Great news to see movement at last in the US market. But when can we expect Australian leadership in promoting all electric cars?

Has a strategy been devised yet for fast-track regulatory approval for new electric cars to operate on Australian roads? Have our local car manufacturers shown any interest in green cars beyond hybrids?

Fleet managers, especially in the government sector should be given good reasons to plan for the deployment of electric vehicles to establish the market here.

Can Australian governments give all-electric car technology the boost it needs to get established with suitable tax incentives, planning approvals for regional charge stations and allocating parking spaces exclusively for electric cars?

When will the electric car revolution come to our streets?

How are the hoons going to make noise when all cars are electric,unfortunately,I'm sure they'll manage somehow.What a marvellous new(and quiet) age is dawning.

If government funding it necessary to make it economical, isn't that just another way of saying that it's not economical, because if people were free to choose, they wouldn't choose it because they think the benefits are not worth the price?

How do we know that the environmental detriments in whatever activity where the government funds are taken from, are not greater than the environmental benefits where they are spent?

Ah, coal-fired cars.

Peter,
Government funding is necessary to set up the *capability* of a profitable industry. Establishing new national industry is rarely done by private speculators as they have no appetite for real world risk. (and would get stung by corrupt governments if they did!)
Unlike our current government sponsorship of inherently un-profitable industries such as private schools, health insurance and traditional cars, which is ongoing and *far* more costly.
Modern Asian computer chip factories used government start-up funds, as did the car industry and the oil and Gas exploration industry.
Government has to do it because capitalists would rather play with monopoly money on the trading floors.
Ken, Even with coal power EVs are much more efficient and emit less pollutants. Unlike fossil fuel cars, EVs can also utilise local renewables such as wind, solar, and micro-hydro.
With oil you have to account for the whole life-cycle of the energy: Explore, discover, tap, transport, refine, transport, deliver. Most of these steps have some sort of taxpayer subsidy due to their strategic importance, and most steps have profits skimmed off as well.
Much of the FUD you hear about EV is due to the removal of profitable centralised systems that simultaneously require taxpayer subsidies and pay huge profits. A bit like the banks: taxpayers fund the downside while profits line the pockets of the few. Nice to have things both ways!

Mac,

I long for the electric motorcycle.

I hear too many bike enthusiasts who, having finally afforded a Harley, cannot afford a muffler.

Several tens of thousands of dollars and it has no muffler worth a damn.

I have experimented with motors that size. It is possible for them to make less noise than a car. Is it just incompetance at mechanics or are they inconsiderate jerks?

Bring on the silent cycle!

Rusty

I am a fan of the idea of electric cars.

I would like to be excited at this article, & I would be, if:

1/ I had not read the same stuff in 1980, 90 & 2000.

2/ The thing was not written by a bloke, blinded by the stars in his eyes, & a GREEN dream, about 2 miles high.

I notice he makes no comment about where this power is to come from. KenH is the only bloke who can see the problem.

We are supposed to want to cut back on coal power. Not develop atomic stuff, & then run our electric cars.

We would be better off getting everyone a sailing land yacht, if we want to drive our cars on wind power.

I see no reference to the lack of rare earth to make the required batteries.

The Darwin/Adelaide solar powered car race is now decades old, but I can't buy one of those yet either. Still, I suppose it keeps the greenies dreaming, & public servants spending our money in subsidies.

The electric vehicle (EV) will not take to the streets in Australia, other than in nominal numbers, until the following conditions have been met:

1. Vehicle batteries have been developed which are light, durable and cheap to manufacture which can be charged rapidly and hold a charge able to provide for travel of at least 250 km. between charges and:

2. The cost of new electric vehicles and converting fossil-fuelled vehicles to electric propulsion fall to levels which are much closer to existing vehicle prices, or:

3. Fuel cells have been developed which provide a safe, reliable source of electricity for electric vehicles enabling them to travel virtually distances limited only by capacity of their fuel tanks.

It is likely that the first break-through will come with development and commercial application of battery technology, probably within the next 2-3 years, probably in the USA or Europe. This fundamental development has yet to be made. It is essential to make EV’s a commercial reality.

Equipped with a battery with characteristics described above, mass production of EV’s would become an attractive, much lower risk proposition than at present and unit cost would fall significantly. The product would be perceived as one which is reliable, much cheaper to operate and market demand would grow exponentially, as would production competitiveness.

A reliable, efficient fuel cell would extend the use of electric propulsion to long distance vehicles including road, rail and sea and, ultimately, air. The current state of technology suggests fuel cell development is longer term, unlikely to be achieved before 2015.

What is certain is that increasing demand for a dwindling commodity will make oil-derived fuels unaffordable and the cheapest alternative, electricity, competitive with and cleaner than liquefied natural gas and other fuel options.

Honda has very quietly been developing a hydrogen car with an accompanying home refueler.

http://smh.drive.com.au/green-motoring/fill-er-up--in-your-own-driveway-20100129-n346.html

That is one hell of an advantage they have given themselves. This is the first sign I have ever seen of a car company willing to break ranks, compete and stop holding back good ideas and progress. If this happens say goodbye to the oil industry.

Mikk, would you like to suggest where the hydrogen is going to come from?

Hasbeen
I presume they get it from water using the electricity from the solar panels. A simple and well known procedure for many many years but only now has a company, and a car company at that, broken ranks and decided to develop and manufacture such a system.

Previously all the huge companies that would be negatively effected by such technology (oil companies, car companies, mining, steel, transport companies etc etc) have colluded to bury such ideas as hydrogen, efficient engines, home vehicle refueling, automation and more. Not to mention what they did (and still do) to public transport.

Good to see Honda bucking the system and i hope they clean up with what would be an utter revolution in cars and transport. No more pollution, no more petrol stations (or tanker bombs roaming the streets), a lot less noise (I live on a main road grrrr), independence, no more relying on oil companies to fleece us with their price manipulation.

Mikk, you do talk so much rubbish. Your strange hatred of large companies makes a fool of you. I don't know where you get the idea that fuel cells would cause problems for anyone, other than oil companies, & even they would be able to swing their distribution systems to suit.

Hydrogen safe? Remember the hindenburg? Solar panels? You'd produce more CO2 producing them, than you'd save getting rid of the petrol.

I like Honda, & hope it works for them, but the only advantage of Hydrogen against electric, is range, & so far, the price is too high. Too many losses in the chain.

Might as well, stick the solar panel on the roof of your car, & only go to work on sunny days.

GM, & Ford have both played, at quite considerable expense, with Hydrogen fuel cells. They gave up due to lack of efficiency. The straight electric car suffers is so much less from this.

My old car turns 30 this may, & I'll bet I'm still filling it with petrol, when the age police take my licence, in another 30 or so. I'll be too old then to bother with any of these newfangled electric, or hydrogen cars, they are about to start making at that time. Besides, they'll probably look just as bad as that new box on wheels, we bought for my wife, recently.

Yes, they are very quiet. It has been suggested that some form of
noise be generated to warn pedestrians as at present they use their
ears more than they realise. One suggestion was for the sound of the
frequency standard station WWV ! What a hoot !
At the third stoke;
It will be 1400 UTC
Beep Beep Beep.

Agnostic, they are coming this time, if the RTA does not find an
excuse to ban them.
Item 4. of your post should have been;
If petrol reaches $5-00 a litre.

I would certainly buy one such as the Leaf as the range is claimed
to be 160Km. Well within 98% of my trips.

Bazz: Item 4 of my post should have read "When petrol reaches $5/litre" It will.

Strange how peoples perceptions change. 12 months ago I read an article on electric cars and which concluded that they would be on our roads within 5 years. Comments at the time mostly ran along the lines that it was science fiction or that the author did not know what he was writing about.

Now we are talking about Chinese electric cars being driven on our roads within the next 12 months and technology being able to produce batteries holding a charge to propel a car 400 km between recharges.

Even better news is that all the major car manufacturers are scrambling to catch up with the Chinese and produce electric vehicles. The more competition, the cheaper the vehicles - and they should be cheaper given that they do not need radiators, gear boxes, exhaust pipes and a bulky fossil fuelled engine is replaced by one or two lighter electric motors.

Mikk: The progress made by Honda in the application of fuel cell technology to replace the fossil fuelled engine is impressive and more advanced than I thought - but its used depends on vehicles selling at a competitive price.

Home production of hydrogen is achieved by hydrolosis (breaking up water, H2O, into its components) by using electricity produced from solar energy using photovoltaic cells.

Agnostic;
I think the problems with the
Electricity->Hydrogen->fuel cell->electric motor cycle is that it is
much less efficient than the
Electricity->battery->electric motor cycle before the life time of
the fuel cell is even considered.
The cost would have to be a lot cheaper also.
To set up service stations for hydrogen would probably cost more than
the financial system can provide at present and for the foreseeable
future. It can be done for busses which have a depot to which they
can return for a fill.
Frankly I think there will be too many problems with hydrogen.
Special parking areas are required and they may even be banned by the
fire brigade from being parked in underground car parks.
I would not be happy living in a block of units with a significant
number of hydrogen cars in the underground parking area.
In any case it is not a proposition until the fuel cell life time
is fixed.
From the little I have seen I think the Nissan Leaf is the most attractive possibility so far.
They say it does 160KM on a charge.
As in everything it will depend on cost.
Further down the track I would expect to see a motor on each wheel
hub, giving four wheel drive.
Certainly the service costs will be a lot less.
I wonder how many motor mechanics will get electrocuted before they
get used to working on them.
Perhaps work should be restricted to licenced electricians.