Originally Posted by
Tobes_WIR35
I have no interest in buying an electric car for myself, because I'm too much of a petrol head. I also get really worked up by "greenwashing".
Nonetheless the evidence that electric cars are demonstrably better (or perhaps "less worse") for the environment in terms of net carbon emissions is very clear. The financial payback is also there, if you do a lot of kms of mostly city driving (e.g. fleet cars). Otherwise if your prime concern with a car is cost of ownership, the answer is to buy a Hyundai i20.
The government doesn't need to subsidise charging infrastructure. We already have it. There are under-utilised powerlines on every street. Our power bills are going up largely because of fixed network charges (poles & wires). If those poles & wires are better utilised, the fixed costs are spread out more and the amortized price of a unit of energy (kWh) will drop. Of the 25-30c you pay for a kWh of energy, roughly only 6c is the wholesale price to generate that unit of energy.
The biggy is where the electrical energy comes from of course. Electric cars will still provide a marginal net benefit in terms of lifecycle analysis of their environmental impact even if run totally on coal electricity, however obviously if you can charge it from renewable sources it will be much cleaner (or "less dirty").
There are also the benefits of energy security and volatility. If you drive a petrol car, your energy costs and security are pretty much totally at the mercy of international producers, most of whom are not our friends. On the other hand, as a country we can be 100% self sufficient for our electrical energy.
So you might have your opinion about an ideology, which is fine, but most of it is actually just sensible logic and not ideology at all. The problem is you only ever hear from the noisy preachy ones who are ideologues.
*edit* P.S. I am an electrical engineer who has done a significant amount of work in this field and was recently commissioned by the Qld Govt to write a paper about it.
Apparently the Government is looking at 1 million electric cars by 2020. As an electrical engineer can you explain how, when 1 million cars arrive home from work at, say, 7pm and get plugged into charge, where the electricity will come from? The sun has set and as a result there's no solar power and the wind isn't blowing today. Considering a Tesla S needs 90kwh to charge from empty, where is that amount of power coming from? Will the wiring in my street be able to supply the number of electric cars?
Cheers
Gary
Golf Mk7.5 R, Volvo S60 Polestar, Skyline R32GTST
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