http://www.canberratimes.com.au/nat...ng-up-with-electric-cars-20170430-gvvq6a.html
Yup, and Australia appears to be lagging.... just like with the Rugby...
...maybe we will let you have the Bledisloe this year..........
Charging to the future - but are our governments keeping up with electric cars?
Electric vehicles offer plenty of public benefits but, without coordinated policy and infrastructure, Australia will lag the world.
While environmental factors may have originally motivated many of the people who bought electric vehicles, they've since found they also save money on everyday costs, such as fuel and maintenance. The benefits of electric cars extend to governments and the public, too, and their broad uptake will lead to healthier, wealthier communities.
The most obvious benefits begin at the exhaust pipe: electric vehicles don't have one. No tailpipe means not only no carbon dioxide but also no sulphurous oxides, nitrous oxides, ammonia or particulate matter. These each affect human health, generally our respiratory system, and can lead to cancers, heart disease and other serious illnesses. Megacities around the world, such as Beijing, Paris and London, are developing electric-vehicle policies that address these other emissions to provide good-air quality to their citizens as well as to reduce carbon dioxide. It's a win-win.
Play Video
Tesla deliveries zoom to record
The luxury electric car maker delivered 69 per cent more vehicles in the first quarter than a year ago.
Of course, the fuel used is just as important. Petrol contains benzene, which is known to cause cancer. Electric cars that are currently powered by grid electricity in NSW are still associated with gas and coal emissions, which again include those that affect local air quality and health. On the other hand, in the ACT, the government's support of renewable energy means that electric travel in Canberra will be green from 2020.
Driving on electricity is cheaper than petrol, particularly in the ACT. Photo: Angel Navarrete
An NRMA report in 2015 said 90 per cent of Australia's petrol and diesel at the time came from overseas, up from 60 per cent in 2000. This change in the market means less security in supply. The price of fuel depends on global markets and is heavily influenced by international events. Electricity can be generated in Australia using our natural resources – the sun and wind – and balanced using pumped hydro-energy storage, which would allow prices to be more stable.
The apparent inconvenience due to the time an electric vehicle takes to recharge has been widely discussed. Refilling an empty battery from a normal household plug can take 12 hours, whereas dedicated home units take half that time, and the high power public ones take half an hour to charge to 80 per cent – which translates to a 384-kilometre range in the base Tesla, or 108km in the Nissan Leaf now available in Australia.
Yet all electric cars will have a longer range as battery technology improves and becomes cheaper. Range affects people driving on a long trip, but a normal commute in the ACT is less than 40kms – a quick recharge at the end of the day.
Every house and duplex has plugs connected to the electricity supply, which could be used to juice up an electric vehicle. They can also be retrofitted into public and private car parks. Around the world, IKEA, as well as restaurants and shopping centres, are installing electric-car chargers to encourage customers to spend time in store. This type of "incidental" charging at home and at destinations means people don't need to stop to fill up on the way home. So while recharging takes longer than refuelling, the driver doesn't need to stay physically with the car.
Tesla's Model 3, which will be mass-produced, affordably priced and available in Australia. Photo: Troy Harvey
Driving on electricity is cheaper than petrol, particularly in the ACT, which has lower electricity prices than other states and territories. However, charging from a rooftop solar photovoltaic installation can be even cheaper – a dedicated system installed to charge the car would cost 1c per kilometre over the life of the system. Maintenance costs are also lower – up to $1000 less over 12 services.
Driver preference is subjective, but the immediate acceleration and better weight distribution due to the battery-pack placement means many people find electric cars more fun to drive. The drive is also much quieter inside and out. Noise pollution from a car depends on the speed, because tyre and wind noise dominate when the car travels more quickly. Highway noise is about the same in an electric vehicle, but drives in suburban streets are quieter. Some people worry about this, and laws have been passed to mandate that electric cars make a noise at low speeds to protect children, the elderly and other vulnerable people.
The biggest barrier to buying an electric vehicle in Australia at the moment is the high purchase price. They are simply too expensive for most people. Yet cheaper models will be available soon. Tesla is releasing its Model 3 this year ($US35,000, about $A47,000), and more than 6000 were reserved by Australians before the car has even been manufactured. General Motors has released its Bolt, with a price of $US37,495, but there are no plans to sell this in Australia because the company does not see this as a viable market.
However, more and more public chargers are being installed, by private companies, government, utilities and through motor clubs. Other infrastructure depends on each company – Nissan and BMW sell and maintain their vehicles from their shopfronts and service centres, but Tesla only has shopfronts and service centres in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide (a new centre is also planned for Brisbane). The first Sydney store only opened in June 2016.
Norway has free road and ferry tolls for electric cars, tax exemptions, free bus-lane access and free parking.
Other countries have much larger fleets than the 3000 or so electric vehicles now in Australia. In January this year, 50 per cent of new cars sold in Oslo, Norway, were either an electric or a plug-in hybrid, partly due to strong and stable government support. Norway has free road and ferry tolls for electric cars, tax exemptions, bus-lane access and free parking. Other areas with high electric-vehicle uptake use similar mechanisms – for example, California provides a federal and state electric-car subsidy, as well as free carpool-lane access. Thirty cities in the United States have placed a combined bulk order for their local government cars, police cruisers, fire trucks and other vehicles, to save money. China offers subsidies, and its government supports many local electric-car makers.
In Australia, electric vehicles are cheapest in the ACT because there is no local stamp duty and lower registration fees. Free tolls or bus-lane access might not suit Canberra, but there are other methods the government could use to encourage motorists to buy electric cars. Transitioning government fleets to electric has several benefits, including an immediate decrease in carbon-dioxide emissions, improved air quality, lower operating costs, increase in the electric-car market and infrastructure, and availability of the cars on the second-hand market (many of these vehicles will be out of reach of many consumers until they enter used-car dealerships.) New houses should also be future-proofed by either installing cables or full units for specialised charging to prevent higher retrofitting costs. Extra financing for the new, cheaper models would also help, whether it be through low-interest green-vehicle loans, lower registration costs or tax concessions.
Apart from all of these public benefits, electric cars represent an important step towards fulfilling Australia's requirements under the Paris climate agreement, and eventual carbon neutrality. Taking Canberra as an example, once its electricity supply is entirely renewable in 2020, transport in the ACT will account for 60 per cent of greenhouse-gas emissions.
This transition will occur with little change to the comfort or convenience of consumers. Upfront costs are declining and operational costs are already lower than equivalent petrol or diesel vehicles.
Australia can be a leader in the adoption of electric transport, improving quality of life across the board, but it will require coordinated government policy and infrastructure development.
Anna Nadolny works at the Centre for Sustainable Energy Systems in ANU's College of Engineering and Computer Science. She thanks Professor Andrew Blakers for his help with this article.
