The price of fuel.

[supersparky]

I can't find the joke that I saw on Fbk the other day.
But the tag was 'You can drive across five countries in Europe in five hours, but in Australia you will still be in the state you started in.
The tyranny of distance will always be a problem in Aus.
And will continue to be so, until every regional town and community has a charging station.

[BruceS]

Putin is taking more than 5 hours to get across one!!

[T1 Terry]

T1,
Reading the whole article about UK and MG stopping orders on petrol cars, I note that the Australian situation is unaffected… probably because we don’t have the charging station network to justify buying an EV, nor do we have government encouragement to buy them.
Our distances are still a problem, especially in regional/rural areas. Eg. Unless I spend megabucks on a Tesla, (which would not be a suitable vehicle for us anyway) our nearest charging station is in either Albury (50km) if we head east or Euroa, (130km) heading south!
Sort of makes EV ownership pointless.
Norway waived all taxes associated with car buying for EVs. And I believe their charging stations are free.
By comparison, Victoria has slapped a ‘road user tax’ on them! Norway seems to be managing road maintenance without a special tax on EVs. I assume petrol users in Norway are paying a fuel tax of some sort. All other countries impose some tax on fuels.

From what I could follow in the article, Australia will be the clearing house for the petrol powered MG stock in the dealership network.

As far as a recharging station, surely you have a powerpoint at your house, why can't you plug the EV in there? The charging stations are for faster recharging on the road, the household 10 amp powerpoint charger will take over night to recharge a flat battery, less to top up up a partly discharged battery though ..... the fossil fuel lobby people always seem to talk about recharging from empty to full, no splash and dash or a tank top up comparison .....

Not many EV's on the market these days won't have at least 200km range, most newer models would have 400km range, and naturally, the top of the range stuff has 700km to 1,000km range these days ..... much like the early days of petrol powered cars, they didn't have much range in the early models .... the model T only had a 200km range unless you were really steady on the throttle .... so no tear-arsing around at 70km/h .... can you imagine trying to market an EV with a 300km range as long as you were easy on the throttle and never went over 50km/h ......
The Blade Electron V I bought last yr had a factory range of 200km and only used 72 x 90Ah Thundersky cells, 20kwh battery capacity, such was the technology back in 2010, yet it was still driving last yr at Taggerty and was driving here until I pulled the battery pack out. The 25kwh LTO battery pack I want to install in the Blade should give me between 200km and 400km range, the climb back up the Adelaide hills will certainly knock the range around a bit so the 200km will still get us to Adelaide and back.

T1 Terry

[supersparky]

Putin is taking more than 5 hours to get across one!!

If I find that joke again Bruce, I will quote you.

[jon_d]

very good Bruce. Possibly even to good for the though of the day thread.

[Greynomad]

From what I could follow in the article, Australia will be the clearing house [read: “dumping ground”… likewise diesels] for the petrol powered MG stock in the dealership network.

As far as a recharging station, surely you have a powerpoint at your house, why can't you plug the EV in there? The charging stations are for faster recharging on the road, the household 10 amp powerpoint charger will take over night to recharge a flat battery, less to top up up a partly discharged battery though ..... the fossil fuel lobby people always seem to talk about recharging from empty to full, no splash and dash or a tank top up comparison .....

So much for the “free energy” marketing! Unless you have a battery linked to your solar system, you’ll be paying for an all-night drain on the (mainly) ‘coal-powered fire stations’ as Stan Grant famously mangled it. ]

Not many EV's on the market these days won't have at least 200km range, most newer models would have 400km range, and naturally, the top of the range stuff has 700km to 1,000km range these days ..... much like the early days of petrol powered cars, they didn't have much range in the early models .... the model T only had a 200km range unless you were really steady on the throttle .... so no tear-arsing around at 70km/h .... can you imagine trying to market an EV with a 300km range as long as you were easy on the throttle and never went over 50km/h ......
The Blade Electron V I bought last yr had a factory range of 200km and only used 72 x 90Ah Thundersky cells, 20kwh battery capacity, such was the technology back in 2010, yet it was still driving last yr at Taggerty and was driving here until I pulled the battery pack out. The 25kwh LTO battery pack I want to install in the Blade should give me between 200km and 400km range, the climb back up the Adelaide hills will certainly knock the range around a bit so the 200km will still get us to Adelaide and back.

T1 Terry

Also, Terry,
I’ve searched the interweb for a Hyundai Blade, and all I get is wiper blades for Hyundais.
Could you please post a pic or three?

[Newcastle George]

Ray, search for Blade Electron V.

George

[supersparky]

Here it is

>>> search.php?st=0&sk=t&sd=d&sr=posts&keyw ... y&start=70

just scroll down a couple of lines.

[T1 Terry]

Also, Terry,
I’ve searched the interweb for a Hyundai Blade, and all I get is wiper blades for Hyundais.
Could you please post a pic or three?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbldAahPSQ8

T1 Terry

[nut17]

Our fuel prices have also continued a steady climb upwards. With my loyalty fuel card I was able to purchase diesel six months ago for $1.00 / litre but bearing in mind we have road user charges on top of that which are indexed to the size / weight of the vehicle. In my case for our under 6000kg Iveco Daily based Winnebago ILUKA it is $8.00 / 100 km. Our average fuel use is 14 lt / 100 so total was $22 / 100 km six months ago. The best deal I can get with diesel at present is $2.29 and comrade Cindy has given a 3 month discount on road user discount reduced to $5.12 / 100 km so it now costs a minimum of $37.18 to drive 100 km!! Long journeys are now few and far between

Cheers Chris