60 time will be around 5 seconds. Now for the Tesla it's 0 to 60 is 3.1 every single time without making a huge scene.
One last thing I promise, the factory stereo in the m3p is the best sounding factory stereo system I've ever heard of my life. Oh no have I turned into a fanboy?!
Californacatia (sp)...Love it!
Have owned a Tesla Model Y for slightly over 4 months here in Floridiot, "Murica". I recharge using an electric dryer spigot.
Will probably buy another EV, I don't miss visiting a gas station..."Murica".
Do you miss the sound of that V8 monster in the front :) I would
@@lawmanlawreaper Well, kinda, I did have an '86 5.0 Mustang for 30 years, it was rated 7.2 seconds 0-60mph (Murica), the Tesla is a little less than half that.
@@Motham51 I get a Stinger GT 3.3LTT here in shitsvill next month. I would put money on it that the Mustang will still hold its value way after You and Me are gone :). Just the sound of a V8 bring joy but them pesky EV just sneakup on yu :)
Agreed, now that I have a model 3 Performance all the ice cars on the roads are slugs
@@bullwhipjesus :) I drove a Model 3 but I love driving and after the M3 Performance driving an EV was like going to a blockbuster with no sound :(
I have recently bought a model 3, we love the thing, I have installed a 7kw charger at home and it’s brilliant, we also have an Audi Q7 and M3 competition.
It’s a fight between my wife and I as to whom gets to take the Tesla, for everyday use the 500km it will do are more than enough, even for weekend trips!
But, we are not silly enough to cross the Nullarbor in it, we will take the Q7 for that!
They are a brilliant city car or even regional, when the infrastructure catches up to fuel stations no worries, but for now they are brilliant for 90% of people and horrible for 10
@David Squibular clearly, or though luckily for me I don’t live in Sydney so I don’t need to sell both kidneys for a 50qm block of land, so I can afford to live...
That and a model 3 is not an expensive car
Saw a long term review of EV's in California. The biggest issue wasn't the EV vehicle but the chargers. There are issues with compatibility, faulty chargers and 101 incompatible payment systems. With an ICE car you know these issues are a non event
I moved from a TDI to a Tesla LR and have had none of those issues, including road trips from Montréal to Chicago several times pre-pandemic. Added maybe two hours to my 15 hours of driving, well worth it.
Also MotorWeek the TV show said the average person only uses a charging station six times a year. You only need a charging station on a road trip because you should have a fueling station at your house. It's exactly like your cell phone or laptop computer.
@@bullwhipjesus Yeah that's if you have a house and not a unit to install a charger.
Yeah most current ev owners keep this in the down low.
I wouldn't even say owning an ev in Australia is worth it so far there's more chargers at businesses rather than public ones.
Brisbane has less than 15 public chargers for the whole city and most are 12kw chargers, and yes i am including tesla chargers in that number.
All up there around 40 ev chargers the rest are at car dealers or electric companies.
Ive still had IT issues when I go to pay for fuel... terminal offline etc so nothing is perfect
I imagine that owning a electric car is similar to our LPG only falcon, it requires one to be mindful of limited filling opportunities and if you stuff it up your looking for a tow truck we just fill it at every opportunity especially in unfamiliar territory and we haven't had a disaster yet but have come very close.
This is spot on. Charging infrastructure is still touch and go, my mentality is "charge when it's convenient, not when you need it." Be looking to charge when you have to pee or eat, always charge when you are stopping for other reasons. Running the battery down to
Have a M3 and drove to PDouglas using Chargeafox and it was seamless. Do need more charges going west though. Great informative video. I’m old and I remember driving an ice car on a long trip and you had to go to the RACQ to get maps to plan your trip. EVs seem to be at that stage atm.
Except the maps can be interacted with and take up half the dashboard now.
BMW isn't making the M3 as an electric I thought. Will take another look at the models.
A shout out to the CEO of ChargeFox - seemed like a very nice and honest guy when I had dealings with him… Wish ChargeFox all the best for the future as it’s a tough gig what they are trying to do 🍻
They're certainly not doing a half-arsed job. And they stick to their commitments, generally. And yes, Tim Washington is a lovely guy, very polite, knows his stuff, not another sales guy with a business card.
Dubbo has both NRMA and Tesla charging stations at 76 Wingewarra street and Bathurst has them at 1 Kendall street
We did a 1500km SW trip over 7 days in our Ioniq, 310km range, 260 when pushing it on country roads and had zero problems. Stops at the fast chargers were longer than the charge time while the kid blew off steam. Overnight stops filled the car no problems. Only on one leg would we have been stuffed if the charger was out of order but you can see beforehand and adjust. The whole trip cost $24 because most of the charging was free. Thoroughly pleasant experience.
ABRP does the routing better, but doesn't have payment methods. For example, with an appropriately ranged vehicle, one can go from the Whitsundays to Melbourne and not see Brisbane or Sydney.
Purchased the 2020 model Iconiq new, but we are both in our mid 70's so as senior citizens this vehicle will probably see us out.
Also own a 2007 Prado diesel and a 2002 Hiace panel van both of which refuse to turn up their toes.
Have been known to arrive home with only 2% charge left on the EV. We have our own wall charger on our Nambucca Heads home.
Also found NRMA chargers at Armidale and Nabiac "out of order'.
Coming down the mountain from Dorrrigo adds about 10% to battery charge and saves brake pads, but means the brake lights are activated during the entire descent along Waterfall Way.
I have an EV, but it’s a 24 kw Leaf so the range is not great. I had a warranty battery replacement in 2017 (my car is a 2012), which was great, but for longer trips beyond day to day I still have my former daily driver, Nissan Maxima.
I bought my Leaf used at a shockingly low price back in 2016. I love it, even though everyone thought I was crazy. I can plug in at home on (American) 110 volt overnight or run by the local dealership and rapid charge for free.
After almost 5 years, I still enjoy the car but I find myself wanting something different. The EV’s coming out are very high priced even with incentives, so if I change it most likely won’t be another EV. Looking at maybe a Toyota RAV4, Honda CRV...used, of course. New cars are stupid expensive. Of course right now even used cars are up in price so I’ll wait a bit longer till things calm down...
Greetings from North Carolina, USA
Hmm. 30 minutes charge time vs 4 mins pump time and 2 mins "2 for 1 Diabetes Special and Cashier" time.
I'm sticking to liquid fuels for now thank you.
Yep, and not much apparently available there food or 40 minutes entertainment either.
Sadly becoming a bit of a shill
I look at it as a range/time ratio-for sensible EVs you get somewhere between 300 and 400km for 30 minutes of charging, or 10-13km/min. For sensible gas-guzzlers you get 600-700km / 5 min, or 120-140km/min. If you're only doing double digits daily then it probably doesn't matter as you can offset this extra charging time while running other errands but if you're doing serious commuting on a regular basis EVs quickly become a lousy proposition.
The worst part is that this ratio is not likely to significantly change due to physics-batteries have 20-30 *times* less energy density than hydrocarbons, EVs are already closing in on peak efficiency so as long as we're stuck with batteries we are going to be stuck with these sort of ranges and these sort of charge times. Supercapacitors might be a solution, at least when it comes to charge times, but they have significantly less energy density than even batteries so we'd have to search for chargers even more frequently, plus all the conversion would affect the current efficiency rates, plus they are inherently far more dangerous, so...
It's a hard problem that people enchanted with the 'Electric Jesus' will willfully ignore and hope that science == magic so it will somehow figure it out. It wont, over the past 100 years we invested heavily into making ICEs cleaner and more efficient and we managed to gain only ~30% in the efficiency department, mostly due to being able to make our fuels cleaner and the vast computing power we acquired over the time-but we totally negated the gains by making our cars heavier (all that added technology adds weight). There is no good reason to think that EVs, based on the current technology of battery + EM, will fare any better.
@@zwerko If you are doing a 300km commute you are spending 3h on the road, which is a lot for a commute. And it only costs you 10 seconds to plug it in at the end of the day. You could even go 600km if there is a destination charger. I dare say commutes should never be a problem. Also for road trips this should be a non-issue (if you can find a charger), after driving for 3h you deserve a 30 minute rest. But if you are a traveling salesman, it is a problem, because then a forced 30 minute break is always inconvenient.
Note that charging speed is actually significantly improving. Cars can charge at 250kw now (e.g. latest Hyundai Ionic 5), filling up the battery in 15 minutes. Good luck finding a charger with that speed, but 15 min is very reasonable. At that point it does not matter that a gas-guzzler can do it in 5 min.
@@zwerko , let's say some EV has 250km of practical range. Its owner would have to be commuting >50,000 km/year for that range to limit their commuting convenience. 200km / day for a 5 day week = 1000km. 200km is easily recharged overnight with a typical home charger (ie. not just a standard 2.4kW powerpoint), even if one commutes with a bit of a leadfoot. The 40 kWhr overnight recharge costs ~$6 at off-peak electricity rates. I fully understand EVs aren't for everyone (including their housing arrangements, and the large up-front cost), but people have to be at the extreme end of factual commuting distances for an EV to "fail" the commuting use-case. And note that all this involves exactly zero time at any public fuel station, unless that's where someone does their tyre pressures.
Used as a commuter vehicle, they're great. They can make road trips difficult, depending on where you're going. Hybrids aren't a bad option for those that road trip off the beaten path and they can still take advantage of all-electric driving for their daily grind. I'd also expect to see a lot of split vehicle households with 1 EV and 1 traditional vehicle or hybrid, at least for now until technology, price and infrastructure get better.
That's my thought too. Most households have 2 cars and it would work out OK if one was electric because you could always use the gas powered one for those long road trips.
@@kimchristensen2175 @Aleus …and I envisage ‘swap and go’ battery packs to augment chargers, particularly for motorcycle and smaller cars.
Are you speaking from experience? I do a lot of EV road trips and they aren't very difficult. I've frequently beaten friends who were driving ICE vehicles because while they were backed up at the snack-buying lineup at the only gas station on the road, I was already sitting down eating lunch at a restaurant while my car was charging. They then had to go eat lunch AFTER being stuck at the gas station, whereas I was already gone by that point in time. The time spent charging is not spent at the charger, you're free to take care of the human errands of eating, pissing, or just stretching your legs a bit while the car holds it's own electron pump. Sure, I'll grant you if you're trying to set a cannonball run record, a gas car is always going to win that race, but from what I've seen most people on road trips are really taking their time, they are stopping and meandering a lot, there's plenty of time to charge a car in that schedule.
@@Ballantrae The problem with "swap and go" is you're getting some else's crappy battery or the one you have is leased from the energy company. And you know the corp will rip you off on that lease in the long term after a few years of teaser rates.
@@0hypnotoad0 That might work for you. But I don't like hanging out at restaurants during a road trip. Either I'm camping in remote areas or I'm driving 2000Km to a destination ASAP.
Excellent!
You'll keep me entertained whilst I wait at the grommet's gymnastics.
Living hell of weekend sport. Eventually they grow up.
@@AutoExpertJC only 14 years to go until they're all 18.
May even have an EV by then.
@@AutoExpertJC I was thinking kids are finally close to not waking me up so early.
Then weekend sport knocked and said "hello champ". Anyway, better sport than TV.
I'm going to eat a lot more than two kit-kats if I'm stuck for half an hour
I have an EV that I bought just for driving around in the city. I never considered to use it to go out of Brisbane. It is an MG with only 200km of range.
I have gone from Brisbane north to Tenterfield and back (600km), home to Noosa to Sunny bank and back (400km) and various other trips and had no problems with charging. The time taken to do the trips was the same as on a petrol car (we plugged in whenever we stopped for food or breaks)
I don't drive the petrol car unless I need a car and the Mrs has taken the EV.
I will never buy an ICE car again.
And we drive far more on the EV than we ever did on the petrol car.
I expect that as more EVs are sold more chargers will be installed and the charging problem will disappear.
Your comments seem to be accurate for the Australian market. I live in Miami USA, where EV’s, mostly Teslas, are outselling most other premium combustion sedans and crossovers. I’ve owned a Tesla Model 3 for 3 years and charge it at home from a simple 240V 50A outlet I had installed at minimal cost. The Tesla charging network has expanded to where I can travel nearly anywhere in this country without having any charging range anxiety. In my opinion, those 20% of California owners who returned to combustion vehicles did so because they lacked a suitable home charging arrangement. I always tell people wanting an EV to make sure you can charge it at home. Otherwise, ownership will be a pain in the ass. My guess is that it will take Australia another 3 years to build up its EV charging infrastructure to achieve quick charging facilities along all major highways. For most Australians, hybrids will be the way to go until then.
Or buy a petrol car. I’ve met the people who use public chargers. Also the people who park the users in, block their access and vandalise the chargers.
Peasants is too kind.
I know my local servo has a pretty nasty dog under the counter. Like a dish licking version of furry razor wire. You fuck with their infrastructure and that dog will make your day very bad indeed
The latest bit of commentary from the NSW planning minister Mr. Stokes - - > "electric vehicles are heavy and 'torque-y' and create a lot of wear and tear on the roads". He also commented that the weight of EVs contributed to the amount of particulate matter they expelled... "because EVs are so heavy, those particulates from brakes and tyres can actually be more significant than from existing petrol and diesel powered vehicles."
I want to know what Mr. Stokes smoked before putting this bit of gold out there!
I should check first hand that he said what you claim (to be fair to him), but if so, it reinforces the well-established fact that politicians' technical nous is typically sub-abysmal. I reckon Josh Frydenberg is one of the most competent of our current crop, but even he managed to confuse his kW with his kWhr when he was Energy Minister.
Happy Rugby League everyone.
Thanks for the Vid John, insightful as usual. I will hold off from an EV for around 10 years as I live in a regional city in Shitsville.
There is one Tesla where I live, as I have seen it (my kids were excited when they spotted it) . Obviously a wealthy person's second vehicle to commute (makes sense) and then they will jump in the Twin Turbo V8 'cruiser to haul the boat to go fishing on the weekend.
Until they can do the range, so I can drive 1000km in a day, I won't get one. I am a bit weird, I like to drive to see the relatives in the big smoke, with the family packed with the scooters, boogie boards and maybe some camping gear chucked in for good measure.
Sure those herbal tea drinkers can increasingly buy those EVs in Shitsville's metros. Good on them they are doing their bit to use less fuel and supporting jobs in the coal mining industry, by increasing power consumption of our thermal coal stations (I believe around 75% generation).
Don't get me wrong I would love to enjoy the instant torque of an EV, but I don't want to return to the 1800s when everyone was stuck in their villages. So I will wait for these first generation owners help the EV manufacturers to use them. The mass R&D on real world performance on the herbal tea drinkers is terrific and I will wait till they can get 400km out that EV that can tow with that range.
In the mean time, I will drive this coming Christmas in my Diesel Kia Sorento to see the oldies and fuel up once on that trip down to see them. I imagine a herbal tea drinkers trying to replicate that trip, will need to take 2 to 3 days as they will need to spend more quality time at each town, as they charge up their EV. It is pleasing that they are helping our towns like that, sipping herbal tea and supporting the local economy.
Maybe, one day, I will drink herbal tea.
John! The only place I'd ever live, is a country that owns its own continent. Even if it don't have enough Electric Charging Stations.
We are very proud of Macadamia... where all the nuts come from. 😁😂😋
Not an owner yet, but several friends are, and aside from the lack of general stations for charging, some simple planning over routes that do have charging, their travels were relatively painless in their view. Times will bring more stations to give more coverage. This is just the beginning.
Yes but I think there will be growing pains as there are more and more EVs and more and more charging stations as to which number will increase the faster. I suspect that once EVs really hit the sweet spot on pricing and the numbers go up rapidly the number of charging stations initially will not keep up at least in some locations. The resultant effect on queuing times could be interesting I think.
EV Stations now at Lithgow, Bathurst and Orange :)
and heaps more. the self named expert did really sloppy work
Yep. Sounds like he knows about Chargefox but has not heard of the NRMA, who have done an excellent job with 50kW DC charging all over regional NSW.
When they get one at Miles, Wandoan, Taroom, Theodore, Banana, Mt Morgan (may have one at Rocky) and St Lawrence I might consider getting one?
Well; as a Californicator and EV owner, I feel strangely compelled to make a comment on this subject.
I purchased a 2016 Chevy Spark EV for my wife to use as a commuter car. It had about 90 miles of range new (75 miles now), enough to get to and from work... with about 7 miles to spare if she couldn't plug in at work (they have free Level 2 chargers at her office). My wife has recently left that job and now works from home and therefore no longer needs this car. Thankfully; I had the forethought of knocking her up about 17 years earlier and now have a wonderful daughter that needs a way to get to school for the next 2.5 years. I had a Level 2 charger installed when I bought the car; after all the rebates and kickbacks I received, I believe I made $20 when it was all said and done (that's not even talking about the $10k I received for buying the car). My ownership experience with this car has been... perfect. I've replaced the tires once and had to replace the regular car battery last winter. Nothing you would not expect to do after 5 years and 60k miles on any car. I've almost never had to actively think or worry about this car; it's kind of just... there.
In theory, I should be the poster child of the happy EV owner and would be expected to run to the nearest dealer with a backpack full of cash... but I'm not.
I bought my EV with a specific role in mind... get my wife to and from work as cheaply as possible. It did its job well and continues to do so for my daughter.
But; I do not have a set commute and cannot justify spending $40K+(US$) on a car I'd put 250K miles on in under 10 years and then throw it in a bin. My 2013 Hyundai Sonata is sitting at 220K right now and all in (car, fuel, all maintenance and Insurance) is still less then the purchase price a decently equipped Model 3.
So I think I'm going to be the 1 in 5 that cannot justify going at it again. Not until the price comes down to a point it's no longer a premium for a basic car.
Thanks, John, great comments. If I remember correctly, the 'out of town' availability of EV charge stations somewhat mirrors the availability of car LPG and even Unleaded when they were first introduced 'back in the day', even car diesel with the narrow nozzle. Getting the engineering right in high delivery of power at charge stations and the proliferation of these stations are going to be things to overcome for our wide brown land.
I'm looking forward to these hurdles being overcome.
Recently, Electric Jesus baptised my Model 3 and I, thus driving an EV from Dalby, QLD to Canberra, ACT (and back!) was a seamless experience, at least via the coastal route. Added bonus; stopping every 2.5 hours or so for a recharge resulted in very little fatigue meaning I completed the trip in continuous fashion, without the need for overnight stoppage. One driver. No passengers.
Are you sure Mercan charging stations are 120V? They do have 240 outlets. There's two 120V circuits per household, accomplished by tapping into the transformer half way for both neutrals. Often the laundry and kitchen have an outlet for washing machines and ovens, for example, so maybe one of those outlets in the garage, and an appropriately rated charger would be useful.
You are correct.
... and the fact that the USA is 110V is important, because the US power outlets aren't rated at twice the current. This means that in the USA, they only squeeze 6-7 km/hr into the car, rather than 13m/hr on a 230V standard wall power outlet.
Good to see that you've covered regional charging, which despite good growth, there is a way to go. Investment in regional charging is improving, but a few points that you missed:
- The NRMA (www.mynrma.com.au/cars-and-driving/electric-vehicles), RACQ (www.racq.com.au/Live/Articles/MR-090920-RACQ-powers-up-Qlds-Electric-Vehicle-Superhighway), RACV and RAA (working with Chargefox), and other states have installed or are rolling out regional rapid charging infrastructure.
- 3rd party apps/websites like PlugShare/plugshare.com list rapid chargers as well as AC chargers from smaller charging networks and public and private charge points.
- Knowing that charging can be limited in rural towns, it's worth investing in a portable equivalent of the 32A EVSE on your house, so a 32A 3 phase 5 pin outlet can be used to charge your vehicle using AC at up to 7.2 kWh for single phase onboard chargers or up to 22 kWh for 3 phase onboard chargers. 3 phase outlets tend to be listed on PlugShare, but most small towns have 3 phase at the local showground or oval. A polite request will often get you charging, even if there isn't actual EV charging infrastructure in town.
- There is a mindset change required to drive an EV. For shorter trips, you can charge at home and often won't need to charge away from home. On longer trips, you should aim to use both rapid chargers and destination chargers. If you at a track, and the Kona would have been sitting around for the few hours you were testing the i20N. It could have been charging, even from a regular outlet, during that time or faster if there was a 32A outlet, the right EVSE, and a simple request from the track owner.
It's all well and good to go touring in an EV when EVs only make up 0.7% of sales in Australia. What happens, however, as sales start to take off? You pull into a small town to recharge and there are 5 other cars queued up in front of you waiting to recharge. Suddenly you're stuck for hours and longing for the good old days and the 2 for 1 kit-kat deal!
Ask the Liberal National Party.
@@ytlurker220 What have they got to do with recharging stations for EVs?
Great question and easy answer! If electric's car sales increased dramatically companies will make more charging stations just like they did with gas powered cars.
@@krystal5887 Surely market forces will decide what cars people buy. The flavour of the month is dual cab utes. Killed off big car sales in Oz. Market forces in action.
@@marktaylor1777 not caring one bit about our electric car infrastructure, nor subsidising EVs, that's what. Australia has fallen behind the rest of the developed world.
It seems to me there are 2 benefits for Oz in having Ev's:
1. Keeping our money in Oz and not giving it to the Arabs to fund their extravagant lifestyles, and
2. While you're waiting for your EV to charge, you might go and give a struggling biz like a cafe some of your money in exchange for food.
Win-win 😁
All plastic parts in EVs are made from oil, genius.
@@miskatonic6210 Sure, but you only have to buy them once.
@@miskatonic6210 Some EVs have some fairly exotic components from what I've heard. The BMW i3 uses woven hemp on the dash and recycled plastic and god knows what
@@yggdrasil9039 Yes, but that’s only because BMW wanted to do some hypocritical corporate virtue signalling by using those materials in the i3. Other than the lithium traction battery, there is absolutely NO technical/engineering reason that the materials used in an EV should be any different to those used in a petrol/diesel.
@@Nicholas.T Yeah I agree. It's pretty silly stuff.
As a self confessed petrol head I purchased my first EV last year. After 9 months of ownership I never intend to go back to an ICE vehicle. Traditional cars just seem so old fashioned now with their gearboxes, exhaust systems, oil changes, brake wear, vibration and nasty smells. Every day I wonder why I hadn’t made the change sooner. I have a Kia Niro EV and the range is about the same as my previous ICE car (a V8 twin turbo). It’s all upside to me.
I live in Armidale -- we do have a charger here (Coles carpark). But only one right now.
just hook up to one of those fans on the hill 😁
Put one on the roof, just mind those bridge and tunnel clearances.
I have an MG zs ev and find public charging readily available here in the UK. I feel we have to move to evs even if only to stop our children sucking up noxious fumes on their way to school
england certainly moves to EV's. as i understand it fossil fuelled cars will not be sold in 2030 anymore
I live in Goulburn. I was aware of 2 sets of chargers in town. There is the NRMA one (shown in the video) at the Gateway at the northern entrance to the city. There is also a set of Tesla chargers and another non-Tesla charger at the Tourist Information Centre in Sloane St opposite Belmore Park. The number of chargers being installed around the country is increasing all the time. According to something I read or heard we once had 20K servos in Australia now we have 6K and most of those are owned by Woollies or Coles. Here is a map of all the EV charging points nation wide. Charger map - Electric Vehicle Council
Planning an EV for my next vehicle and top of the list is the Kona, so thanks John for your review and comments. My only concern at this point is the lack of charging infrastructure. To assist carbon emissions charging needs to be readily available. John, you were lucky in my opinion. I have friends that had to turnaround and go home in their Tesla - the charging points were all broken due to vandalism (oh dear).
The general trend is that most households that can afford an EV end up with two vehicles. One EV and one gas. So if you’re going beyond the city limits you take the gas one and just use the EV as a townie car.
That's great and a good idea if you part-ex'd one hydrocarbon-burner for an EV, but if you only had one car in the first place, you now have 2 cars - an environmentally retrograde step.
@@csjrogerson2377 For any married household dual vehicles is pretty much the norm here in NZ
@@csjrogerson2377 We have 3FWD, an MX5 and a cute Kia Picanto GT, for us two. Work, fun and trailing, we all got it covered. Thinking about getting an EV soon. I can't see what issue you are raising here. It feels like a vegan telling us quitting eating the flesh of dead animals, I don't get it!
@@csjrogerson2377 Shhh! Stop talking about facts! :)
@@roscomckaig523 Ok, in which case a good idea.
When you go away for a long weekend, the first charging station will be busy as fuk!
There's an Australian ev channel complaining about an tesla owner simply icing the ev charger for 3 hours he had to wait for them to come back to move their tesla.
As there more and more evs you won't be able to use ev chargers as car parks
If EV’s are the normal form of transport, it won’t need to be a long weekend to make it hard to find a charging station. It will be “the new normal”.
Not that I own one currently, but if I did, it'd have to be part of a 2 car fleet with the other being ye-olde ICE. If I only had room for one car, I'd probably rule out an EV at this moment in time.
EV Charging Station Rage. Should be good for a laugh..
Nicely explained.in the"states" the have also 208 and 440 volts.alltogether it comes down to proper info and the attitude to the EVs.
Can't go via Tamworth? Free NRMA 50kW fast DC charging is there. Recharging across regional NSW is actually pretty good, thanks to NRMA. Check PlugShare.
First EV (Tesla) in 2014. Never looked back. Replaced it 4.5 years later with another Tesla In 2018. I further entrenched myself with a third Tesla on the same date (in 2018) trading in two 16+ year old ICE vehicles. Now have a Cybertruck reservation to replace a 2001 Ford F-150 Crew. It’s been a good truck over its 367,000 miles and hope it will stay together until CT arrival. It is the last before we’re all electric!
John, you have highlighted a very important factor here. I live in Perth on the west coast and I'm quite interested in EVs. If I look at a map of WA it seems like there are heaps of chargers in lots of places, but if I drill down into the info about them, a large proportion are owned by motels and similar businesses, and my impression is that you can't even use them unless you are staying at the motels, or whatever. I'd be happy to be corrected on that, but that just wouldn't work for me. I get it that if these people have paid to out the charger in then they want it to drive business to them, but I really think they have to take a wider view. I'd be happy to pay for the power, of course. The other problem is that chargers get very thin on the ground north of about Geraldton, so I wouldn't have any confidence to do a big drive up north in an EV. Our RAC in WA is being quite proactive in this area and has put in quite a lot of chargers, but mostly in the south-west and it all still has a long way to go. This supports my belief that in the EV world, Straya IS a bit - well, "different". Outside of the main cities, the distances between places quickly get very long, much more so than in most other countries. So I won't be an EV buyer until (a) the prices come down considerably from the current stratospheric levels, and (b) the charging infrastructure gives me enough confidence that I could get where I want to go. And (sadly) that might mean never, because I'm too old to be waiting very long! :-)
Apparently that survey included plug-in hybrids. Painful filling up 2 separate 'tanks'
It was also before many cars with a decent range came out.
The past isn't a good indicator of the future.
Bolt owner here... I wouldn't go back to ICE... Oh, and I also own a Corvette which I most likely turn into a Tesla.
No thanks! Living & working in regional Oz years ago, I went through all this BS with a gas only Falcon Wagon. Continually back-tracking 100s of Kms to get fuel or turning up at the only gas bowser in town, only to find it faulty convinced me that petrol or diesel are really the only options in regional OZ. Things are going to have to change dramatically before I would ever consider an EV.
I hear what you're saying, but keep in mind that there are already millions more power points on this continent than service stations. The practical challenge is getting charge stations that dish out energy at a more useful rate than a power point. Far from rocket science, and much tamer than LPG infrastructure. Not saying you're wrong for your use-case (and many others as well), but even at John C's Dingo Piss Creek Glampground they will have a (very slow) power point to keep an EV mobile.
Another great video together with practical comments on the logistics of EV ownership. Once the hurdle of vehicle costs are achieved it really is the lack of charges around the country. I’m sticking to my light weight small Vitara LY Turbo even with 95 RON fuel. It’s reliable and economical. With 18 k/pl around the city and up to 21.5 k/pl on a flat freeway without a load the virtues of EV ownership are not even being considered until way off into the future.
240v is available in US homes @John, usually 30 to 50amps, depending.
Houses are fed with 240v 2phase (180 deg) and it's center tapped to get the 120 for standard GPOs.
There are a lot of weird plugs though for 240v, not quite as standardised as Oz.
I semi reluctantly purchased what I consider my final petrol powered car this week. I'm ready for my next car to be an EV, but Australia simply isn't. As EV sales pick up in Australia the lack of infrastructure support will become self evident and since for reasons that defy common sense the right of politics has made anything related to renewable energy a partisan issue, I can do without the hysterics as policy and common sense fights the Federal LNP's breathtaking gas fired stupid. Eventually they will come around, but its got all the signs of being Australia's next NBN fiasco in the process. As someone who works in IT, I am also very cautious of being a 1.0 user for many mainstream brands and would rather they shake down the tech and look at them again, when they are on to their second or third model iteration with this tech and besides, the car will be cheaper or have better range by then for the money. That all said, I am looking forward to the day when the EV is parked next to my V8 classic in the driveway.
Waiting for when I can recharge on the Gibb River Road, then I am up for buying an EV yessssssss.
About to cross the Simpon desert again. Not sure I'll see any EVs at Birdsville, for some reason. Which is fine by me.
The one in five electric car owners in California who plan to return to the ICE is most probably an apartment dweller without an in house plug in facility. With solar panels on the roof and a level 2 charging port, there’s seldom a reason for visiting a charging station. On a recent trip from Laguna Niguel (Orange County) to Palm Springs, our daughter drove our Tesla Model 3 280 miles without recharging
The survey goes back to 2012, that was a long time ago
Yes, love my model3...love driving the car. In The Netherlands, infrastructure is great. The 'level2' AC public chargers (11kW) help out lots when shopping of visiting some place of entertainment.
In general western Europe had pretty nice DC fast charging networks, even for the non Tesla drivers.
I rent a Hybrid for long trips... once in five years. Our biggest issue in the USA is there is no standardization for EV charging and no one seems to want to solve that problem. Waiting for an eTruck with the range to pull my Travel Trailer.
I think PHEVs are a good stop-gap for regions while we get our very patchy network up to scratch. They are good for city drivers who want to head out of the city in the same car they commute to work in during the week, and don't want to worry about range anxiety. My only quibble with PHEVs as they are produced at the moment is the range is always just a bit too short. Most mostly have only 40-60km max whereas many people driving in our cities easily do 80-100km to get to work and back in a day. Bumping up the battery from 9kWh to about 15kWh would easily be enough to cover this.
I’m a bit surprised the sole focus is still on an up front price differential, rather than a total cost of ownership comparison. In Pomville, or Brexshitsville if you prefer, a simple lease cost comparison on a comparison site like carwow quotes a £75 per month lease cost difference over a four year lease (essentially the lease company’s expected depreciation plus interest) between an entry level VW Golf and ID3 EV (about £275 pm vs £350pm). £75 is basically a tank and a half’s worth of petrol based on average U.K. petrol prices and a VW Golf tank of 40-50 litres. And that’s despite the 50% higher up front price difference.
I have owned an EV for just over 2 years, and just love it. It is an Ioniq EV ( 2019 model ) with an effective range of 200 km with the AC/Heating turned on. I would definitely get another EV when the time comes. I must admit that I got this EV after watching your video ( ruclips.net/video/STWlx_k-YvQ/видео.html ) . I got it because I WANTED it, even though the economics of EV ownership does not quite add up (as you keep pointing out). 95% of my driving is under 50km round trips, though I have occasionally used public charges on longer trips. As you say, travelling to regional towns off the main routes is kinda out. The best I have done is Sydney to Nowra, and Sydney to Newcastle, If I want to travel to a place where my range anxiety starts to kick in I simple use my ICE vehicle.
I charge using the 240V/10A charger at home and at work, I have never bothered with installing a charger at home as the Ioniq charges from near empty to full overnight on 2.2Kw "granny" changer. It I upgrade to an EV with a bigger battery, I would consider getting a changer installed at home.
Kinda same situation here in the US. Montana, Wyoming, North/South Dakota... good luck, unless you have a Tesla.
A workaround that I tried in the past in the US: Use a RV park, they'll often let you charge there at their 240v/50A circuit(s) with an aftermarket portable charger. Slower than DCFC but helluva lot faster than a regular wall socket. I'm not sure if that works in Australia.
Nowadays I just rent a gas guzzler for any long distance trip, much less stress and anxiety. And it saves a good 20% travel time that I'd otherwise have wasted with a charge stop in the boonies. Futhermore, range can decrease a lot if you have headwind, bad weather, let the A/C or heat run etc.pp.
While I lived somewhere without home charging I had to use public charging. It's absolutely NOT fun to waste several hours every week sitting around in some shit-ass parking lot in the middle of nowhere, summer and winter. The utility of public charging is pretty overrated. DCFC is expensive to build, making them rare. Level 2 is far cheaper, but only feasible at locations you spend a lot of time. Restaurants, trail heads, parks, whatever.
Even now that I can charge at home, I utterly despise the Kona EV. I'll never ever buy another EV in my life and will tell anyone who asks that they're useless junk.
Australia's power is all 240v/50hz. That's what we have in our homes.
@@craigleverenz Ah good! Same in most of Europe I think. The question is what kind of watt-hours a household circuit can deliver. Frequency of the AC circuit (i.e. Hz) doesn't matter too much regarding charge speed.
Germany usually pairs 16A fuses with their 220V household circuits, which means about 3.6kW/h max., theoretically. That's a 20h charge time from empty to full.
In the US, RV campgrounds (and some homes, for dryers) usually have a 220V/30A circuit, i.e. max around 6.6kW/h - charging the Kona for example from zero to full in ~10h. If there's a 50A circuit, delivering a max of 11kW/h, a full charge would be ~6h.
Realistically you're not supposed to max the circuit. At my current home I have a 220V/30A circuit, but only charge at ~24A.
Challenge accepted, today we took my Outlander PHEV on a (approximately) 60km trip. That's beyond the EV range. So, put it in 'Save' mode and drive about 8 km to the motorway. At some time it starts the ICE, (won't do that at full charge, but it has warmed up a bit) then use Adaptive Cruise Control and just go with the flow. Later, off the motorway, just let it decide what to do. The ICE has got up to normal operating temperature and hopefully purged water and dilutants from the oil.
On the way home, we stop for lunch and plug in to a free charger (zero cost to use, not just available, but free parking in a popular city location). Not a DC Fast charger, but a 'maximum I can use' AC thing. We go to lunch at our favourite Korean BBQ restaurant. (My wife is Korean and it's our anniversary. What can I say? ) then drive home using Motorway, cruise, with a couple of times having to "Boot it" for merging lanes or whatever, but the ICE is already warm so I don't Give a Shit, and get home with about 12km EV range left (and that was free). I love this car!
Yeah I think PHEVs are a great option. As are Korean wives!
Love your work Johno
I think what this points out is that regional Australia is going to become isolated and be stuck with higher prices in the long run when petrol or diesel becomes heavily taxed overseas. When everyone is driving electric cars or the only new cars that are coming out are electric as manufacturers are already not investing in the ICE anymore, no one is going to want to visit these regional towns because they can't. Then it'll be a game of catch up building the infrastructure as it always is here.
Macas will roll the charge into a meal deal. Extra cheesburger if you stay for the a full charge 😁
I'll have french fries and a coke with that. 😁😋
They’ll need a s#@t load of chargers and way bigger carparks. ‘Chaos to go’…or not.
In the US, their standard mains power outlets only provide about 1800w at 120v which kinda sucks if you are nowhere near a proper charging station.
Be interesting to see the next Cali survey. The charging infrastructure has grown exponentially.
I'm in Canada (but am an Aussie so can empathize with how you are all dealing with such massive levels of corruption), and drive a model 3. I've taken many long drives - Australian distances are normal here - and never had a problem. Never.
Mostly that's thanks to the supercharging network, but we also have copious free chargers. Luckily in my part of Canada all of those electrons are solar, and have been for decades so pollution is also negligible. I'd never go back to petrol, though I understand when dealing with corruption why someone would be compelled to.
This was the major reason I went for a cheap Kia as I want to go to Adelaide, Townville and maybe Cairns from Toowoomba. We have one charging station in town but on reasearching there is vertually nothing between Toowoomba and Adelaide open to the general public. Most seem to be at motels and guest houses.
how can you be so wrong. have a look in plug share.
Hi there 2dogs. You must not have looked too hard at the available charging infrastructure to come to that conclusion. As Urs said... Plugshare would have shown you can easily get an EV from Toowoomba to Adelaide or Cairns. However, those distances suggest an EV with a long range would be best, which is sure going to be far more expensive than a cheap Kia. To Adelaide would be easier via the New England than Newell - although last time I was in Goondiwindi, some cafe had a Kale Smoothie on their menu, so an EV charger must be coming soon.
It reminds me of when I got my car that runs on premium unleaded only back in 94. Sure, in the city it was fine, but if I wanted to do a longer trip I had to try and find out which towns had premium, and the internet wasn't as helpful back then. But things change and it became more common and now you don't even think of checking. The same will happen with EVs and chargers. At the moment they are rare and limiting (although at least an EV CAN charge on a standard outlet, if you ran out of premium you were stuffed) but given some time they will become ubiquitous.
I think it would be better for the government to provide assistance for installing chargers rather than handouts to people buying the EVs. The chargers will help everyone eventually.
Hey John. I live in Broken Hill and needed to travel to Adelaide. The only way I could do it was via Mildura that had 2 NRMA Chargers, Berri that had 1 NRMA charger and a top up in Tanunda with 1 NRMA charger, then Adelaide. So what would have been a 5 1/2 hour trip direct BH to Adelaide ended up two days because of the lack of chargers.
Adelaide-BH = 520km.
Tesla Model S LR - no charge needed from full, so you could drive without stopping.
Kona Electric - one charge midway needed. Would add about 40-50 minutes to your trip, but probably that would be the time you had lunch.
Other models are coming in 2022 that can do around 500km as I hear.
@@yggdrasil9039 I understand what you are saying but after one year of owning an EV I wont travel that far on one charge. Broken Hill to Clare is 399km, yes there is a supercharger and yes I have a long range Model 3 but its too close to the wire. Range on an EV depends on weight , headwind, speed and rain. Technically I could drive straight to Clare from Broken Hill but any number of things can impact the ultimate distance per charge.
What you really need is a charge point every 200Km. Top ups are really quick. What you need is a charge between 20 - 80% its fast and you are on your way. If a car company says the distance is 550Km then its really 450 depending on weather
@@Brockybearboy I once (deliberately) skipped a charging station in a P100D returning from Albury/Wodonga to Melbourne. Got back to Richmond in Melbourne with less than 5km of range. Fortunately, plenty of hills meant opportunity for recouping some kinetic energy. But I imagine there aren't many slopes between Broken Hill and Adelaide...
@@yggdrasil9039 What I have learnt so fay, if the manufacturer say 550Km range then 350 is reality. My Tesla Model 3 rated at 550 but this figure does not take into count elevation, head winds, weight in the car and speed. I can maximise my distance by not exceeding 140 wh/km thats about 100kph. No way would I go 400km without a charge at 200k
@@Brockybearboy A charging station every 200km would be ideal, 100%. This is what we should be spending our money on, not $2.5B for fuel reserves.
Great video as usual John. FYI, there is the Plugshare App as well, which covers [all] other charging options, whilst I believe (without being 100% sure) the ChargeFox App only covers their own chargers. So if you were in Narromine, Dubbo is currently the closest fast public charger.
On owning an EV generally, I swapped a well-cherished Gen-F GTS for a Mobile Electric Jesus and haven't been disappointed for a moment. Once I could no longer buy Australian made cars, then at least I can now buy Australian power and stop funding our "friend" Mohammed Bin Salman and his collection of well oiled lobbyists in Canberra. The performance is... electric... and it's been on quite a few regional road trips including 1400km Sydney to Mt Hotham, return. Effective range is much less than the sticker if one drives like a normal person (which I knew before buying), but the charging process is exactly as painless as you say. I'm very pragmatic on these issues (also an engineer = no evangelist)... but chances of returning to petrol/diesel
I love your way with words Dear John, it's a joy to watch and hear you bla bla away in suggestive lingo, sorry but i am Dutch so don't fuck me over because of my gramma, trying my best, thanks for the laugh and tea over my keyboard.🤣
When staying at a caravan park in Uralla NSW I arrived back at my site to discover a Tesla sitting in the next site, hooked up to 240V. Apparently he does this regularly, because it's the only way he can complete his trip to Tamworth.
There are fast chargers in Tenterfield, Glen Innes and Armidale. So unless, he's being cheap or it's simply a convenient place to both stop overnight (despite being so close to Tamworth) and simultaneously recharge the car, he must be an outlier if it's the "only way" he can complete his trip to Tamworth. Even if he is coming from Port Macquarie, the car's battery must either be worn out or he uncompromisingly wants to fang it if he's going to detour overnight via Uralla to get to Tamworth. Maybe it's a specific model of old Tesla with not much range from an already small battery, or perhaps he lives north of Yetman and doesn't like Armidale. Either way, a distant outlier from the norm if that's the "only way".
Having lived remote and regional for the last 17 years, yep, I will stick with my dirty old 100 series "pov pack".
That's fair for now, but I give it ten years and you'll be ogling a second hand Hummer EV!
@@howardhughestoo Ha, if I last ten years, and with 615,000 klm and not using a drop of oil, ya can't beat that reliability. I would love to hear of any current vehicle with that many Ks still on the original engine.
There is two chargers at Lithgow just at the western side of blue mountains at the workman’s club. If you dare to visit. If you do track suits are essential if your not into getting ran out of town.
my kind of town. comfort over style
That's not true, I have lunch there now and then, I fit in just fine in shorts and T-shirt.
@@stever285 that because your lunching/dating with your sister and that sort of thing rolls in that neck of the woods.
@@rogerramjet4997 My sister has better taste than to date me, but your not wrong about Lithgow.
I wonder if those who run their fuel tank on empty and then run out in peak hour traffic will do the same when they eventually by an EV.
I suspect you already know the answer Ronald. Yes. It will also be the new excuse for being late to work. Sorry, I forgot to charge my car last night.
@@WorksOnMyComputer Or we had a blackout overnight so couldn't charge the car.
.
Agree the plug-in hybrid is a compelling solution for Australian city drivers at the moment.
John, my question is for how long will we have a choice of automotive technology? With the northern hemisphere, “where cars are made”, rapidly abandoning any ICE powered passenger car by 2030’s, are we all in Slow-Mo-ville going to be stranded with over priced shit box Toy-motor pretend trucks?
Never heard of NRMA chargers? Dubbo, Parkes, Mudgee, Orange, Bathurst and even Coonabarabran, all have chargers if you are travelling from Narromine. While they are only 50kw chargers, at present they are FREE! Sure West of Dubbo to Broken Hill is a stretch for now, but this will only continue to improve in the future. I'm sure when the first model T's rolled off the assembly line there was no petrol station in Cobar, but I bet there was a Cobb and Co station.
The 20% return rate to ice should be no surprise. Except for Tesla the companies will happily sell you the vehicles without any attempt to create or support charging infrastructure.
With the average range of EVs at the moment, I'd need to recharge every 2 - 3 days over night. For the once or twice a year that I'd drive more than a single charge in a day, I could live with the recharging pause on the journey. The problem is, my Qashqai 1.5L does around 4.5L/100 average - down to around 3.5L on a long run at a steady 80km/h - and is still going strong and is paid for. I'd love to switch to an EV, but the price of a new vehicle is just not justifiable at the moment.
Solved the remote EV travel conundrum years ago. Just tow a trailer with a diesel Genset in it & recharge while you drive. As long as regional towns have a servo for diesel your good to go anywhere.
I’d have thought this much was obvious. 🙄😜😂😂👍🇦🇺
Hahahaha!! And put a wind turbine on the roof; it can generate a couple of amps at high road speeds to boot! :)
@@markh.6687 Of course the roof mounted turbine & solar panels on the roof are obligatory accessories with EV’s.
That the first rule of Electric Jesus worship.
You asked.... Ive not found it a problem, but i do have a 100kwh tank of electrickery . And I can add all the tesla chargers to my options, if I’m heading regional, its almost always with the wife for the weekend and we choose accommodation somewhere with a destination charger. Ive also stayed plenty of places with just a wall plug. I don’t enjoy trying to do Melbourne to Sydney in one day, so I break it up, and I’d do that if it was a ICE age vehicle anyway. I often find people think of some bum fArk no where place and say, but you cant get there. And they have never been themselves when you ask. Chargefox is great, but PlugShare is a better friend to have on your side. Cheers John
Unless I move to someplace off the beaten path (or the folks I drive long distance to visit do), I'm never going back to an ICE. EJ's network in the states works (and as a nightowl, if the network gets too crowded, I'll just drive when the rest of you are sleeping).
Many of the CA folks probably bought an EV because of tax incentives- a car that is a bit more effort to drive is probably worth a net gain of a few thousand.
We're heading towards a time when you will have to join a 6-12 month waiting list to get an EV if you want one.
Plus the same amount of time to get one charged!
7 Kms. per Kg. of coal. That's pretty good economy. Now if we do the math on the emissions...
#UtterRubbish.
@@danieldebreceny5683 How many kilometers per kilo is it? I was just pulling numbers out of thin air. It's roughly 8 km to the kg. in a Tesla, isn't it? Are the Hyundai's far more efficient, are they?
Hi John,
I know as always I’m late to the party, working and family just get in the way. I have a 2014 Outlander PHEV, a 2004 Prius and an even older Mercedes sports car. I keep my cars for a long time because “we will never consume our way to saving the planet”. The Mercedes is a toy so we will ignore that as a transport device. I’m 60 years old or near enough, I don’t expect I’ll be buying too many more vehicles given what I said earlier. Being a 2 car household, and as I don’t see us going to just 1 car my thoughts are to replace both cars by going 2 different ways, love diversity.
I’m thinking a full electric for local running around, we live 85km from Adelaide and within 110km of most family so a Kona electric or Ionic would fit the bill. The other car would be a diesel towing vehicle because we are inclined to tour towing an acoustically transparent aluminium shitta, yes I know it’s illogical, around the place. I’m not crazy about utes, I drive one at work and I hate that everything in the back gets covered in dust every time I drive on a dry dirt road. I’m thinking fourtuner, Everest or Pajero Sport.
So a full electric because I love the driving dynamic of an electric car, but a diesel tow tug, because the towing range of electric from my experience is about 50 to 60% of not towing range. Experiencing the inconvenience of stopping to refill a 45 litre tank with 35 litres of fuel every 2 and a bit hours has convinced me that for now electric towing over any distance is currently not practical.
Loving the show. I’m thinking that being late to the party may result in my contribution not making the cut, but also reduces my chance of having the piss taken for my grade 5 grammatical and spelling fails.
Cheers,
Pat Sparks
Timely - my friends are just now recharging their EQC at Cooma, on the way back from the Snowies. I've suggested they pass the time by watching this video.
Harsh. They'd need to watch twice...
Or they could watch informative videos like "Elon Musk: Charlatan selling snake oil" (multipart series, available on Auto Expert)
This is one of the reasons I didn’t commit this time around, along with still being a bit too far out of my budget for a car with good range......so I went with a new petrol SUV instead with near 800km range.
I often these days need to do a 3-4 hour one way drive for work before I can stop for some time, so for now they just wouldn’t cut it.
Think things will be different when I look at get rid of this one in 5 years time.
We use a Honda E for round town and only ever charge it at home on an 11KW 3 phase Zappi (limited by the car - the Zappi can charge at 22KW) or the granny charger the E came with (overnight for that one).
I love the way it drives compared to a dinosaur-jizz burner and I'm now seriously considering chopping in our diesel XC90 for a Kia EV6 either later this year or sometime next. Public charging in Brexitpotamia and Europistan is far from perfect, but it generally works OK once you get the apps sorted (there are several to choose from) and with the EV6's 500(ish)ks of range I don't foresee any major charging issues.
There were chargers near the train station. In Goulburn that is.
To fix the EV issue in Australia, build them like a Dewalt, Makita or Ozito- pull up unclip the battery - re insert the charged one and go - or just buy a Diesel
They tried. It failed. Another company tried, it failed (but they still won some BS Award). There’s a mob currently trying to do it with Trucks now between Sydney/Melb/Bris. It’s in trouble already. It will fail.
Geez......you need to inform yourself properly, Mr. Car Expert. Golburn has a Tesla Supercharger also. A good app to locate charging points is Plugshare. Easier and quicker to use is the Chargefox RFID card. You are completely wrong about NSW inland charging. Of course you can go the New England highway. There is a free NRMA fast charger every 100km. To the existing 40 NRMA chargers now 20 more will be added soon. From Narromine you just drive 20km to Dubbo and fast charge on the NRMA charger for free. FFS. Dubbo and Bathurst both have NRMA and Superchargers. My EV can charge 22kW 3 phase which can be done at caravan parks or show grounds. 1 hour gives you 130km. I can travel to anywhere in NSW and I'm currently planning an inland trip from Coonabarabran (yes a fast charger here too) to Longreach. Apart from Chargefox there are other networks too and of course the ever growing Tesla Supercharger network where my car can charge for free. 7 year old Tesla with 300.000km, 1st battery, all good. Things EV are way better than many people (incl. JC ) in Australia think they are.
Agreed. A lot of fear-mongering. If an oil spike occurs then the same fudsters will all be bitterly complaining why there was not more support for EVs earlier on.
eBike 500watt hub brushless motor, 48 volt 15 amp hour battery good for 40-50kms range, no peddling required @15kph
Check NRMA charges network. I used from Sydney to Byron Bay.
Very nice.
What is the life of these ev batteries over time , how much do they deplete . Also what cost is there when batteries need replacement ? Most Aussie family's cannot keep replacing their cars because of the cost of ev vehicles. Thank you for a great insight into ev's
I own an Ioniq in TAS, and when first purchased over a year ago there was hardly any charging infrastructure. Now there is enough to travel around most of the state, but still places that could do with more. Still need a second car that is ICE for some things.
Having 2 cars I would always have one as an EV now. Occasionally driving a petrol car just makes me want to go back to an EV.
Only issue with the Ioniq is charge rate. Next EV I don't need much more range, just faster charging. Ioniq works well in TAS, but would not be the best in Mainland Aus.
The chicken and the egg conundrum.
Should we have fast chargers everywhere first? Thereby encouraging increased uptake of electric vehicles.
Or, do we need more electric vehicles first? Requiring the wider roll out of fast chargers because there are more electric vehicles using them.
Both at the same time
Simply, drivers who drive long distances in country Australia, are very unlikely to purchase electric vehicles until fast chargers are common in country towns.
Excluding government funded chargers. No investors are going to fund fast chargers in country Australia, until the can reasonably expect a return for their investment. This of course requires more electric vehicles to be sold and those electric vehicles travel through country Australia.
As I said the chicken and the egg conundrum.
In my opinion fast chargers have to come first. But this will require government funding, because investors will not be convinced that investing in fast chargers in country Australia will provide a decent return.
@@auPython I don't think we need to stress too much about it - it will just happen, as a progression of what's already been happening. Currently very few people own EVs in Oz, but there is already quite a substantial charging infrastructure. Unsurprising... the electricity grid covers the continent, including Dingo Piss Creek, and the incremental cost/difficulty of high powered charging is less than the capital cost of a [new] petrol station or LPG tank. The chickens and eggs will just happen at the same time. I won't be surprised if some petrol stations eventually start adding chargers themselves, despite being "the competition". Even more opportunity to sell high-profit extras compared to the small margins made selling fuel or electricity. Captive audience for longer time.
John yes I will trade my ev on and buy new ev
I travel up and the coast of QLd all the time and have no problem with the Chargefox charges.
the auto expert casually forgot to mention the NRMA network. and the new crt network in victoria. i would have expected more from this self named expert. i mean this fellow had this kona for a year. nor did he mention the plug share app. nor does he mention the evie network. nor does he mention you can get rfid cards for those networks.
sloppy work at best.
The EU new car sales data so far this year shows PHEVs now outselling full EVs, the natural response to the disorganised amongst us who want EV without marooning ourselves at Potaroo Poo ck. Loving my 3mth old Outlander PHEV.