The thing that worries me about electric cars is that they are taking a simple and potentially low maintenance concept and stuffing it full of computers and software, guaranteed to play up at the worst possible time and that stuff is never cheap to get fixed.
The reason EVs are powerful and efficient is that they have small powerful motors that use electrical energy to make the wheels go around. None of the waste heat, noise or drive train friction losses that fossil fuel vehicles suffer.
The motors in the Tesla S which are capable of 0-100 km in 2.5 seconds are about the size of a watermelon and don't require a radiator to dissipate wasted energy in the form of heat. The energy savings are the trump card that EVs have over ICE vehicles and as battery technology and production advances the price differential will reduce to ICE equivalence and it will pretty much be game over for fossil fueled vehicles.
tony9,
Sep 13, 3:52am
How long do you think those places will give away money?
It is OK to do it now as there will be very little users of the free power and it gives them some green cred. But when the demand builds up?
And a few minutes (or even up to one hour) of charge out of the current standard 13 Amp external outlet will give you diddly squat of energy.
bashfulbro,
Sep 13, 4:24am
Keep them coming, because the more of them, petrol will become cheaper.
tony9,
Sep 13, 4:41am
Petrol is already cheaper than electricity for motive power. Do all the math, even with no light electrical RUC's, petrol/diesel is still a cheaper way of moving lumps of metal around.
harm_less,
Sep 13, 5:02am
The cost to the shop/cafe to charge an EV is about the same as a cup of coffee. That's a very cheap way to attract customers to your business, and typically they would be doing it via a charge unit with upwards of 7kW (30 amp) with fast chargers currently commonly capable of 40kW+.
harm_less,
Sep 13, 5:07am
Petrol cars will become cheaper as they become old technology but their fuel won't reduce in price as the effects of peak oil will ramp up again after the present fracking bonanza tails off.
mad_signtist,
Sep 13, 8:24am
I have an Electric Cherry picker. My biggest problem is burning through the motor control unit when the batteries get to low and they put strain on it. Onto my 3rd in 2 years. Unsure if this is the same for cars?
harm_less,
Sep 13, 8:58am
Sounds like your cherry picker is old technology. The computer control systems in EVs are very clever and primarily focussed on protecting the batteries. Our Leaf goes into 'crawl' mode when the battery gets low (less than 10km left) which is designed to make it very difficult to drain the charge to zero as this can be terminal for Li-Ion batteries. Also the Leaf's control system, and public charging stations (which are limited to 80% charge), are designed to prevent overcharging Li-Ion batteries which can lead to dangerous ignition situations.
buyit59,
Sep 13, 10:44am
US$5,500 for a battery pack will have a serious impact on resale value of your Nissan Leaf. I will just go and buy another $4,000 2nd hand Daihatsu Sirion that is great for commuting and short trips . I am not anti EV. we have a Leaf at work at present and it is great to drive but still way outside my budget.
harm_less,
Sep 13, 11:28am
Our present Leaf has about 25,000km on it and will belong to someone else well before battery replacement has to be considered, and by then the money we haven't spend on fuel should easily cover the cost of updating to a newer Leaf.
mad_signtist,
Sep 13, 12:09pm
Yeah the latest motor control unit they have put in is all new upgraded tech. Bigger heat sink and shut of modes and slows down as batts get tired. Fingers crossed!
buyit59,
Sep 13, 3:06pm
At Harmless #147 . Yes battery life might not worry you BUT it will have serious effect on me as a buyer . Depreciation is a bigger cost than petrol in many cases . I am seriously interested in how much you paid for the Leaf and what its worth when you sell it. especially if it only has 9 or 10 bars of battery life left ( the maximum on a gen2 Leaf is 12 bars but lose 2 or 3 bars can see vehicle range depleted which might not affect all buyers/users . Good luck and sincere thanks for experimenting on my behalf !
harm_less,
Sep 13, 4:28pm
We bought the (2012 ex-Japan Gen 1) Leaf in July 2014 with 9,000km for $27K. We plan to upgrade in the next year or so and expect close to $20K for it then. We still have 12 bars most of the time (11 on cold mornings) and haven't noticed any reduction in battery range.
The Leaf saves us over $3K in fuel (compared to an equivalent ICE car) so we're confident that depreciation will be more than offset by fuel savings, even if we have to replace the tyres before selling it.
,
Sep 20, 5:23pm
I replaced my company Nissan Navara ute with a Nissan Leaf electric about 7 months ago as a trial to see if it was a practical alternative company car. I live rurally and drive about 45km on the open road each way to work as well as using my car several times a day for work related stuff (about 100km a day average). I wouldn't go back, my car is cheap to buy (about 15k), has more off the line torque than pretty much anything I've ever had, has no emissions, costs about $40 a month in electricity to run (vs about $500 in the Navara), is much nicer to drive and has pretty much zero maintenance. It makes way more sense for me to have my primary drive vehicle as a low cost electric and to keep a second cheap tow vehicle than to drive a petrol all the time. It becomes second nature to plug the car in when I get home and I'd spend less time doing that than I would previously have filling with diesel. There's also a quick charger down the road (Morehouse Ave Chch) where I can refill in a pinch. I also recently rented a Tesla P85 for two days in the states, and once you've driven one, you'll look at pretty much all petrol cars as slugs. EV's are the way of the future and even the petrol heads will change there minds when they're getting eaten at the lights on a regular basis.
bashfulbro,
Sep 21, 3:09am
If you do ever buy an electric car, please do so for the right reasons, don`t just jump on the Greenie`s band-wagon, they are dreamers.
Hydrocarbons (oil, coal, natural gas) are derived from ancient lifeforms that grew powered by sunshine (via photosynthesis) millions of years ago, died and were then transformed over the millennia by pressure and heat into the fuels we now mine or drill for. They are therefore obviously in limited unrenewable quantities on our planet and we will run out at some point in the coming decades, and they will become increasingly expensive and environmentally damaging as the last drops are squeezed out.
By contrast EVs in their most practical application can be powered by sunshine directly via photovoltaic (PV) generation. This form of energy comes out of our skies endlessly, though if it does end we will have bigger worries than powering cars to worry about. Alternatively the electricity to power your EV can be derived from gravity (by way of hydro generation), and the weather generated by our sun replenishes the catchment with water on a fairly regular basis.
EVs are very much cheaper to drive, don't produce toxic waste gases, don't waste 3/4 of their energy source in heat and frictional losses, are quiet, have far higher performance capability and are easily upgraded to drive autonomously.
ICE vehicles are a carry over from last century which have pretty much exhausted their developmental potential and therefore in the twilight phase of their era. 'Flogging a dead horse' is the term that comes to mind in regard to vehicles that are powered by explosions within a block of metal transferred via numerous moving parts which all need to be lubricated to minimise losing that energy. A small electric motor (or motors) located on the wheels or axles makes a lot more sense doesn't it?
bill-robinson,
Sep 21, 8:45am
how does the oil used in making electricity get accounted for?
apollo11,
Sep 21, 8:50am
You mean the oil for the turbine bearings? Probably gets recycled.
apollo11,
Sep 21, 9:00am
I think NZ produces around 80 to 90% of it's electricity through renewable means, ie hydro, wind, geothermal etc and the fossil side is mainly gas fired and some coal. Electric cars can supposedly charge at night without placing too much extra strain on the national grid. The rapidly falling price of rooftop solar and home battery packs will be the game changer though, the price of oil will determine the speed of the transition.
kevymtnz,
Sep 21, 9:19am
Toyota Camry Hybrid Performance 2.5L 4cyl Petrol Electric 152hp + Electric = 200HP / 147 kw CVT 0-60kph 3.9s 0-100kph 8.1s 0-400 - 16.0 Top speed 144mph 231kph
43/39 mpg 5.4 - 6.0 L/100km Kerb weight – 1575-1610kg Overall length – 4850mm Fuel tank range 900km
Camry Hybrid $39,990+ORC
bashfulbro,
Sep 21, 10:14am
I talked to a dealer who has imported a few electric cars, they were Nissan, Leafs, he said government is going to push, more in that direction, Z stations are all going to install re charging units,at present,he will also install one himself,these cars only do 150KMs max,before needing re charge so there would have to be a lot of charging stations.
harm_less,
Sep 21, 10:30am
Every house or other building that has conventional electrical sockets ('hot points') is a potential charging station. We with EVs only use public or commercial charging stations as a last resort.
apollo11,
Sep 21, 10:54am
The future of the privately owned car is on borrowed time anyway. There seems to be a massive push to create a self driving car, which will combine with services like Uber to deliver a taxi service that is cheap and readily available. Private cars spend 90% of their time holding the garage floor down, if half of those cars were no longer needed then traffic congestion would probably disappear, parking in cities would no longer be an issue and older people would have increased mobility.
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