What does the average Joe Blow reckon about these range anxiety electric toy cars ?


DT 20/02/2020, 7:49 am
Easy as that?

Who will pay the cost of demolishing liquid fuel distribution and service station tanks and pumps and replacing them with enough recharging points to cope with holiday demand, for example?

Even if an equivalent EV was available for comparable pricing to ICEV what would the trade-in value be for used ICEV?

How would the electricity grid cope with the new demand for energy given all the problems happening now with renewable energy?

Who would pay the cost of upgrading the electricity transmission lines, providing additional or larger sub-stations to service the EV energy demand, and for the power points (415V 3-phase) for recharging EV quickly in homes and workplaces?

And that range issue, a very expensive EV today might offer 500 Km fully charged but manufacturers recommend regular charging to 80% battery capacity to avoid early battery failure, so the real range is 400 Km.

But then energy usage increases with speed, driver and passenger load, luggage, accessories such as air conditioner on, hills, headwind and speed. There are also issues in very hot or very cold weather. I have read from US sources that a cautious EV user must discount the 400 Km range with 80% battery charge by 25-30% to account for variable factors. So minus 25% and real range becomes 300 Km.

Add a heavy trailer boat or caravan and deduct 50% to 150 Km.

As for the cost of energy too often journalists and sales people claim that electricity is far cheaper than petrol-diesel liquid fuels. Liquid fuels are taxed so to correctly compare either deduct the fuel tax or add an equivalent tax to EV recharging or road use, because governments will not lose fuel tax revenue.

And then consider replacement of battery pack, we don’t normally replace fuel tanks.

Finally, maybe, consider Lithium ion batteries and exothermic reaction, a potentially almost instant fireball in a collision, even from bumping the under floor batteries hard. And the only way to extinguish the fire is lots of cooling water to lower the temperature to the point where the flames can be extinguished. Even after that is achieved EVs in wrecking yards have reignited some time after the first fire. I do realise that liquid fuel fires happen but Lithium ion is a much different threat, and there are too few EVs on the roads globally to assess the situation, but fires have already occurred.

I am not against EV technology, but believe that for Australian conditions Toyota got it right with their Hybrid technology, plug in to charge battery pack and electric drive motors but with an on-board petrol generator for long distance travellers, and a much smaller battery pack with maybe 25-30 Km range. When the energy is low the generator starts automatically and also when more power is needed.


Albert 20/02/2020, 8:35 am
DT, what’s the point. If the sole purpose of electric vehicles is to reduce emissions then the addition of a ICE for long distance travellers just stuffed up the whole theory. In addition, what about the short life span of batteries and the exorbitant cost of replacement batteries.
Then we have the problem of what to do with expired batteries as their disposal is set to create an environmental horror story.
Of course, we can’t forget about the price of electric vehicles and I believe they are currently going for somewhere between $80,000 to $100,000 for a small vehicle that couldn’t pull the skin of a rice pudding let alone a laden caravan.
Sorry but this bran fart has a long way to go before it even begins to make sense with or without the aid of ICE.


luk1955 20/02/2020, 7:51 am
You can damm well bet the governments, in cohesion with the 5G network, will have total control of those electric cars. Want a quick trip to the grocery, no way. Want to go to a protest gathering, no way. You will need permission from the government to use your electric car. This is the real reason behind these explosive vehicles. To totally control your freedom of movements. And there will have to be either nuclear power or more coal fired power plants to generate the massive amounts of power needed for these mobile jail cells. Their emissions will come from the power plants, and the rare earth mining for the motors for these cars will leave huge scars on the landscape for thousands of years.


Aktosplatz 20/02/2020, 10:12 am
All of this buggering about because of a whipped up aversion to fossil fuels for no realistic plausible reason.

All based on crap computer modelling and greedy investors in low efficiency renewable energy.

I hope everyone has signed that petition DT organised here on the general comments page.

BH the very few people that CAN charge at home are in a tiny minority.

People in the country who can afford the vast number of solar panels to make it worthwhile can do it probably.

But those in the bushfire areas would have had a very lean time with all the smoke blocking the non-functioning solar panels and lots of places also had no power for weeks. And what about the rain blocking the non-functioning solar panels ?

But BH your inability to see outside your own tiny circle means you don't understand that very few people in the city areas have a north facing roof and lots of people park on the street. And the electric heaps are most suited for short commuter trips in the city.

BH next thing you will say you don't understand the first thing about how solar panels work in the moonlight.

Wolseley wrote on Feb 17^th, 2020 at 1:17am:



i agree ... i need an electric car

juliar wrote on Feb 20^th, 2020 at 9:05pm:


what's fake about it cockhead ?

Mention the unsafe Tesla death cars and the loony uneducated Greeny is sucked right in.

The silly fool Greeny uses the standard Greeny scam of displaying her ignorance with a sham "graph".

Not very bright uneducated Greenies are notorious for displaying their ignorance with doctored "graphs" which are pure bulldust.



Gee these Tesla 3 death traps don't stop very well with their crummy brakes.

Sir lastnail wrote on Feb 24^th, 2020 at 1:26pm:



Yes it just confirms what a dill he/she is !