Electric 4WD?

[ango]

The worry is that they will increase fuel taxes or introduce a rego surcharge, then use the funds to subsidise EV's and everybody ends up paying more like happened with electricity. Did you realise that a petrol price of $1.412/L includes $0.412 excise and $0.128 GST leaving $0.8716 for the retailer/producer.
Cheers
Ango.

[colnick]

I reckon we need to keep this in perspective. The Labor target is 50% of NEW vehicles by 2030. That will still leave millions of old vehicles and half of the new vehicles sold still running on the internal combustion engine.
If, as the car companies and tech experts predict, purchase prices come down to realistic levels, ranges increase, charging times come down to 10 minutes and en-route charging opportunities develop, the purchase of an electric vehicle will become almost a no-brainer for many drivers. In particular, city commuters who can mainly charge overnight at home will find electric cars attractive. It's not hard to see that these people might make up 50% of new vehicle buyers by 2030.
For people like me, who regularly drive 500 km plus in a day and who spend a lot of time camping in rural and remote areas with little or no access to electricity, the temptation to be part of the 50% who don't buy electric will be strong. But I've got over 11 years to watch developments with interest.
I just hope that we continue to pursue development of alternative fuels, like hydrogen, to cater for everyone's requirements in our big, sparsely populated country.

[4liters]

My god this was a dumb argument when the libs tried to get stuck into it, only to find they’d been promoting electric cars themselves for years.

People need to keep in mind that the major car manufacturers are going down this path on their own. As we no longer manufacture cars this is going to happen if we like it or not.

What a policy like this does is to give investors some certainty in the direction we are heading and give them confidence that investing in **** like fast chargers is likely to provide a return. This is probably the most important point because we’ll get to a stage where because of what is happening overseas the international car makers decide there isn’t enough demand for a bunch of petrol driven models to justify making them anymore and suddenly there is a much smaller range of cars to choose from, while we still haven’t developed the infrastructure to properly support electric cars.

The other thing to keep in mind is that this is very new technology and the first generation of electric cars are likely to be impractical pieces of **** but that’s is not to say they will all be like this forever.

The final thing to keep in mind is that it’s only 50%. There are going to be some applications that electric vehicles will never be well suited for and people will still be able to buy an internal combustion driven vehicle if they need it.

[Mattblack]

I looking forward to the electric vehicle revolution...and it's certainly coming.
Tesla is releasing a Roadster next year that will go 0-100 km/h in 1.9sec and have a range of 1000kms...I can only assume the big car companies have all sorts of surprises under wraps as well.
Never liked Harley's, but this one has sparked my interest https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeBkakN8TKM

[ango]

I just discovered we have an all electric SUV in Australia, the Hyundai Kona. I had a look at the specs on Redbook, it seems it’s actually only available in FWD. Comparing it to the petrol equivalent, the electric costs $59990, petrol $29500, weight is 1743Kg, petrol 1353 Kg, the petrol model has a tow rating of 1300 Kg while the electric seems to be unrated. I hope all you electric car fans have plenty of money because it seems that’s what you will need to own one. I will keep a lookout and when I see the first one on the road I will let you all know.
Cheers
Ango.

[Mattblack]

I just discovered we have an all electric SUV in Australia, the Hyundai Kona. I had a look at the specs on Redbook, it seems it’s actually only available in FWD. Comparing it to the petrol equivalent, the electric costs $59990, petrol $29500, weight is 1743Kg, petrol 1353 Kg, the petrol model has a tow rating of 1300 Kg while the electric seems to be unrated. I hope all you electric car fans have plenty of money because it seems that’s what you will need to own one. I will keep a lookout and when I see the first one on the road I will let you all know.
Cheers
Ango.

New technology is always expensive (& as others have noted, battery tech is in its infancy...it will certainly get better and cheaper). Service/fuel costs are significantly cheaper, whilst the environmental footprint is debateable.
Australia is a bit behind most 1st world countries...60% of car sales in Norway are electric vehicles.
Electric boats will be interesting

[4liters]

There was an interesting discussion about this very topic on Jon Faine’s program this morning.

[Nightwish]

Think you will find most members here would vote labour

Good to see you are still about Tackleberry
:cheers:

[Nightwish]

I looking forward to the electric vehicle revolution...and it's certainly coming.
Tesla is releasing a Roadster next year that will go 0-100 km/h in 1.9sec and have a range of 1000kms...I can only assume the big car companies have all sorts of surprises under wraps as well.
Never liked Harley's, but this one has sparked my interest https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeBkakN8TKM

l am with you Mattblack,l can't stand Harley's but l suppose even they have to try and keep up with the times or become irrelevant.
:cheers:

[frozenpod]

Just back from overseas where the city I was in has 60% of public transport buses are 100% electric.

They went from zero to 60% in under 2 years.

Battery technology is already up to heavy duty applications.