Friday 30 March 2018

EV Nonsense


Posted to...

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/electric-car-industry-wants-32bn-more-for-infrastructure/news-story/18abc045fc67a733767402f5590a3569?nk=f0ed6a3f4cf1bfbe46fda02919ce757e-1522318433
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One thing that bugs me is comments without references. I would like to address a few points made in the comments. (these are back of the envelope numbers- feel free to refine them)



Charging using coal is no better than burning oil in a car:

http://malfunction.faed.name/2008/12/co2-output-and-charging-using-coal.html

TLDR; An EV charging from power generated from (old power plant) Munmorah will have about 8% less CO2 output compared an efficient petrol car.

Subsidies:

Remember the fossil fuel industry is subsidised by 4 Billion AUD per year. (I have seen numbers up to 20BN)

My personal opinion is don't subsidise charging infrastructure, remove the 4Billion subsidies and let natural selection take its course.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-11-11/coal-oil-and-gas-companies-receive-4-billion-dollar-in-subsidie/5881814

Economic (National):

We can produce our own electricity to power cars, and do not have to be dependent on foreign oil and the associated price vulnerabilities. Australia imported 6.638. billion liters of automotive gasoline in 2015-2016. https://industry.gov.au/Office-of-the-Chief-Economist/Publications/Documents/aps/2016/Australian_Petroleum_Statistics_242_September2016.pdf

At an import cost of about 57% that is $3.78 billion we can keep in the local economy rather than exporting the money to other countries. https://aip.com.au/sites/default/files/download-files/2017-09/Facts About the Australian Retail Fuels Market and Prices_0.pdf

We will have to burn more coal and build more coal power plants to charge them:

The 'market' is already betting on renewable with storage. http://reneweconomy.com.au/2017-mark-transformational-year-large-scale-solar-australia-38719/


That threshold was crossed in January. http://reneweconomy.com.au/plunging-costs-make-solar-wind-and-battery-storage-cheaper-than-coal-83151/

Pollution

Even if we do charge our electric cars from coal, the pollution stays in lesser populated areas.

I'm not waiting for a car to charge for 8 hours when want to charge

You have options! You don't have to go all out and buy electric yet.

  1.      For Australian conditions, Buy a Plug-In Hybred and get the best of both worlds. My used Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV gets me to work and back during the week on electricity only, and petrol for longer trips.
  2.     Many families have 2 cars, make the commuter electric. (OK assuming you drive < 100km per day)
  3.     Charge at night on off peak power.
  4.     Once affordable, buy a car that can be fast-charged.
  5.     Don't worry about it and keep your petrol car.
The charge connectors are different.
Buy an adapter

Purchase price of cars

Yes, they are expensive.
Wait for the price to come down or buy 2nd hand when you can afford it.

https://www.carsales.com.au/cars/results?q=(And.Service.Carsales._.(C.Make.Mitsubishi._.Model.Outlander.)_.CarAll.keyword(phev).)&area=Stock&vertical=car&WT.z_srchsrcx=makemodelhttps://www.carsales.com.au/cars/electric-fueltype/?sortby=~Price&offset=0&setype=sort&WT.z_srchsrcx=makemodel

You don't have to buy one today.

I don't like the look of them

Convert one if you are mechanically incline. http://www.evalbum.com/

Save up for a nice looking one.

EVs don't pay road tax.

Fuel tax goes into consolidated revenue, not to pay for roads
Rego is still required
One day they will tax km traveled by EVs but not yet, make the most of it.

Environmental cost of lithium batteries for electric vehicles

Digging up lithium etc vs extracting oil and burning it.

The environmental record for mining in general is poor, and so is the impact of oil leaks. Remember Deepwater Horizon?

I tend to sway toward the lithium as long as it is extracted in an environmentally friendly way. (Mining is not the only way)

http://gridedge.com.au/assets/facts-about-lithium-ion-batteries-20151108.pdf

Battery life expectancy

Teslas new cells.
https://electrek.co/2017/05/04/tesla-battery-researcher-chemistry-lifcycle/

TLDR; If made into a car battery pack, 1,200 cycles would translate to roughly 300,000 miles (480,000 km) – meaning that a battery pack could still retain about 95% of its original energy capacity after ~300,000 miles – or 25 years at the average 12,000 miles per year.

Unfortunately current vehicles would be less. I would hope 8 years to 80% new capacity, but remember the vehicle is still usable.

A quote from MMC regarding a 2010 MiEV. "...Mitsubishi Motors Australia Ltd (MMAL) estimate that after 5 years the battery capacity in your vehicle will be approximately 80% and 70% after 10 years."