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2 Messages
Brave New World to Save the Planet or Cottage Industry
I appreciate the focus the NRMA is placing on EV vehicles.
I own an (expensive) EV. The car is fantastic and leaving climate change aside EVs are simply better. I have over 100K in solar panels. I have planted over 80000 trees on our farm but we are kidding ourselves if we think we're doing our bit and the climate change dome that sits over Australia will protect us from the rest of the world churning out carbon. The roll out of EVs will increase dramatically as people jump on the EV bandwagon but increasingly experience is showing me that the infrastructure is simply not up to the task and the rate of rollout is poor.
Wait times at stations are growing. Breakdowns at chargers are common. EV aggro is growing as people think that using an ultra fast charger charging their vehicle at 50kW (their car simply won't charge faster) is better than a standard fast charger at the same rate, thereby blocking a charger for faster charging cars. The cost of charging will only increase as energy prices go up.
And thanks to the NRMA for highlighting the 100% dilemma and etiquette. All chargers should limit charging to 90% or 80% at most if there is a queue. Given all the issues I had to face driving 5 hours to Sydney in my EV, I will be taking my diesel next time.
The government is kidding themselves that we can wreck our economy and people will magically adopt EV uptake and be happy with the really poor infrastructure.
Paul
Dan Alex
Community support
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44 Messages
1 year ago
Thanks for sharing your experience with us, Mara. What would you like to see government do to improve the situation?
I took a road trip down the Hume Highway to Melbourne over the break in my ICE vehicle. We did a lot of driving over a 6 day period (filled up 5 times at at least $80 per tank), taking in the phenomenal Black Spur drive and other beautiful parts of the Yarra Valley.
Like many, I want my next vehicle to be an EV but I did wonder a few times what the drive would be like in an electric car - cheaper probably! But would I have had the same freedom to explore? While I saw a few random charge points in far flung areas, it felt patchy. I'm expecting that by the time I need a new car in the next two years, the national network will be more reliable.
Is there anything else you would like to see the NRMA do to help EV drivers at this stage of the journey?
Dan
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PeterCa
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30 Messages
1 year ago
Re the slower charging car on the faster charger. It is possible that when the slower charging car arrived, the other chargers were all occupied. It is not necessarily true that the owner of that car doesn't understand.
In time, the solution for this situation is in charger technology. Some newer chargers can be set up to share their available output capacity between two connected vehicles. If (say) 150kW is available and one car is only requesting 50kW, the other car is able to take up to 100kW. Further sophistication can come when different chargers within a site can share the supply capacity. So, for example, a site might have a capacity of (say) 500kW but it could also have (say) three chargers capable of 350kW each. Two cars at the site on different chargers might take 250kW each but when a third car arrives, perhaps only requesting 100kW, the first two cars can be slowed to 200kW each, so the total sums to the site limit of 500kW. Such load sharing schemes ensure the maximum throughput and most efficient use of the available capacity at a site.
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