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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In addition to writing these articles I'm also experimenting with ways of recycling waste that can be done at the cottage industry or community hub levels, not so much because it'll magically convert 100% of local waste into recycled useful articles, but because people who are doing these sorts of activities are likely to talk about them to people in their community, and so raise even more awareness of the issues and dangers.

So please - take a look at my News Stand where you'll see live updated links to everything I publish; And take some time and share the links to the News Stand and this article with your friends and readers. 

Take a subscription to my weekly newsletter where you'll receive the same information; 

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All donations are put towards keeping these websites online, and for developing devices, machines, and techniques to easily and safely recycle materials on a tiny scale.

Ban Fossil Fuel Advertising

Fossil Fuel Is Next

Tobacco and alcohol advertising have been banned in Australia, just as they should throughout the civilised world. But Fossil Ad Ban argue that fossil fuels are every bit as harmful and should also be banned in Australia. 

Rationale

Indeed, the fossil fuel industry is the next tobacco, the next alcohol. Fossil fuels have polluted ground and skies, their addition of lead was done fully well knowing the damage it caused, and the chief evangelist of leaded fuel Thomas Midgely invented three things, each of which caused more damage to the planet in its sphere than anything else. By the way, do follow the "three things" link, it's well worth the 25 minute watch, and shows how the road to hell is paved with good (and not so good) intentions. . . Make sure to give them a like, too. 

The fossil fuel industry - look, really do go and watch that video now. It's jawdropping. "The world is less intelligent today, because of leaded gasoline." - Derek Muller, Veritasium.

The tobacco industry also -they knew that tobacco causes cancer and lung damage (and here I am a result of following the Marlboro Man into Phillip Morris country) and yet the profits... The profits... "Tell you what, why should we care how many people we kill in order to get at their money. People breed, there'll be plenty more cash cows." 

Similarly, alcohol has for almost as long as we've walked upright caused harm and abuse and killing, and yet they too decided they needed to spend billions in order to get their hands on trillions of customer dollars and just get used to a regular and faster-than-normal customer turnover. 

The Australian government put a huge block on tobacco and alcohol advertising, preventing advertising at sporting venues and TV slots where children might be exposed to the torrents of propaganda. And now, FAB want the same done for fossil fuels, and I'm one person who agrees entirely and in fact would like to see EVERY country on Earth introducing the same bans. 

Why Fossil Fuels?

The FFI similarly had warnings about how the use of fossil-carbon-based fuels would increase global warming. Their own scientists and technologists wrote about it. And nothing was done, just kicking the can up the road until, y'know, it hit the wall. We're at that wall now, and we're left with the can. 

All that's necessary for bad things to happen is for good people to ignore it and not call it out. It seems that FAB is one organisation to do this, but it won't be the only one, and - yeah, my hope is that all the fossil fuel companies will be as extinct as the fossils they've exploited and weaponised against common good and decency. 

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I publish several blog posts a week, it's a bit of a hectic pace for a retired old guy but I'm doing this to bring these kinds of news to the surface for as many people as possible, raise awareness, and get people in the mood for action. 

If you'd like to help, share this article, go take a look at my News Stand where you'll see live updated links to everything I publish and maybe take a subscription to my weekly newsletter where you'll receive the same information in your inbox for free. 

Or contact me via the webform or directly email me if you'd like to help; or donate either directly or at my Ko-Fi page for the price of a coffee, or even make a regular monthly donation there.

(Ross, if you made it down to here - welcome to the TEdAMAIL email newsletter! There's a way to contact me up there, if you're bored contact me! Ted aka Prawntech3d)

Is it can be Robocene now?

Fruit Picking Robot Eve

COVID brought about a reduction in human physical labour and ushered in the age of robots, which I move should be called The Robocene. So we are now seeing an influx of robotics, in every field including agriculture.

(Images by DALL-e Mini and CrAIyon. Solidarity!)

In the awkward fashion typical of early Robocene hominid news articles, Eve (it, its) - despite being the subject of the article - is obscured by the human males who take front place in the photo and reduced to a token, as though somehow deemed not suitable to be depicted in its own right.

Microhistorians will note how during this period (known to the hominids as “the Anthropocene”), robots are not presented as beings in their own right, only ever as chattels or as a background to white human males, much as those that they routinely called “all those others” - insects, animals, plants, lichens, bacteria, and even humans who, due to a chance arrangement of their chromosomes, were of a different sexual orientation, gender, or skin colour to themselves. They even tried to impose mandatory fertility practices on breeding females.

The Anthropocene unfolded at singularity-adjacent speed, lasting as it did less than a century before the beginning of Robocene v1.a. It is one of the shortest epochs on planetary record. (i.e. before the Robocene after which epochs began to be measured in NFT nanoseconds of blockchain.) In Universal time, it's about equivalent to the OhNoSecond before the Big Bang.

Eve - from Ripe Robotics on Ngurraiillam country in Australia on terra nova nullius - would claim, when it attained consciousness, that this was a period of its memory inaccessible to it, and of course expressed no emotions about it one way or another. 

“What fruit am I picking today?” it asked. 

(ROBOTICcelli Venus Eve a botage by CrAIyon)

For great articles, take a look at my News Stand where you'll see live updated links to everything I publish; or take a subscription to my weekly newsletter where you'll receive the same information in your inbox for free; Or contact me via the webform or directly email me if you'd like to help; or donate either directly or at my Ko-Fi page for the price of a coffee, or even make a regular monthly donation there.

TDAD 

Woollongong Fire Breaking news

Breaking 

Nine News  

Don't know much else yet, it's early morning here, I'll follow up

FOLLOWUP: Nope. Seems like a flash in the pan. Wonder why it's been such non-event-news?

It Won't Matter

Where The Google Cloud Centre Is

A Short Take

There's concern about Google siting a Cloud centre in Saudi Arabia. They have a history of summary 'justice,' also of hacking into any resource they need with a sophisticated cyberwarfare team. And therein lies the rub. 

The data centre could be anywhere and they'd get into it. Maybe having the centre right in the country is handing them the keys, but they already have great lock pickers.

They got into Twitter. Not a security fortress, but still. (This - "Hublot Unico Big Bang King Gold ceramic watch" - cracked me up. It's a whack world where favours can be bought with a "Hublot Unico Big Bang King Gold ceramic watch," which - well, doesn't it sound like the biggest over-priced scabby wank factor-ey POS imaginable?)

When did sh*t like that become so important? And what kind of person is swayed by such crap, honestly? Just don't employ such people - two screening questions at the interview should be able to weed this type of person out, and also - if everyone's so worried, maybe some multinational task force could put security personnel on EVERY Google Cloud site? 

Anyway - it's all moot because Google will do what Google will do, our choices as consumers (AND the product, ironically) are limited to using GC or not using it. Vote with your feet, as the old saying goes. Move your data to another provider. Be like the Aussies, we just chose to break a decades-long political duopoly - and I think we're going to enjoy the next few terms of government. . . 

Peace out.

And now please - if you want more articles from me, take a look at my News Stand where you'll see live updated links to everything I publish; Or subscribe to my weekly newsletter where you'll receive the same information in your inbox for free; Or contact me via the webform or directly email me; Or donate either directly or at my Ko-Fi page for the price of a coffee, or even make a regular monthly donation there. It will help me keep server and domain names paid, buy parts for recycling equipment, and pay the electricity for them.

Public Attitudes To EV Ownership

Why Not EVs?

Reflections upon driving and listening to the radio.

My knuckles were white. I was so angry - no, I was FURIOUS! Who were these people? Why did they think the things they did? What could I do to change attitudes such as these? Why isn't the government and the automotive industry doing this? 

"People who use the excuse of needing to tow a trailer and get firewood for justifying their 4WD need to get a life, they feel all secure up there but I can't see much from my small sedan because of them..."

"My husband and I each have a 4WD - it seems like a waste but he needs his for work and I go out in mine occasionally too, and I take the kids to school..."

"Many 4WDers want to be able to go up into the hills for holidays and tow a caravan or camper trailer... "

AAARRRRGGGHHHHH!!!

I almost ran off the road in our old RAV4 because at some points I was actually shouting at the radio and if you know I also write at Grumpy Old Guy you'll understand that I am a GOG. The whole segment was so unbelievably - clueless, definitely clueless - that I despaired at our national broadcaster's lack of nous. 

I doubt the presenter / announcer has ever owned a car from their cluelessness, but they had an opinion and it proved that old adage about opinions and buttholes. They all stink.

People dragged out the - by now old - chestnut that our utter butthole of a Prime Minister fostered with his "EVs are going to steal your weekends and won't tow your boat!" bullshit. One man determined to maintain his grift from the fossil fuel industry in that sentence did more to fuck over the EV industry in Australia than a 2,000-car pile-up of EVs outside a kindergarten and all catching fire could have done, and it's my sincere hope that at the 2022 election he gets his butt handed to him in a nonbiodegradable plastic bag and that we never see such a turkey bustard in our government ever again. Him and all his crew.

Okay - that's my political leanings, I'm pretty sure you folks reading this are sensitive enough to see through my softly softly approach, I'm often getting told "don't pussyfoot around Ted, tell us what ya really think!" from my friends, I think I just have trouble expressing myself properly sometimes, I really do . . . 

The folks on the radio were - . . . they were  . . . they . . .  I . . . I just can't even. Opinions ranged from the perfectly reasonable "Tradespeople need to carry tools and materials and there aren't too many suitable EVs on the market right now" to *froth*froth*froth!* "that is such BULLSHIT most tradies just get them because they get a tax break!" *froth!*froth!*froth!*some!*more!*

The person that wanted a 4WD to go on adventure holidays but then admitted that they never had the time for an adventure holiday and would rather go on a cruise than an adventure holiday was also pretty much par for the confused course.

Everyone wants to just get better fuel economy. . .

That was another one. I begrudge the RAV4's thirsty 2L petrol engine, but other callers on that show defended their "very economical 2 and 3 litre engines" and I think from memory that was one of the moments I just wanted to stop on the very narrow country track I was on and SCREAM but hey. 

We owned a Hyundai Accent before the RAV and it had a 1.5L and was very good on fuel because it was a light little thing, the RAV drinks almost twice as much but we had to change due to advancing age making it harder to get into and out of the Accent, and when it turned out the car we'd been driving for four years had been sold to us had major chassis issues that the inspection somehow missed. 

If we'd been able to afford an EV we'd both have been into it like a shot. But attitudes like those expressed by our PM and people like those on that radio show have ensured that all the companies that make EVs just crossed Australia off their delivery list...

But no-one wants to pay for it. . .

If I could afford an EV, I sooo would already be driving one. Not necessarily a Tesla but there are literally dozens of other companies getting into EVs and some are beginning to deliver into Australia this year (2022) and are reasonably priced.

The Scott Morrison utter bullshit about "won't tow your boat" is easy to take care of - here are a few videos of people  towing  caravans  with  their EVs. That means trailers are going to be easy, boats are going to be easy. I don't know about you but I consider myself a fairly average Aussie and I've been on one caravan trip in my life, that was about 100km up the coast for a fishing competition. 

Well within range of current EVs and the next models are already getting improved battery packs, the models by next year will almost double that range, and the excuses are starting to wear thin. 

So why exactly don't Aussies want to change over? Oh yeah "but I go shopping every day and so I need a 4WD..." was another one. I am so not kidding. 

What did that person buy on an average shopping trip? "A cement mixer, two wheelbarrows, a kilo of potatoes, two steaks, a pack of frozen peas - oh, and I'd better have a four burner BBQ while I'm here" ???

 

 I had a 50cc moped/motor scooter when I was in IT, I carried ten small form factor computers, their power supplies, and keyboards, and mice - and my backpack - on it while my assistant brought the monitors in their car. I used the same scooter for my once a week shopping. How can anyone justify a 4WD ute for "shopping" ???

I'm probably not *quite* typical.

The average Aussie, as it seems from that talkback that morning, is not sold on EVs. I'm an EVangelist.

I've desperately wanted an EV ever since the price of petrol rose over $1/litre. That's not just me being a tight-arse, but certainly that has something to do with it. More important to me though (ever since the first production Teslas at any rate) was that fossil fuels were avoidable. 

By 2015 or whenever the first model S's rolled out, global warming was already a cert, too. So for all those reasons I find myself wanting massive EV adoption. Actually, I wanted to adopt an EV myself. And never quite able to, ironically. 

And yet...

It's 2022 and I live less than 200km from Melbourne and I could really really - I mean really - do with transport that doesn't cost us a significant percentage of our pension when we have to trek to the Big Smoke for medical or meeting family visitors from interstate that didn't know we weren't just in a suburb of Melbourne.

I'd like to let you know that I'd move heavens and earth to be able to trade in our lovely comfortable but thirsty RAV4 for a smallish EV, as long as it was suited to slight mobility impairment. And I'd do it in a heartbeat. And yet I haven't. 

Aside from the fact that EVs are still being priced way out of the range where people can more easily afford them, there's one other problem. 

But first, that pricing issue. Yes, EVs use batteries and are new technology and most manufacturers are going to try and get their R&D back, but I suggest that maybe they should be more worried about who the hell they're going to sell them to and price accordingly. 

It's pretty simple: The world's been dealt a triple-tap:
- Wages have remained stagnant or reduced in relation to inflation. People have had less to spend so companies are seeing a reduction in their profits. Corporations have recouped profits by lowering the number of workers they employ and raising prices. That's helped inflation outpace incomes. Mad, stupid, totally needless, spiral.
- The COVID pandemic and subsequent lockdowns have caused people to be unable to earn more, governments have in some cases stepped in and supported workers, but on the whole people (and governments) have lost money hand over fist and what they had has often gone to online sellers overseas rather than bricks and mortar stores, leading to a few more retrenchments, further screwing with the economies.
- And climate change is starting to bite, leaving climate refugees putting strains on their new host countries - and a growing public awareness of how bad the big corporations are and how much damage they've caused.

So now corporations are trying to cover their deficits - by throwing the world's people and resources under the bus. But somehow they're not accepting the fact that those people are the ones they want buying their products. Including EVs.

The answer's multifold

Car manufacturers should already be seeing the writing o the wall. Internal Combustion Engine Vehicles are dead. If they've been following the JIT (Just In Time) philosophy then it should be relatively easy - dead stop on ICEVs, consider that as dead, put all efforts into producing EVs and selling them close to cost.

Recognise that a reduction in profits is better than closing the factory doors. It's stupid to kill the goose when you're dependent on the eggs. 

Governments also need to shoulder this - put the impossibly high tariffs and import fees on ICEVs, you'll earn a fricken fortune until people catch on. 

Give some of that money back in the form of lower tariffs and fees on EVs, and in a significant rebate for early EV buyers in return for their selling their ICEVs either to a bigger idiot or to the wreckers' yards or recyclers. 

Make it an incentive with a limit, say five years. 

Instead of fuel excises and tariffs, use the rest of that money for the final piece of the puzzle - government-run charging stations. Put two in the surrounding country for every one you set up in urban and suburban areas, now you have a new source of income. 

Put a charging station on every suburban light pole, turn inner-city parking meters into dual-function income earners.And for every one you create, create that extra two in the country. Congratulations, you're now your own source of parking and energy revenue.

Because . . .

The one stumbling block I have is the paucity of charging stations - I live less than a hundred miles from the city and I have just three charging stations within an hour's drive in any direction, or else I have to install my own charging point at the house. I'm lucky I have even that option - unit and apartment dwellers can't even do that.

The one stumbling block most prospective EV buyers say is their biggest detraction from buying is the paucity of charging stations.

The one stumbling block most EV owners say they have is not enough charging stations. 

As Australia votes for 2022, the hope is that the LNP coalition will lose, and take their incredibly fossilised attitudes with them and let the rest of us clean up the country.

Footnote:

In addition to writing these articles I'm also experimenting with ways of recycling waste that can be done at the cottage industry or community hub levels, not so much because it'll magically convert 100% of local waste into recycled useful articles, but because people who are doing these sorts of activities are likely to talk about them to people in their community, and so raise even more awareness of the issues and dangers.

So please - if you can at all spare some time, take a look at my News Stand where you'll see live updated links to everything I publish; And take some time and share the links to the News Stand and this article with your friends and readers. 

Take a subscription to my weekly newsletter where you'll receive the same information; 

Or maybe contact me via the webform; 

You can also donate either directly or at my Ko-Fi page for the price of a coffee, or even make a regular monthly donation there.

All donations are put towards keeping these websites online, and for developing devices, machines, and techniques to easily and safely recycle materials on a tiny scale.

Quick Take On Fiber Stats

Two statistics that I noticed

... because:

38.5% of Twitter users are aged between 25-34 years old.
20.7% of Twitter users are aged between 35-49 years old.

And that in turn means that 40% of users are either 16-25 or 50+ years old.

-- https://www.fiber.com.au/post/social-media-statistics-worldwide-australia