Electric vehicles and alternate fuel sources

Millions of diesel vehicles in Asia run on diesel made from palm oil......in 30 years time ,it will be billions of vehicles running on palm oil diesel..........of course all of this now offends the greens...but do the asians care? Nope.

I think EV’s have had a good run to date, but once Covid drops off government agendas, things must change.
The loss of 38 odd cents in fuel excise plus the GST on fuel sales will be weighing on any bean counter’s mind.
How will future road works/maintenance be financed?
An EV monitoring system might be on the cards, but I can’t see user pays systems generating enough funds.

I had dinner last night with a mate who has owned a Tesla for about 6 months. He loves the smoothness but says 0-60 in 3 seconds is not a priority at his age but a selling point for some.

His comments were:

Despite all the hoo-ha about fast charging a full fast charge takes 3 hours. As a result of this he says most people in the city travel half full because the first half of the charge happens very quickly in 10-15 minutes. He said his dealer warned continuously doing this could have memory problems with the batteries.

His main worry for many years into the future is something he witnessed on his first long trip to Sydney a couple of weeks ago. On this main route, charging stations are fairly sparse and on several he had to cross his fingers to the next town because the ones available were already occupied or sit for many hours waiting his turn in a queue.

He believes that service stations/recharge points will need 40 or more chargers/double adapters or whatever to be able to handle what is normal traffic now just from people going about their daily lives needing to top up during the day. He pointed out that when electric cars become prolific there will be millions of man-hours wasted at refuelling points rolling his eyes at a comment that "Well you just go into the servo and have a cup of coffee".

This is in spite of many having home charging. Of course as soon as you are 200km from home on your way to Sydney or wherever you become a commercial customer.

The Tesla range prediction (fuel gauge) is very poor at predicting what you truly have in your tank and you are sailing along planning a stop but near the destination run into hilly country and watch your range disappearing before your eyes. He is a pretty technical bloke and is quite positive the variation in consumption for terrain/speed/weight in the Tesla is greatly more than a petrol or diesel car and his range varied wildly according to his driving conditions on the Sydney trip.

Right at this moment it is all still very experimental and electric cars remain an environment decision incapable of honestly competing in utility, convenience and cost with existing vehicles. My mate's opinion is all these problems will be solved reasonably quickly but the charging times and refuelling point access need to be solved a lot faster than now. If you spend $60-100,000 on a car the average person will not cop wasting half their life "Having a cup of coffee". So city dwellers with home charging will lead the way while the mainstream fleet will take a long time to be truly replaced.

He likes the car and intends to remain electric for the rest of his life but he is not selling the Prado any time soon.

Completely agree with your mate’s observations. Will always come back to range and recharge time.
Of course the Toyota hydrogen fuel cell cars have this sorted, just have to find a hydrogen servo.
Re my dream run comment above.
Most EV’s have astonishing performance figures, supercar territory.
So how come the haters aren’t protesting? Remember the stink with GTHO’s? Too fast, dangerous cars and so on.
Seems electricity sorts out danger.

This is an unemotional well balanced article written recently.
www.cnbc.com/2021/12/29/electric-vehicle...king-gas-prices.html

The range factor only apparently relates to something like less than 10% of the population as apparently most people 90% or there abouts do trips of less than 20 km on average so a lot is going to depend how your talking to

Grey nomads are going to have different requirements to Mum and Dads and different again to retired people who only go shopping and to the bowls

I think theres so many factors in this that most of us (my self included) cant possibly see the whole picture

But chances are the experts have it right and we will soon learn to live with it

Charging station queues I dont think will ever be a issue for most people, if we keep in the back of our mind most peoples average trip is less than 20 km

And as the demand drops off for petrol cars manufactures will just stop making them, spare parts people will slowly stop making spares and we will parking them under trees

I could have this all wrong but common sense and what I am exposed to everyday tells me that is u likely

We need to remember that the Australian market is tiny by world standards and as such demands wont even be a consideration

And of the Australian market most of that is in crowded cities like the rest of the world so most things sceptics mention wont even apply to probably 95% of the people owning cars in Australia

Paul

Most cars come with a Level 1 charger which goes into your home wall socket. About 50% of homes will need to upgrade their power boards to cope. These chargers are only marginally acceptable as a full charge from nothing will take 24-40 hours depending on the vehicle.

The most practical is to spend a couple of thousand dollars on a Level 2 charger (plus house powerboard upgrade). This will bring it down to around 10 - 15 hours depending on the vehicle. From the table below it can be seen almost every home will require major electrical upgrades to cope with the higher capacity Level 2 chargers.

Level 3 chargers can not be practically considered for household use requiring everything from suitable street wiring, industrial powerboards and prohibitively expensive. Commercial use only with as little as 30 minutes depending on the vehicle.

From Greentech Media USA

The table below shows approximately how much electric range a typical EV that gets 3 to 4 miles per kilowatt-hour can recover for charging stations with different capacities. The number followed by the A is the rated current in amps, the number followed by V is the voltage. Level 1 charging stations use 120 V, while Level 2 charging stations use 240 V. In Australia both use 240V.

Charging Current



The rate at which a plug-in can charge is also limited by its on-board charger. This charger's capacity is rated in kilowatts (kW). The vehicle's battery pack is rated in kilowatt-hours (kWh). A vehicle's electric range is its efficiency (usually 3 to 4 miles/kWh times the size of its battery pack.) So a Nissan Leaf's 30 kilowatt-hour battery pack and approximate efficiency of 3.5 miles per kilowatt-hour give it a range of about 105 miles. The Leaf has a 6.6-kilowatt-hour on-board charger, giving it a maximum rate of charge of about 10 miles of range per hour, for a complete charge in 4 to 5 hours using a 30A, 240V Level 2 charging station.

Eye aint followed this thread or understand 100% + eye aint upto speed on the subject of EV

but do the EV cars have Regenerative braking
drive like it has jake brake etc
on the down hill and brakin put sum juice back into the everreadys or would th@ cost more
think n the newer Melb Electric trams do regenerative braking

WotezU?
cya

These are Tesla's own figures.

Types of Tesla car chargers
NEMA 5-15 charging for Tesla
The NEMA 5-15 charger for Tesla electric cars plugs into a standard wall outlet, and is the slowest type of Tesla EV charger available. A standard Tesla charger with a NEMA 5-15 connector will be able to offer about 3 miles of range per hour of charging. This type of charging station is best for overnight use at home. Note Tesla only claim 3 miles range for every hour on the home charger while the table above claimed 4-5 miles per hour of charging on the Nissan leaf. Obviously a factor of vehicle size and consumption.

NEMA 14-50 charging for Tesla
The NEMA 14-50 charger for Tesla electric cars plugs into a 240 volt wall outlet, similar to the type used by your clothes dryer or other appliances. A standard Tesla charger with a NEMA 14-50 connector will be able to charge your Tesla battery completely in 10 hours (for the Model S) to 10 ½ hours (for the Model X).

Wall connectors for Tesla charging stations
Tesla offers at-home wall connector charging stations that serve as an “upgrade” from the standard charging cord provided when you purchase your Tesla. With the help of an electrician, you can install a wall connector to charge your Tesla Model S or Model X at your your home. A wall connector can fully charge your Tesla Model S battery in 6 to 9 hours, or your Model X battery in 6 ½ to 10 hours.

Tesla Superchargers
Tesla’s Supercharger stations are scattered throughout the country, making it possible for you to take your Model S or Model X on a road trip. These stations are only compatible with Tesla vehicles, and can charge your car fully in an hour to an hour and a half. My comment is how does this match with their 25-30 minutes claimed in the table below?

Something my kids found on the net.