Australia plans electric vehicle network

Jimmeh

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Friend at work wanted me to post this.... sounds very interesting!

If its a double post, please let me know, I couldnt find anything on it. :rolleyes:

MELBOURNE (AFP) ? A US firm Thursday unveiled plans to build a massive one-billion-dollar (667 million US) charging network to power electric cars in Australia as it seeks cleaner and cheaper options to petrol.

Better Place, which has built plug-in stations for electric vehicles in Israel and Denmark, has joined forces with Australian power company AGL and finance group Macquarie Capital to create an Australian network.

Under the agreement, Macquarie will raise one billion dollars to build electric-vehicle networks in the country's largest cities -- Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane -- while AGL will power the system with renewable energy.

"We call it a ubiquitous charging network across the cities," said Better Place chief executive and founder Shai Agassi in Melbourne.

"We are investing in Australia's economy and adding jobs while helping the country take a generational leap forward toward oil independence," he said.

Under the plan, the three cities will each have a network of between 200,000 and 250,000 charge stations by 2012 where drivers can plug in and power up their electric cars.

The points would probably be at homes and businesses, car parks and shopping centres, he said.

In addition, 150 switch stations will be built in each city and on major freeways, where electric batteries can be automatically replaced in drive-in stations similar to a car wash.

Under the scheme, which is likely to strike a green chord in Australia where the price of petrol is also notoriously high, drivers will pay to recharge their cars through various power supply agreements similar to mobile phone contracts.

Drivers can pick a plan and rate that best reflects their car use.

Agassi stressed that the deal was crucial as people would only buy electric vehicles if they could recharge them easily.

Franco-Japanese automaker Renault-Nissan and General Motors are both planning electric cars to debut in the next next two years, but Agassi called on Australian manufacturers to develop their own versions.

He said Australian federal and state governments must now work out how they could encourage drivers to turn to electric cars, by offering sweeteners such as tax incentives or free power for the first purchasers.

"It's more a question for the government for how quickly they want the tipping point (towards electric cars) to happen," he said.

"Every government decides what they want to do. We believe that Australia, looking at all the alternatives, will pick the right mix for Australia."

John Brumby, premier of the southern state of Victoria of which Melbourne is the capital, said his government backed the plan.

"We support any initiative that will have positive outcomes in reducing emissions in the transport sector and welcomes this innovative approach to help make broad adoption of EVs (electric vehicles) in Australia possible," he said.

SOURCE
 
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I highly doubt AGL can supply it entirely with renewable energy meaning that nice chunks of brown coal dug up from the latrobe valley will be burnt to meet supply...
 
How, exactly, is this to be powered? The greenies and libs in .AU banned nuclear power and I doubt they will allow new fossil fuel plants.....
 
Great, so our roads will get clogged up with slow electric cars (I doubt they'll put Tesla Roadsters in as hire cars, and a Chevy Volt isn't 100% electric) by people who can't drive whilst the whole community suffers more blackouts because the current powergrid can barely handle the loads placed on it.

An electric commodore or Falcon? Hmm, interesting idea, but how much would they cost taxpayers to purchase? The conventional commodores and falcons aren't exactly cheap already.
 
Great, so our roads will get clogged up with slow electric cars (I doubt they'll put Tesla Roadsters in as hire cars, and a Chevy Volt isn't 100% electric) by people who can't drive whilst the whole community suffers more blackouts because the current powergrid can barely handle the loads placed on it.

An electric commodore or Falcon? Hmm, interesting idea, but how much would they cost taxpayers to purchase? The conventional commodores and falcons aren't exactly cheap already.

I think you'd have to be a moron to buy a brand new commodore or falcon as a private car. Unless it was a tax writeoff.

I know its bad for their sales, but i do what i always do. Wait 12-18 months, find a good one, low km, full service records, perfect condition, save yourself 35-40% of the new purchase price.
 
How, exactly, is this to be powered? The greenies and libs in .AU banned nuclear power and I doubt they will allow new fossil fuel plants.....

Hydro, solar and wind. There's plenty of it down here.

I highly doubt AGL can supply it entirely with renewable energy meaning that nice chunks of brown coal dug up from the latrobe valley will be burnt to meet supply...

hahaha, yeah, no way AGL can produce enough renewable to run this.

Brown coal, yay!
 
Just wait until Australia finds a way to produce power from silence, there will be no stopping them. They can just fill the outback with silence generators. Either that or put big tubes in the ground with paddle wheels, so when roos fall down the tubes they spin the generator.
 
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Just wait until Australia find a way to produce power from silence, there will be no stopping them. They can just fill the outback with silence generators. Either that or put big tubes in the ground with paddle wheels, so when roos fall down the tubes they spin the generator.

:lol: holy crap, I have been in a bad mood all day because of this bloody cold I can't shake but that made me laugh. Thankyou.

We need more wind power in Victoria!
 
The conventional commodores and falcons aren't exactly cheap already.

This statement made me curious, so using the Holden and Pontiac websites I priced a G8 GT against an equivalent Commodore SS (including the 2000AUD for an automatic as the manual isn't available in the US). With the options selected, taking into account the current exchange rate, the difference in prices was about 50USD(80AUD) in favor of the Pontiac.
 
This statement made me curious, so using the Holden and Pontiac websites I priced a G8 GT against an equivalent Commodore SS (including the 2000AUD for an automatic as the manual isn't available in the US). With the options selected, taking into account the current exchange rate, the difference in prices was about 50USD(80AUD) in favor of the Pontiac.

It used to be (before the dollar totally tanked) about $7000 in favour of the pontiac.
 
How, exactly, is this to be powered? The greenies and libs in .AU banned nuclear power and I doubt they will allow new fossil fuel plants.....

First off sunshine, our definition of "libs" (Liberal) is completely opposite to what you yanks think....I think you probably know that anyway. (Hint: not a fan of American politics and how they work and think)

I have to question the logic here, I know cars like the Reva G-wiz are banned here (thank God!) so what are we going to drive? "Yes we have a filling station and no car..."

Hell I do see a market oportunity here....I'll build another one of my current car with a electric motor at work and make millions :lol:

Edit:

Also look at Australia...its rather large with a very low population density. I'd get rather upset for a city only car project funded by the government....even tho I do live in a city....
 
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Also look at Australia...its rather large with a very low population density. I'd get rather upset for a city only car project funded by the government....even tho I do live in a city....

Statistics, and how they get twisted. We have a low population density because the vast, vast majority of the country is uninhabited - so the density figure is hugely misleading and doesn't represent how & where the majority of us live. Our real population density is enormously higher than the raw statistics suggest.
 
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Statistics, and how they get twisted. We have a low population density because the vast, vast majority of the country is uninhabited - so the density figure is hugely misleading and doesn't represent how & where the majority of us live. Our real population density is enormously higher than the raw statistics suggest.

Well actually you do have a point there, I didn't think of it that way....and I suppose you'd then index it with what the average car is used for and it may work out not too bad at all......O.K I'll retract that one :)

/-1 for not thinking this one all the way through....
 
Looking at a map, China has a low overall population density too.
 
Gooooood luck with that! I mean, electric cars make sense for inner-city commuting, but this'll never happen.
 
I have been thinking... since oil is running out sooner or later and it is not decided yet which technology will follow the combustion engine to be used for individual transportation, it could very well be that there are different systems around the world in a couple of decades.

It is not guaranteed that we all end up driving the same kind of cars all over the world.
 
Just keep quiet that much of Australian electricity (particularly that of Victoria, which has one of the dirtiest power plants in the developed world) is generated from brown coal :p

What's more, people is actually trying to talk up the white elephant that is 'clean coal'.

It might work in a city, but it certainly won't work in the Simpson Desert.
 
Just keep quiet that much of Australian electricity (particularly that of Victoria, which has one of the dirtiest power plants in the developed world) is generated from brown coal :p

What's more, people is actually trying to talk up the white elephant that is 'clean coal'.

It might work in a city, but it certainly won't work in the Simpson Desert.

yeah but the same people that winge about coal power being so dirty are the first people to complain when there is going to be a wind farm within 20km of their house.
 
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