Electric car thread

[onetrack]

Here is W.A.'s charging network, we have a State Govt that is really pushing EV's and spending a heap of money on charging stations - but they're still mostly on main roads, and there's quite a few areas where coverage is poor. The RAC of W.A. has also been spending money on installing charging stations, but they've only installed a total of 16 stations.

 

https://www.drive.com.au/news/western-australias-public-electric-car-charging-network-is-now-switched-on/

 

https://rac.com.au/about-rac/community-programs/electric-highway#:~:text=If you're in an,supported by the Chargefox network.

 

While I appreciate Octaves EV report, I think that comparing a NZ EV driving experience with the Australian EV driving experience is comparing apples to oranges.

SWMBO and I regularly tour using rented accommodation (Hotels, Motels, AirBNB's, Farmstays, etc), and I wonder what the reaction is when you plug in your EV at your accommodation and whack up the accommodation owners power bill?

 

Plus, I'd like to see actual recharge costs from the various charge outlets. Just giving Tesla my CC and letting them charge it at will with whatever figure they dream up for recharging, is not my idea of keeping tabs on expenditure when travelling.

As I understand it, you can't even own a Tesla without having a CC on record with them, that's the equivalent of giving the fox the keys to the hen house, IMO.

 

I'll keep full control of my CC thanks - even the auction houses I deal with, don't take money out of my CC without serious controls on the amount taken out.

 

Edited Monday at 11:57 AM by onetrack

[spacesailor]

I when't & checked my local. Shop,plaza .& out out of the four mpt chargers one had a EV parked without being plugged in . 

spacesailor

[old man emu]

Octave hinted at a reason that EVs are OK to use in NZ. He said that electricity there is produced by hydro generation. Is it reasonable to think that the cost of electricity in NZ is much less than here?

[octave]

Onetrack that does seem a little paranoid.  My electricity bill comes straight out of my account as does my internet. I can assure you that I am astute enough to monitor these things.  The car keeps a record of electricity purchased. 

It is not true that you can own it charge a Tesla without a credit card.

 

Edited Monday at 12:21 PM by octave

[rgmwa]

I have to say that despite wanting to do the right thing for the planet, I don’t see myself getting an EV any time soon. Reading Octave’s NZ post where every stop is used to find a place to recharge the car even if it doesn’t necessarily need it doesn’t have much appeal. Maybe in 15-20 years time if I live that long and ICE’s have been banned. I wouldn’t get a Tesla anyway, just on principle. My cousin’s husband (in Holland) has a hybrid which he loves. However it only goes 55km on a full charge. That’s fine in a small country but Australia’s a big place and I don’t think the large scale charging infrastructure and power needed to supply it are here yet. In the meantime I’ll keep driving my hydrocarbon car.

[octave]

2 minutes ago, rgmwa said:

 Octave’s NZ post where every stop is used to find a place to recharge the car even if it doesn’t necessarily need it doesn’t have much appeal. 

That is not quite correct. My point was that whenever we needed to stop for the toilet or food we also took the opportunity to stick a bit of charge in. It always not a case of wondering around blindly hoping to stumble on a charger.  The route planner gave numerous options along with co located facilities such as food or toilets etc. We stopped twice in 4 hours one of these was to buy supplies and coffee and the second for tor a toilet break.  This at least for me was little different from a petrol driven trip 

I posted of an account of the trip because I thought it would add some useful input. 

[rgmwa]

Yes, I understood that although maybe it didn’t quite come across that way in my post. Your experience in NZ was interesting to read and they are obviously better equiped with public charging facilities than we are here, at least in WA. I’m still not sold on getting an EV or even a hybrid at this point though. 

[octave]

56 minutes ago, onetrack said:

I regularly tour using rented accommodation (Hotels, Motels, AirBNB's, Farmstays, etc), and I wonder what the reaction is when you plug in your EV at your accommodation and whack up the accommodation owners power bill?

We did exactly this. We were in an air BnB. My son rang the owner and asked if they minded us charging overnight. They were fine with but this was a granny lead maximum 10 AMPs this is not a problem compared to running a heater all night.   Using a standard PowerPoint imposes limits.   Motels sometimes have proper chargers that do use larger quantities of power.    These are a business decision, and either it is a third-party installation in which case I suspect they take a cut of the profit or they supply it to attract customers.  

 

I don't really care whether people here want to buy an EV or not.  I won't buy one until my present car dies, it is simply not economically viable given the few km I drive. I do think people tend to come up with a multitude of reasons why they are unviable; often, these reasons are not based on real-world experience. Likewise, it is easy for enthusiasts to not understand to downsides. This is why I posted my original post (which I regret now) 

 

 

[red750]

This is a series of screenprints of the map on the EV Charging Stations website, zooming in from Australia wide, to Victoria, to Melbourne and right down to one station.

 

 Australia wide stations

 Victorian stations

Melbourne stations

 Eastern suburbs stations

 

 

 The station at Canterbury Rd , Vermont

 and Gippsland.

 

Map Legend.

Selecting a station, click on the marker and an info panel with hours of operation adapter type, phone number and sometimes price will open

  

[Jerry_Atrick]

Below is a vid of the costs going a scenic route from Sydney to Adelaide using almost exclusively Tesla fast chargers. He was comparing the infrastructure at the time of making the vid to 18 months prior doing a similar trip.

 

In other vids, motels don't seem to have a problem. Overnight rates seem a lot lower. Origin energy kw/h off peak rate is 34.10c per kh/h. Most batteries are under 68kv, but a Volvo EX90 has 111 of them. For the Volvo, you are looking at around $38 to go form completely empty to 100%. How many will come in at completely empty? And if we say the average is 68kv, and say they are on average coming in at 30% charge,  that is about $16.25 that it will cost to fill up the car.  Don't forget, you can get better deals than the standard rate, although I understand businesses may pay a higher rate. In any case, a savvy motel operator wiil add a surcharge of, say $30 and you get the convenience of a fully charged car without having to go to the servo, and they make some money on the side. If I were operating a motel, I would be happy as I can increase my revenue. Although, servos may not like it one bit.

 

You can also see from the vid that there are quite a few charging stations - many fast or superfast. But note, there seemed to be as many, if not more charging points per station than there are bowsers/pumps per petrol station. Yes, there are times when all of the pumps at a servo are in use, but often they aren't, and this may offset some of the longer charging times.

 

Importantly, from the vid, at least anecdotally, it appears the charging infrastructure is developing nicely. Australia is also transitioning to renewables and one would hope, in building renewables, they are taking into account the uptick in BEVs and the like when planning capacity.

 

 

Edited Monday at 03:13 PM by Jerry_Atrick

[Jerry_Atrick]

And this vid is 7 years old... seemed OK then, too

 

[facthunter]

Plenty of times you have to wait for a clear  Bowser and you have to stay in the car.  The charge spot is your Park spot. Pumps don't work if there's a Power outage . Stations can  run out of fuel. We only have 3 weeks reserve of it and can easily be blockaded. Electric helps our balance of payments as it is Home grown.  No oil or coolant to check and change. No engine warmup.  Miniscule Maintenance. You can pre warm (or cool) your car. Electric is near 100% efficient. No gearbox or clutch. No starter system. No high revs. Brake wear is minimal. No vibration or noise. Electric power getting cheaper and more green.  The rest will become dearer and gradually less available. No dangerous fuel tankers on the road. No dangerous fuel hoarding. Pretty good all round. Nev

[rgmwa]

Yes I agree they technically and environmentally they have a lot of good points but my 2002 Frontera and 2008 Aurion, although not worth much, are still going strong so at this stage I’m not in hurry to buy an EV. The battery in an EV wouldn’t last that long, at least not with the current technology. 

Edited yesterday at 12:54 AM by rgmwa

[facthunter]

Getting Parts for that age of car can be difficult. Few keep them that long but I have a 98 and 97 going. You can get everything for a T model Ford. Nev

[rgmwa]

Frontera parts are certainly getting harder to find but so far, so good after 330k. Toyota parts aren't a problem.

[spacesailor]

I have just changed the " break-shoes " on our pajero.

I had checked them a few years ago , but as they still had a mil or two , I decided they will last 

a year or two ,I was right still has at 1.5 Mil. But change them for the last time in my life ' .

My trip to check-out ' seven hills plaza ' EV charger has left me perplexed. 

where does it say who's card it uses  , will they use a debit bank card .

( must grab a pic ) .

spacesailor

 

[red750]

From what I understand, but I'm ready to be corrected if I'm wrong, you download an ap to your smartphone. You register your bank account on the ap. Then, you plug the car into the charger, use the ap to start and stop charging, and the ap debits your nominated account by direct debit. There are a couple of providers, so you would need an ap for each one, because you don't know which one will be where you need to recharge. Just like having a Macca's ap and a KFC ap for tap n go. It's getting a bit much for us old farts. 

[octave]

Red, that sounds correct. The Tesla network is easier because it requires no apps, you register the car and the charger knows which car is being charged.   I saw a YouTube clip this morning about Norway.  They have had, I think for about a year now, a law that says all new chargers must have a card reader or tap and go facility. This avoids the need for apps. 

 

In NZ I have noticed that there are loads of petrol stations that are unstaffed.  These stations, which appear in towns and out in the sticks, are just like a normal petrol station minus the building. In other words just the pumps and an awning. You swipe your credit or debit card, put the fuel in and then it spits a receipt out.  I think one of the reasons this is not more widespread in this country is that petrol stations want to get you inside so you might buy other items.

[spacesailor]

I have a older " Motorola " .

The thought of giving anyone access to my ' bank account ' , would I suspect! .

leave the bank with a big loophole to deny any recriminations,  when there's money missing .

I also , don't possess a credit card .

The " hole in the wall " banks give & take cash .

Why not the ' electric service ' station? .

[Marty_d]

5 hours ago, rgmwa said:

The battery in an EV wouldn’t last that long, at least not with the current technology. 

Read about a Tesla salesman in NSW who put about 1m km on a Tesla in 8 or 10 years. Battery was still doing 80% I think.

[octave]

1 minute ago, spacesailor said:

The " hole in the wall " banks give & take cash .

Why not the ' electric service ' station? .

Because in Australia in 2022 (3 years ago), only 13% of transactions were made by cash. Logically (and logic is very important to me) it is a big ask to expect a company to invest large sums of money in the technology required to take cash and to pay people to go and retrieve that cash and do the accounting and then deposit that cash in the business's account. I suspect that those for  whom operating only with cash are very unlikely to adopt new technologies like EVs.  

[old man emu]

1 hour ago, spacesailor said:

I also , don't possess a credit card

I don't have a credit card. Got rid of it years ago and got a Visa debit card. It seems to allow me to do most everything a credit card can do, except get me into credit debt.

 

Spacey, why not obtain a debit card?

[red750]

It's a matter of self control. Sometimes only a credit card will do, then you pay it off straight away. For example, the pay stations at parking stations such as shopping centres, hospitals and airports do not accept debit cards. My credit cards (two of them) both have small credit balances, less than ten dollars. It's rare that I buy stuff online, and don't have a paypal account. Recently I bought some hearing amplifiers, like in-ear hearing aids, from the US. True hearing aids cost a few hundred, some local ones, advertised on TV, cost $240 or more. Mine cost A$159 and are working fine - better than the hearing aids I got from the audiologists. Paid it off immediately, no interest.

 

 

 

 

[Jerry_Atrick]

I am not sure about the law in Australia, but in the UK, if you order something and it doesn't arrive, you are scammed, or the vendir doesn't properly deal with initial quality problems (i.e. refund or replace a faulty thing), then the credit card issuer is responsible for refunding your money. I had an issue where a bath supplier agreed they would send a bath by a certain date and I needed it so I could install it in time for guests.

 

They delivered late, so I rejected it. The credit card company didn't want to pay up but when I pointed out they violated their own Ts & Cs, and they admitted they did, the card company refunded me the money.

 

It is darned handy for buying airline tickets if the airlines bump  you or they cancel a flight. The CC company have to refund if the airline doesn't.

[octave]

 

 

I have relied on a refund from a credit card company refund for goods that did not turn up or were not up to standard on a couple of occasions.  The process was quick and simple.