The EV Thread..

[bigleonski]

Interesting perspective.

Sorry for the non Aussies, this guy is a bit (Ok, a lot) of a knob, but he often makes a lot of sense in his own unique fashion.

This deals with issues around EV’s and home battery systems catching fire and the dangers it poses to our emergency services teams.

A good mate of mine is a fire investigator with the Qld Fire Service and he says fires from lithium batteries is becoming a major problem - anything with a lithium battery shouldn’t be kept in the house in his view.

Anyway- for all to make their own mind up.

https://autoexpert.com.au/posts/ev-...ews-and-the-public-are-dangerously-unprepared

 

[Logsplitter]

For what it’s worth. We’ve recently installed a lithium battery bank for our off grid solar system. The insurers insisted the batteries are located outside in a dedicated electrical cabinet and not in the basement of the building as were the old flooded cell batteries.

 

[DesertGecko]

I’m with @AnD3rew on this… and we’ll be getting an EV runaround soon

IG is for adventure… and because there’s no silver bullet. Our fuel dependency is hard to solve.

But we should acknowledge that the drawbacks with EV’s stem mostly from the energy storage practicality issues already discussed. Because an electric motor (or perhaps one on each wheel) is otherwise a superb propulsion method for a 4WD, and would simplify them greatly.

I have an EV only a few weeks away from Delivery. It's a round town car. That leaves the 4x4 to sit and wait for it's next adventure. It's only round town use should be when there is a requirement for two cars which is only occasionally.

IMHO hybrids are the worst of both worlds. Even if you don't use the ICE system you still need to service them. The much smaller batteries in PHEV if used as intended could take nearly a full cycle each day which is going to lead to shorter lives. In many cases people buying them don't actually charge them so they offer no advantages over mild hybrids and in Australia for the moment they get a great tax break.

The thing that is forgotten in this discussion is that often hybrids adopt many of the fuel saving aero attributes that EV's used. You can't do an aero 4x4 so the fuel savings might not be that significant.

When going off road, as it is electronics are troublesome enough without adding a whole extra layer of complexity. Driving through deep water crossings, operating in salty environments. Insanity.

I can see there will be a solid role for electric 4x4 in the future. It offers some very interesting advantages over ICE and I think there will be many parts of the world where there is enough infrastructure. I think there is also a role for farm trucks in Australia where the distances might not be that great. At the moment most rural properties burn diesel to make electricity but I expect this will change.

I expect for many ICE will be the best 4x4 option for some time.

In summary I think we should really prioritise electrifying the easy things first.

 

[cheswick]

This has been my experience too.

My experience is that a lot of the new EV owners confuse the EV charging bay as being an EV parking bay. This has become a lot more of an issue in the past few years and has left me stranded waiting for an idiot to move their car for hours on end on a few occasions.

I can kind of excuse someone parking their Camry in an EV charging spot as maybe just oblivious, an EV owner doing it has no excuse.

 

[Tom D]

I’m building a new driveway at the moment so couldn’t charge at home. I took my daughter to taekwondo and thought I would charge at the charger in town… out of order, the other two spaces taken.. It seems like every time I try a public charger something is wrong with it. There really does need to be a massive investment in infrastructure if the EV thing is going to work.

But then so many cities are now trying to move away from cars all together… maybe they won’t bother with the infrastructure..

I might end up replacing the EV with an ICE before they stop making them.

 

[trobex]

With fuel sticking to $2L it's tempting to get the wife an EV soon...