My View on the Up Take Of EVs in Australia
It is apparent to me that a lot of people are under the impression that the up take of electric vehicles will not begin in earnest for at least five to ten years. If you check out the internet and view the videos from different EV events it is clear that it will be much sooner than that. There are a lot of manufacturers with EV cars available right now. About the only SUV that I have come across is the Tesla model X. It is no wonder that it has become very popular in Europe. Manufacturers in Europe can’t get their diesel ICE cars up to tear 6 pollution requirements. Therefore they have dropped diesel powered models from their range.
A lot of manufacturers have added EVs models to their range. If you look back in history to the up take of mobile phones then I would say the stage of the market with EVs is about the point where the iPhone came into existence for mobile phones. Many companies started copping and the situation was that soon everyone had mobile phones. Well the Tesla model 3 is to be available in Australia by 2020. The Nissan Leaf is slated to be here by the later half of this year 2018. Therefore Nissan will have the drop on Tesla as far as the lower end market is concerned in Australia. The price of Tesla model 3 will be more middle priced rather than low end. The Nissan Leaf is slated to be around $50,000 to $55,000 Australian dollars when it arrives. This puts out of the reach of many low income earners.
Other manufacturers have models coming between now and 2020. So the stage is set for the up take of electric vehicles at least by 2020. I think that by then demand will out strip supply. The manufacturers simply won’t be able to make enough electric cars while the Giggle pots sit on the sales lot because people want to go electric and the price of fuel for ICE cars will make electric vehicles the car of choice. Of course the oil companies may drop the price of oil to move their product. You might be able to get an ICE car for a steal as manufacturers and car yards try to liquidate their stock.
Something else is happening right now. This is converting existing ICE vehicles to all electric. Expect to see that become more prevalent. The time it takes to charge an electric vehicle is getting shorter. There is one that can be recharged in 6 minutes. This is what it takes now to fill a gas tank if it is empty.
Airoplanes are now becoming electric. You can buy an airoplane that is electric. It has a flight time of around four hours. At the air port the battery pack can be exchanged with a fully charged one. The one I saw was a small passenger plane. Others are on the drawing board as well. You won’t see an electric air bus or dream liner any time soon though. The amount of power that these things need is too astronomical.
What about boats. Well you can buy an electric out board motor. It is usually quite small. Used for fishing where an ICE motor might scare the fish. In time to come though you might be able to get an electric runabout which is covered completely both inside and out with a light sensitive membrane which will generate the power. Add a battery and it could still be used when the sun goes down. Can you imagine a Tesla motor and converter connected to a water jet? If Elon doesn’t do it someone else will. That boat will really boogie.
It appears that Elon can sell as many cars as he can make. I think we are on the edge of a cliff when it comes to electric vehicles. For me the market is consumer driven. If everyone is like me. I have been waiting for my electric car for 72 years. It’s still not in my garage. The next five years will be very interesting indeed. It is difficult to see the future. We will soon see how I went with my predictions. So many variables to consider it is easy to get it wrong.
Sorry about the pictures. For some reason my site is not up loading pictures to use in my posts. Yes! I fixed the issue with photos.
