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[Cyberprog]

And Druid, you may not have as much sun, hardly any it seems, but you have the wind and that works fine for power generation day or night. Perhaps a small wind turbine on the Druid Ranch could be in the wings? Would require a bit of heavy machinery and metal fabrication skills? Know who could do that?

He's bound to have built one before anyways

 

[V8Druid]

Yes I know their MOT is strict, but most modern vehicles will not have the emissions worries of older models. Decent engine management systems and components are very reliable now, and no reason a vehicle won’t run as cleanly at ten years old, as it did when new.

component wear James .... rings, bores, valve guides & seals, etc. .... it'll be oil burn that kills most vehicles on emmissions

 

[V8Druid]

Precisely .. Electric will not be widespread while there’s still oil in the ground and money to be made from it. The oil companies are too rich to let it happen and have too much to loose.
The electric we have is just a token gesture to look like there are efforts and changes being made. It’s all smoke and mirrors.
Not to mention the environmental impact of actually producing these vehicles. Admittedly there are obviously zero emissions from there operation, but what’s coming out the back of a modern petrol vehicle these days? Next to f**k all if you look at the emissions tester during an MOT.

Same thing happened with LPG James .... heralded as a much cleaner fuel ... and it is .. but was only promoted for a limited period, 'til 'the shine' wore off the bullshit press releases .....
I started selling LPG retail in 2000 and sales were pretty decent with a lot of users in my area ... and then the LPG costs started climbing big time .... was 23p / L when I started and quickly doubled .... now well over 80p/L .... still cheap but not enough to continue growth of conversions at quite a large cost - up to 2.5K for some vehicles.... did me own and still cost 5-600 quid for components, without a day plus of effort.
The Gov. at the time were seen to be being 'green' promoting it .... Propane is a by product of refining petrol/diesel and should be cheap as chips .... used to sell it to Eu countires like Spain and portugal at 2p/L, just to get it out of the country, as we did not have enough users for the oil barons to avoid having to pay the carbon taxes for burning it off at source ..... but we were still getting hammered by progressively rising prices.
when LPG tipped the 50p/L mark sales went south ... people could not be arsed to 'go looking' for gas suppliers and simply reverted to petrol, (which was around 85-90p/L, at the time),unless they had a convenient supplier or would fill with gas, as the opportunities arose - which were few and far between, as although the Gov. promoted the idea of using it, there were no incentives to install outlets ..... I wouldn't have if I hadn't run it in me cars and FLTs. ... wasn't a cheap exercise !!

 

[AusDave]

As electric vehicle components scale up in production the cost will come down. Lithium mining in Australian is now becoming the new iron ore with our biggest companies buying up smaller miners to scale up production. Apparently Australia has the second most cobalt reserves after the Congo as well.
Given the impediments to electric vehicles are mainly scale, and improvements in technology are going to be fast, its likely that one of the main reasons for going electric will be that it becomes cheaper to buy an electric vehicle or machine than fossil fuels. Consider how many parts are in a diesel engine nowadays, especially expensive common rail parts, and compare that to a 3 phase electric motor. Although a battery electric motor is a little more complex than the 3 phase at your local factory/workshop, the simple operating principles of electric motors haven't changed much over the past 50 years.
And I don't think the cost of electricity is going to be an impediment either. Because baseload power runs almost continuously, even overnight when there's not as much demand, there will be deals for cheaper power if you are flexible with your charging times. And because renewable power from solar or wind needs a battery to make money when the wind blows or sun shines and the demand is low, there will be deals there too.

There is also the possibility of smaller scale vehicle manufacturing as you can buy the whole electric drive system from Siemens and put it in the vehicle or machine of your choice. It will be a lot simpler to custom build when the drive components are modular and relatively simple and don't require thousands of dollars of expensive emission control gear. It may be possible to convert existing equipment to electric if the price is right.

Got plenty of sunny rooftop to power my future electric toys , AusDave

 

[V8Druid]

As electric vehicle components scale up in production the cost will come down. ..... Given the impediments to electric vehicles are mainly scale, , AusDave

IMHDO Dave, the greatest impediment to going electric is range
until that issue is resolved, they just cannot compete with conventional vehicles ..... I don't do a lot of miles these days so it'd fit my usage ... most of the time .... but ... go anywhere distant and yer's bollo-ed ...
can imagine, with the scale of the journeys a lot of you guys take in Oz, it would be a major obstacle to widespread acceptance / utilisation of leccy vehicles .....
unless there was a radical rethink on the way they're designed/shaped to accommodate far more battery storage capacity ?

out of interest .... how is LPG doing out there with you .. it seemed to do well initially, from what I've heard/read and more widely available than it ever was here.?

 

[AusDave]

IMHDO Dave, the greatest impediment to going electric is range
until that issue is resolved, they just cannot compete with conventional vehicles ..... I don't do a lot of miles these days so it'd fit my usage ... most of the time .... but ... go anywhere distant and yer's bollo-ed ...
can imagine, with the scale of the journeys a lot of you guys take in Oz, it would be a major obstacle to widespread acceptance / utilisation of leccy vehicles .....
unless there was a radical rethink on the way they're designed/shaped to accommodate far more battery storage capacity ?

out of interest .... how is LPG doing out there with you .. it seemed to do well initially, from what I've heard/read and more widely available than it ever was here.?

Range is dependent how much long distance driving is required, battery capacity and recharging networks. For the average commuter driving say 50km each way to work, range isn't an issue as you can charge at home or your workplace may have facilities. Remember that although Australia is a big country, it is also one of the most urbanised countries on the planet, more so than the UK! This usage is easily accessed even by small battery capacity EVs and even rechargeable hybrids. EVs with 300km plus battery capacity shouldn't be a problem as a recharging stop for a food/drink etc will give you at least another 200km if there is a fast charger. The chance to get customers who drive EVs will also mean service stations will see $$ in providing recharging facilities. Also as there is no fuel storage required you'll probably see other recharging providers setting up at carparks in supermarkets, parking stations and even suburban sidewalks.
Once again the issue is scale. When there are increasing numbers of EVs then there will be money to be made by recharging them, lots of money for the first movers.
In Australia you can drive just about anywhere in an EV using the the major highways, as Tesla has already set up their own network of recharging stations. The GPS will tell you where they are according to the route you have planned. In short, its a short term problem.

As for LP gas, I had in the past a number of vehicles running on LPG. Back in the day LPG was less than half the price of petrol which made it a relatively short time to recoup the installation cost and start saving. Nowadays with more fuel efficient vehicles and the cost of LPG being more than half the price of petrol, it no longer makes sense. The complexity of modern engines and the lack of space for an LPG tank doesn't help either. However if the price went down substantially relative to petrol it could become popular again, but I think it's now been indexed to other fuels in this country so I don't think that's going to happen. Electric vehicles will probably wipe LPG out as a vehicle fuel. Still have LPG at home however, runs the stove when I run out of biogas and the on demand hot water system

AusDave