The electric car revolution might be slowing down.
And it won’t be helped by reviews like this.
The Daily Telegraph cartoonist Warren Brown has provided anhilarious account of his recent trip to the bush.
He was picked up by a colleague in a Tesla at Goulburn.
They were travelling 390 kilometres to the Telegraph’s BushSummit in Griffith.
And it was a rocky journey!
They had to stop several times - to recharge the battery.
Each charge takes 30 minutes.
But that’s IF there is a free charging station.
And in some country towns - you are stuck in a queue - until thecar in front of you has finished.
A simple drive to the country becomes much harder in an electriccar.
180 kilometres in, they had to stop to recharge at Gundagai.
They recharged after another 80kms in Wagga Wagga.
And then another 100kms at Narrandera.
Warren makes the point that it becomes a race to the nextlocation.
Because - there’s only one or two charging stations in sometowns.
And if you don’t get there first - you’re waiting half an hourfor someone else to recharge.
Warren Brown is a car nut.
So he knows a thing or two about road trips.
And he points out a few other flaws with electric cars.
Electric car batteries don’t like cold weather.
The website “MY EV.com” suggests “parking your car in a heated garage”
What?
So - in order to have your electric car working well - you needto have a heater in the garage?
Where is all this power coming from?
The whole point of electric vehicles was to move away fromfossil fuels.
In Australia - when you charge the battery - 70% of the time youare charging with carbon.
And if you’re putting on a heater in the garage, that puts evenmore pressure on the grid!
And where do you think the batteries come from?
Most of them are made in China, Japan and South Korea - and thefactories are powered by coal!
Gill Pratt is the CEO of the Toyota Research Institute.
He says - “it takes a lot of energy to make a battery - and alot of carbon is emitted in the process.”
Have a look at what’s happening in the UK.
The UK is in the middle of a massive energy crisis.
The average household power bill has ballooned to $6,000 a year.
And Britain’s Royal Automobile Club has now issued a warning.
They say an electric car could soon be more expensive to runthan the petrol equivalent.
The Club’s spokesman Rod Dennis says -
“The impact of the energy price cap increase will certainly befelt by drivers who charge their electric cars at home.”
“A full charge of a typical family-sized electric SUV is set tocost 84% more from October 1 than it does under the current cap.”
So there’s concerns about cost.
Worries about power supply.
Question marks over ‘how far’ electric cars can go in a bigcountry like ours.
And major doubts over their environmental credentials.
Right now - EVs only make up 1% of new car sales in Australia.
NSW believes this will be 50% in just 7 years.
Based on the current trends and increasing list of concerns.
The roadmap towards electric cars is made up of a lot of wishfulthinking.
