Lithium facts in practice

[native pepper]

Hmmm,
A way to go yet to convince me.
I'll go EV when they can duplicate our excursion from Coober Pedy to Oodnadatta to William Creek & return to Coober Pedy on one tank of petrol (with a 10 litre jerrycan top-up) in the Jimny. (Let's see you top up an EV by the roadside!)
And I would be wary of taking a Kona (or any other EV SUV) through the 13 creek crossings to reach the Bungle Bungles!
I'll wait until I see charging stations at Oodnadatta (pop 20) & William Creek (pop 10).
And how soon will we see EV M/homes in Oz? Particularly one capable of crossing the Nullarbor, refuelling as fast as our diesel-powered Girt.
EV semis are only in the planning/stationary-testbed stage as far as I understand. RVs will be well down the priority list.
We will probably see the paperless toilet first.

There are already buses that have over 1000klm range and working EV semi's in Europe so my Norwegian friends tell me. Norway will be 100% Ev within 5 years they say and it will not take long for solar/wind charging stations to pop up round the country, with the amount of sun in the centre, it won't be long Of course they have a long way to for Rv's, my 1hdj cruiser has done 2670klm on one full tank, including a 20lt jerry can and it cost me $6. Can't get any better than that, especially when i can fill up on the road for free, so have unlimited range, but wanted to see how far it went one just one tank full.

As Rv's trend to stop a lot and park for a day or so, with enough panels you could easily top up and when you add regenerative braking in a big rig, ranges will increase each year. We should remember there was a time when people were against ICE vehicles and said they would never be able to cross Aus, but they did and it will be the same with EV's. I like to stick with the evolving technology, and not cling to the past, life become very boring when you do that.

You can already get E semi's and believe there is a manufacturer in Aus making them now. here's one of many links to E truck, this one is from the USA

https://www.trucks.com/2017/02/06/elect ... k-bus-byd/

[Busman]

BYD is being sued as one city wants to return all it's busses, main problems are less range and battery packs overheating in summer, again affecting range even further. Any semis that are electric and in use are short haul, it will be a long time I think before electric semis will be crossing the Nullabor. Yes it is happening, but there are still plenty of bugs being found. It is interesting to read about how the electricity for recharging all these electric vehicles in SOME cases, is way dirtier than the old internal combustion engine. Way to go yet I think.

[bagmaker]

Rubbish trucks, postal vans and other short haul, multi stop vehicles should be the priority, EV will suit them perfectly

[T1 Terry]

If all goes to plan, Rustic Inn Perfection will be back on the assembly/ completion radar with an electric drive. Just hinges on my offer for a complete motor, inverter, gearbox being accepted. No doubt it will be a hybrid set up, motor/generator to top up the battery pack where a charge is not available and time constraints will not allow for solar only charging.
The motor will have:
Rated Voltage = 537 V DC, Rated Torque = 600 Nm, Peak Torque = 1200 Nm, Rated Speed = 1200 rpm, Peak Speed = 3000 rpm, Peak Power = 140 kW, Degree of Protection = IP55
That is a lot more than many of motorhomes out there now, so performance won't be an issue. 11 x 48v battery packs or 22 x 24v battery packs in series to power it, that will make an awesome battery pack for an off grid set up
Just need to figure out the potential solar array now with the increase in production to area ratio available. When I calculated it many moons back I could get 3 kW of solar up there, I already have 1.6kW on the roof of the Hino, so I expect at least double the 3kW would now be possible on the available real estate on the bus roof.
Fingers crossed

T1 Terry

[dapope]

put a trailer on and you have space for a spare battery pack and extra panels......

[Greynomad]

Norway will be 100% Ev within 5 years they say and it will not take long for solar/wind charging stations to pop up round the country,

NP,
I don't think Norway is a good base for comparison with Australia.
I looked up a few statistics:
• Norway will fit into Australia 22 times, with enough land left over to form most of Tasmania.
• The population of Norway is about the same as Sydney & Wollongong combined.
So their population density is far higher, and distances between major centres far shorter than here.

As I said in an earlier post, the paperless (public) toilet will be here before Australia is totally EV.

[dapope]

Norway will be 100% Ev within 5 years they say and it will not take long for solar/wind charging stations to pop up round the country,

NP,
I don't think Norway is a good base for comparison with Australia.
I looked up a few statistics:
• Norway will fit into Australia 22 times, with enough land left over to form most of Tasmania.
• The population of Norway is about the same as Sydney & Wollongong combined.
So their population density is far higher, and distances between major centres far shorter than here.

As I said in an earlier post, the paperless (public) toilet will be here before Australia is totally EV.

The paperless Public toilet is already here. Just follow my sister in law in. Guaranteed she will have any paper out of there

[Greynomad]

Just asked Siri:
Population density of Norway: 14.5/sq km
Population density of Australia: 3.18/sq km

I rest my case.

[Greynomad]

There are already buses that have over 1000klm range and working EV semi's in Europe so my Norwegian friends tell me.

NP,
There is a vast difference between the demands on an EV bus -- or even semi-trailer -- doing a regular route in Europe or USA, which can have recharging points en route, and a go-anywhere RV in Australia which might have to travel 600km to the nearest town, let alone charging point.
Case in point: With our diesel m/h, we often change route plans and take a diversion of up to 250~300km without having to worry if our 200 litre fuel tank will get us back onto the planned route... or if we change plans completely. We know diesel will be available in rural areas, and can travel up to 800km between fills.
(I well remember an ad for Jack Daniels being laughed off Australian TV screens for boasting "Out here in Nevda, our nearest neighbour can be 70 miles away!" Just take a look at the map of northern SA or south-west Qld, and note where the homesteads are....)
By comparison, the car which replaced our Late Lamented Jimny (which was ULP or E10 fuelled) requires a minimum 95 octane ULP, and failing its availability, 98 octane. So we are limited to passing through reasonably large towns every 500km or so.
In our travels so far, I have seen ONE EV charging station, which happens to be at a local winery which caters for tour buses and visitors from Sydney & Melbourne. As far as I know, there are none in Albury yet. Not that I've seen, anyway.
When EV charging points are seen at every second service station I pass, I'll consider an EV for a town car, but I believe Australian rural areas will rely on diesel for the forseeable future (ie. my expected lifetime). Therefore my next (and probably last) m/h will more than likely be diesel-powered. I will leave it to the early-adopters to have the 'unforseen' problems, and wait for updates/modifications to suit Australian conditions.
I'm having enough trouble getting parts for a 2003 motorhome shipped from USA...

[native pepper]

Ray, have been to Norway, it's mountains, steep winding roads and bloody freezing, sure they don't have the distances we do, but they also don't have the sun we do. My mates home runs on 5kw solar, he charged his kona from that in 3 days and still ran his house. If my 12m bus had panels on its entire roof, I'd get very close to 5kw and have a great tropical roof. The band trailer can also carry 2kw, add regenerative braking on such a large heavy vehicle and after experiencing it in the light kona, reckon you could get round Aus without a charge station anywhere.

As it is, costs me almost nothing to travel as I run on seed oils, can refuel just about anywhere there is a deep fryer, so it doesn't bother me. With 3-6kw of input daily even when driving, can't see any reason why you couldn't get round Aus and as you wouldn't be in a hurry, day stops would top it up to a drivable degree and you'd be getting charge all day as you drove. Especially if it has a range over 1000klms it would be easy and driving on the regenerative braking system would be a massive help.

Understand new technology frightens some people, I'm the opposite that's why I got into lifepo4 so early, even when it was so costly and have recovered those costs over and over. Reckon it would be the same with an E bus, less maintenance, servicing and much more reliable. If you run out of juice, you just have a rest for a couple of days and isn't that what travelling is all about, taking it easy and stopping at lots of places. Every time you stop and switch off, the panels would be recharging, so an hour here and there would extend your range quite a bit, in my humble opinion.