Excellent point regarding shopping James, something I have overlooked for year's. I spent quite a bit of time with family out west, and as you mention you shop for a few week's at a time and seldom need to go into town. My family were doing this in the 70's and 80's when I had my sandy, and we survived. It was one of the most enjoyable time's I had actually, I love living out west.
"Proud To Be An Old Fart".
Lots of good points, and reflections, and I wondered too about fosile fuel conversion and still do. Speed from this electric car is impressive though (I'm sure it cant tow - but I wouldnt tow in an rx7/8 either). And I wouldnt buy one anyway but the tech i thunk does give a reason - 0 to 100 in 3.4!
BTW if the ACT Government forecasts are to be believed (not always advisable) the ACT willl be off fossil fuel for electricity generation by 2020. It doesnt all come from the snowy hydro here any more and they've been working on it for about 8 years. For a small poulation thats quite possible now, but, theres a lot here with decent cash (not me though) and heaps of em put on P/V solar on the roof, etc, back to the grid, on the various deals of cashback. There is now enough solar electricity being generated it threatens the longstand of the Govt owned ACTEW electricity utility company if solar installations continue. They have weighed in hard to slow it down and buy a share of the solar conversion market. This is despite the very bleak winter of this region (5 months of the year in grey).
Dont get me wrong I like cars and I like petrol, and I wondered about that charging cycle too but, P/V panels are getting better and I think its not too far off before you can charge a car like this on phase 3 with mostly no fossil fuel energy. I dunno if I like it for motoring, but I'd like to have a look and see.
Last edited by SLR_dave; 15-03-2015 at 06:18 AM. Reason: inernet explorer too old
Electric cars at the moment aren't about saving the environment, they're about developing the technology to the point where they can be competitive with petrol cars and convenient for everyday use. Acceptance into society is the biggest hurdle for them but once the tech has developed to introduce fast charge super capacitors and such, the benefits of electric vehicles will be huge. I've driven a few, and ridden the Zero electric motorcycle and if I had the money I'd have electric vehicles as daily drivers. ACT did start to implement public charging stations but the excitement and cost of the stupid train seems to have killed that program.
I agree it will improve, but until solar panels can get power from the moon there will always need to be some sort of alternative even if it is simply storage of some sort. The peak solar conversion time (something like 90% or so) is roughly 10am-3pm unless you can track the sun with the panels. The Snowy hydro works well for peak demand periods, and they purchase fossil fuel generated power at night during off-peak periods (cheap) and pump the water back up to the top dam ready for peak generation again. I've also stood there watching some of the machines operating as synchronous motors with the excitation set so that they are importing reactive power - effectively acting as power factor correction for a large part of the State.Originally Posted by SLR_dave
Very interesting to think one day we will be buying electric cars. I think the path is in super capacitors and the development of them. We will always need some kind of fossil fuel for other goods, but to break the dependancy of fossil fuels for transport would be great.
Some good thoughts in here. I will add one point regarding charging, Tesla are also building battery swap service stations, where you can get you battery swapped out in around 90 seconds. Check this video out.
That's it for me exactly. I don't think they are competitive in the "how do they drive across the Nullarbor" or "can they tow a fifth wheeler around" but in the commuter market. I think they are certainly a better choice for cars sitting idling in heavy traffic burning fuel away.
It might take some fossil fuels to produce the electricity but we are not buying it off some other country and putting it in a ship and bringing it here.
Like with the solar rebate there should be incentives to buy one with low registration so they can be a second car.
Mauser
Last edited by mauser; 15-03-2015 at 02:12 PM.
“485650 HQ's cant be wrong...”
“You don’t drive a Kingswood, you make love to it. That’s why nuns only drive Toranas.” - Ted Bullpitt
Exactly, they are the way of the future. The not too distant future also, charging station's are starting to appear around here on the coast.
Last edited by Robbo; 15-03-2015 at 03:32 PM.
"Proud To Be An Old Fart".
I think you'll find that some sort of extremely efficient internal or even external combustion will be what we have also, just not invented or economical yet. Will be an interesting next 20 years if we make it there!
I can't see why people in cities can't have have or make use of s public transport system more efficiently. Go for a drive in Sydney at peak hour and take notice of how many cars actually have more than one person in them. That's the real problem. Stop building 7 bedroom McMansions on blocks 40km away from where the work site is. Higher density housing would eliminate a huge amount of wasted energy. And truth be known, that is the answer to city smog which is the sign of wasted fossil fuels.
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