A "Roadblock" Removed For Aussie EV Drivers

Ending Range Anxiety

What would you reckon to be the one thing that has been holding people back the most from adopting EVs? Price has often been quoted - but this year onwards, EVs other than the pricey Teslas will be hitting the country's car showrooms in droves. And anyway, it really hasn't been the major stumbling block.

As the heading suggests, no-one wants to be caught with a flat battery halfway to Broken Hill or Alice Springs. But it's been checked out by the ANU who've concluded that with current technology in EVs and no doubt by the distribution of charging points, any population centre with more than 1,000 population is in range.

Even the appearance of EVs has become much more
acceptable, and most pass the "cool looking car" test.

My view:

EVs are getting better and better batteries, smarter and smarter electronics. Their range is already pushing 500km as an attainable standard. 300Km is already a standard most EVs can attain, and it's only going to go up from there. 

Charging infrastructure is going in at an increasing rate. Pretty soon you'll be able to find them closer together than service stations. Things will get better and better. For the people who consider that electric infrastructure will need to be improved (at great expense, mustn't forget the great expense, because after all dollars will survive any climate catastrophe, won't they? No-one around to use them and nothing left to spend them on, but oh think of the piles of dollars that will survive!) there are actually battery-backed charging points in production. 

Battery charges slowly over time to spread out the maximum current they'll draw, and then dump that as fast as possible into the next EV that plugs in. (The URL link above leads to a LinkedIn article, you should be able to see it.) For the power grid in cities and their CBDs, there are robotic chargers in parking lots that you can request on the phone, they'll reserve you a parking spot and wait for you, get out of the way while you park, and then park right up against your bumper and you can plug in and get charged while you go to work or to the shop or whatever. 

One more factor (as if any more were needed!) is that even faster charge points are being developed and EV manufacturers will of course rise to the occasion and their car internal chargers will soon be able to charge your car in 

The Australian government has as of July 1 2022 changed the incentives for EVs to bring prices down. It may be worthwhile to go to a State that has the best overall incentives to actually buy the car and then transfer the registration after you've driven it back home. 

(A NOTE: State governments get a share (or maybe all, I'm not sure) of the tariffs from the sales of vehicles so if we do this, the States with the best incentives will see increased revenue - and your own hold-out State may well be tempted to change their incentives. . . Worth thinking about!)

Some Things That Would Improve Adoption Drastically

So I'm hoping that Federal government will start providing an incentive for scrapping your current ICEV (never to be registered for on-road use again, only for parting out or recycling into an EV or at least a high-conversion plug-in hybrid (PHEV) in order to claim the incentive) and retain existing incentives for purchasing an EV, because then the EV will definitely come out cheaper than an equivalent ICEV. (Are you listening,. Messrs Albanese \ Bowen?)

And one reason that government's been reluctant to champion EVs would have to be the huge loss of revenue from petrol tariffs. The absolutely worst attempt to claw back some of this income has been the Australian States that are insisting on charging a tax per kilometre on EVs. But they also take vast amounts of revenue on toll roads. Let's suppose a scheme...

Less Invasive.

The toll readers (mounted over the toll roads in cities) recognise number plates and read a "toll token" that is attached to the vehicle. If the token is present, it's linked to a financial transaction mechanism. Generally, the owner of the token transfers funds to it to keep it in credit. Tolls are subtracted. If a token isn't present, the number plate is used, and the owner of the number plate must put funds into a similar credit account. And two number plates can be linked to one token, and neither needs to have the token for the linked account to be  used to pay the toll. 

Toll readers are almost an order of magnitude cheaper now. And therein lies a possible solution.

If highway segments between population centres had readers on them, country drivers could pay a toll for using that road on a per day basis. You go between Yourtown and Anotherplace for school, shopping, or whatever, you pay the toll. You go back and forth in that 24hr period, you don't get charged again. 

This means that regional drivers do pay a "mileage" fee but they pay far lower fees per kilometre than urban drivers. This is fair because country drivers may need to go ten kilometres to drop the kids off to school and then ten more to pick them up, another ten to go to the shops or medical appointments (and back) etc. In the city, the urban driver has less distance to drive for these amenities and the fees can be balanced in this way to remove the "distance tax" that regional drivers perceive to exist, and which was once addressed by lower fuel tariffs for agricultural and regional fuel.

And Even Less Invasive.

Once upon a time, governments were the main energy providers for the country and each State. The relentless drive for reducing responsibility and the perceived costs of this, led to privatisation of energy generation. But just suppose governments realised that this was a bad decision based on having no vision for the future? What if governments resumed power generation? 

NOW the government is earning income for every kilowatt of charge being put into EVs all over the country, without lifting a finger or antagonising EV owners who perceive themselves being taxed for doing the right thing for the environment and global warming targets. 

Even simpler for the government: INVEST. Invest in renewable energy projects only, in return for a normal share of the income. Once again, the government is making money from EV charging, and this way it can slowly resume energy generation and compete with the other energy providers to keep them in line. That's a win/win right there.

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