Comments by "Engineering the weird guy" (@engineeringtheweirdguy2103) on "7NEWS Australia"
channel.
-
1
-
1
-
@hankmoody9965 that’s a very naive view of how the world works.
In reality thing become cheaper for 3 reasons.
1.) technology and manufacturing improvements which give better results for less cost. But this only happens if interest is generated in the development of the technology. That means people need to want them, they need to buy them. The money from the sales goes towards continued development.
2.) economy of scale, the more people want them, the more that are made. The more you make, the cheaper they are per unit. You want your car to be cheaper, people need to buy them more.
3.) second hand options. The more people buy into a market, the more second hand option are available as it penetrates through the market. But this assumes people buy them on the first place.
At any way you look at it, if you want an affordable EV you need to invest in them. Straight up.
As for the cost currently, the Tesla model 3 which is an excellent car goes for around the sale price tag of a BMW, or entry level Mercedes. Every time you see someone driving an BMW, Audi, Mercedes, Jaguar, Lexus, most Voltswagon models, new land cruisers or patrols, all those cars are worth more than a Tesla model 3.
That’s a lot of people who can afford one. How do other people get their hands on these cars? Second hand.
But nobody buys into EV’s in Australia because of all the misinformation and lies spread about them by the media. Also because they are new and people don’t often trust new. The way you get around that is with incentives.
1
-
1
-
@hankmoody9965 for my previous points 1 and 2, automotive manufacturers will only send vehicles over which do well in that market. If we don’t take up EV’s they won’t be sent here. There is a lot about supply and demand.
I wasn’t insinuating that you were anti-EV and I apologize if I came across that way. I’m just trying to outline that adoption won’t happen passively if there is an anti EV campaign actively working against it.
As for your issues raised, not quite 4 points but I’ll elaborate on the two you did raise and I might mention a few things you didn’t realise or didn’t know about.
Infrastructure: there is enough infrastructure in Australia for rapid charging alone to travel from Adelaide to cairns and anywhere in between. And they infrastructures is increasing constantly. I live in Melbourne with a model 3. I’ve never been excluded from going anywhere. Even with my standard range, not a long range variant. I even had to go pick my brother up from
Benalla in the middle of the night when he hit a roo. And I had no issue or second thoughts about it. It only took a 15 minute stop at the euro super chargers on the way home. Only slightly longer than the 5 minute fuelling stop id have to take if I still had my old Impreza.
Ontop of that I can charge my EV anywhere there is a power point. This means every times I’ve travelled somewhere, most places have some form of outdoor PowerPoint. I’ve stayed at multiple air bnb’s and gotten a full charge overnight. A step up from that is there are many many many places which have destination chargers. For example when I took a trip the the beach at Phillip islands, there was a destination charger at the public bus depot. I didn’t really need to but I plug in there and it meant I could leave the aircon going while we were at the beach on a 42 degree day and it was fully charged and Icey inside when we got back to the car.
Destination chargers are relatively cheap and easy to install and are popping up all over the place. If you want to see the tens of thousands in Victoria alone simply download an app called PlugShare and have a play. It outlines all public charging infrastructure in Australia.
The next you mentioned cost. Tesla’s are some of the highest priced EV’s on the market, because they’re luxury vehicles. I purchased mine for $60k AUD. I’m a lower middle income earner. It was a stretch and a big decision for me to purchase the model 3. But I did so because I worked out the following.
Fuel prices are only ever going to increase but when you work out the cost per km on the yearly average fuel price with a comparatively efficient 8L/100km car, you get 12 cents per km. Whilst a model 3 will use 1.2 cents per km worth of electricity which becomes cheaper if you also have solar.
Additionally EV’s don’t need servicing. There is absolutely nothing to service. That also saves a significant amount of money over time. And the more you drive the Tesla the more vast the savings become.
As it stands at the current rate I’ve been driving my Tesla it will have cost the same the purchase the $60k Tesla, charge it, and maintain it, as it would have if I had purchased, fuelled and maintained an entry level Toyota Camry.
So while the upfront cost is much higher and hard to swallow, ultimately it’s significantly cheaper, especially since the car is set to last around 20-30 years before it required a battery replacement.
So upfront cost is high, lifetime costs, much lower. As a result of working this out prior to my purchase, I decided that stretching my finances to buy a $60k car was cheaper and worth it in the long run but I also get a car that has the luxury and performance equal to or exceeding BMW’s Mercedes or Audi’s. I also get one of the highest rated cars for safety on the market.
So in all it seemed like a no brainer to me. But it’s something a lot of people don’t understand. I was spending $60 of fuel every week, now, instead of paying $60 per week on fuel, I’m spending $10 a week on electricity.
1
-
1
-
1
-
It’s actually not. World Powers are trying to impliment a global carbon tarif. That means that your exports/imports will be taxed depending on your countries carbon footprint and environmental policies. Weather Australia signs up for it or not, as the Tarif is imposed by the countries we’re importing/exporting with.
What that means is if we keep fucking around with environmental policies like tax EV’s and committing an entire generation to a gas lead recovery, pretty soon Australia won’t be able to compete on the global market, cost of living will skyrocket and exporting business such as fruit, ore, wool, meat, wine, gas, etc, will have to close as they won’t be able to competitively compete. So we’d be left with a tanked economy.
This isn’t something new either, it’s been inching its way toward implementation for years now and it’s almost here. So all these politicians who think a gas lead recovery is the way to go after they actively ignored the contradictions from their own science organisation (CSIRO) their own Energy Market operator, and Nobel prize winning economists to chase a gas lead recovery on the basis that they asked gas executives where recovery money should go and they said “just give us the money” despite gas being one of the most expensive forms of energy you can get.
Gas is definitely not the answer.
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
@stephenbrown5921 i'm sorry if all that seems a bit intense, but I don't understand hanging onto a technology which is out dated and is literally slowly killing you.
I own an EV. I'm not saying everyone should have one, or that they're suitable for everyone or every application. I'm not saying we should ban new cars or ban fossil fuels. I dont want any of that. But i do want all these bullshit myths about EV's and renewables to stop being spread out of fear of something people dont understand.
for example you've probably heard that EV"s are a fire hazard. thats false, according to the beuro of statistics, the AANCAP safety board, European NCAP safety board, the US highway traffic and safety Authority, EV's are 11 times less likely to spontaneously combust and 5 times less likey to combust in a serious accident and when they do combust are usually more survivable.
you've probably also heard that EV's have a short life, also false, EV's on the road today have already started punching more than 500,000 miles (800,000km) without any real servicing what so ever. and one has even gone over 1 million miles. They are designed and generally accepted by the Engineering community to last at least twice the average lifespan of a combustion engine.
you've probably heard that the SA big battery cant power adelaide for very long therefore its a waste of money? thats false, that was something started by our dear primeminster who would have had a report telling him that, that is exactly NOT what the battery is designed to do.
When wind and solar are over performing for grid demand they have to be shut down, wasting all that every. Similarly when they're under performing but still performing. its called curtailment. Batteries absorbe the excess energy when they're over performing and deposit what they're short for when they're under performing. making renewables more efficient and more reliable.
ontop of that unlike coal or gas, which have a response time of 5-12 seconds. the Big battery has a response time of just a few nano seconds. that means it can respond to fluctuations in the grid much faster making it far far FAR more stable. Infact in the last 3 major events which either blacked out NSW and VIC or sent them into rolling blackouts, SA was unaffected because the Big Battery regulated the grid frequency fast enough to prevent it from ripping the other generators out of phase and off the grid.
Here is another one. Renewables are unreliable. You've heard that one right? makes sense, sun doesnt always shine, wind doesnt always blow. However when you have a gird with minimal storage, and diversified renewables, the grids actually become more stable. Whilst it may not be windy in one location, if you go 50km, you'll likely find somewhere the wind IS blowing. Again, Australia is a large place, only extremely large weather systems overcast entire states, distributing solar over many areas helps to stablalize their output. and when you have wind AND solar both distributed across large areas you start to get something very consistent. If its overcast one place, its usually windy. If there is no wind in another place, its likely sunny.
Renewables have had such an impact that SA which used to have the most unreliable grid in Australia, invested in renewables and storage and according to the AEMO are now one of the most stable gird in Australia. They also went from being the most expensive wholesale energy prices in Australia to being the second cheapest wholesale prices right being Tasmania as number 1. and all that with 70% renewables.
and its not just SA. Germany has alot of renewables. And now they have one of the most stable power grid in the world, somewhere in the top 5 last I checked. They also have some of the cheapest wholesale energy prices in the EU.
But here comes another myth. Germany retail energy prices are very high, some of the highest in the EU. so people blame that on renewables. In reality renewables have driven down the WHOLESALE price of electricty. The government then adds a 44% tariff the that whole sale price to make the retail price very very expensive.
Its not renewables making Germany's power expensive. its government taxes.
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
@OZZYxcon_GTSR1000hp actually in a lot of cases, grid stabilising is typically because the grid is equipped to handle the quantity of rooftop solar being fed into the grid despite the AEMO warning the government about this emerging trend for the last decade. Due to frequency response, taking large energy sinks offline helps the grid to stabilise the frequency of older stations. Also it might be worth noting that over the last few months, older generators have been intermittantly taken offline for repair and schedule maintenance, however power companies don't often communicate when their repairs and refurbishment are going to occur with other power stations, as such an unusually high number of power stations have been shutting down after the summer peak for repair and refurbishment. However that might just be Victoria. It really depends where you are and where you live, as local conditions can also have a large impact on stability such as how many other power users are tapped into the same transfer station for example. If you're in an industrial area, the frequency at which the frequency needs to be modified to remain stable can be more, if other industrial processes are occuring nearby.
an anecdotal tale about how a single smelting plant observed is operated, while interesting, isn't very representative of a nation or even state grid.
1
-
1
-
Well the lithium is only used once per car unlike fuel which is drilled for every km driven for every car and it’s also entirely recyclable once the car is spent.
As for advantages, EV are safer, have typically better performance, provide smoother driving experience, better handling, more cargo/cabin space, have better features native to large batteries such as app connectivity allowing for you to turn your aircon and heated seats on, unlock and let people drive without a key from anywhere in the world, always on security cameras capturing 360 high definition footage, being able to run the aircon while children or animals are in the car.
They also cost less to drive per km, by as much as 10x less and require zero regular maintenance.
So there are a lot of benefits.
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
@DerekVuong7799 The battery longevity of plug in hybrids isnt born out of how deep the cycles are, is the cycle size.
Modern EV Batteries have a cycle life of 1,500 cycles (which by the way, a life is classed as degradation to 70% of their original capacity). So for an EV which has a large battery representing 325 miles of range. over 1,500 cycles, that's nearly 500,000 miles.
however a plug in hybrid has significantly less battery storage than an EV. The wheels are also driven entirely from the battery of the hybrid, not from the generator directly. This means that it can only go 25 miles to a cycle. 1,500 multiplied by 25 miles is 37,000 miles which is 60,000 miles.
Most people however dont notice this. As for 1) the is at 70% health still. The battery range is now 17 miles (28km). and 2) because they still have a motor on board which turns on to keep the battery on charge. Together that means that the effects are mostly of battery degradation, from the drivers perspective, is negligible. but its still happening faster than an EV. You cant outrun physics.
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
There are dozens of studies out there that do this including one by the council of concerned scientists who practically assessed the production, use life impact, and end of life impacts of similarly sized, classed and trim vehicles.
What they found was during production EV’s produced approximately 1 ton more emissions (15% more) than combustion cars (this sounds low because people talk about the impact of the battery but forget that an EV no longer needs to mine, smelt and machine an engine block, transmission, fuel tank or differentials). However they also found the that even on a coal based grid, during their operational life they use 20-30 tons less emissions than Combustion cars. This includes wells to wheels, it includes mining, sorting, cleaning and transportation to coal to coal power plants plus transmission losses. Likewise this also includes drilling, shipping, piping, refining, then trucking of oil/fuel. As well as regular replacement parts such as regular oil changes, oil filters, spark plugs, timing belts, etc.
They also found than end of life impacts between the two types of cars were roughly equivalent. Both are very recyclable but combustion cars, like EV’s currently, typically get crushed and put in a landfill. However EV batteries have the ability to have a close loop recyclability of lithium so it will be interesting to see where that goes.
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
1