Naysayers claim electric vehicles simply won’t work at scale in a country like Australia. Yet there are countries with far more unfavourable conditions for EVs that are leading the way.
Plug In And Power On
If you talk to people in Canada & Norway, they have been plugging cars in since forever, because they simply must.
At low temperatures oil thickens & makes engines hard to start. When it’s well below zero the coolant in a combustion engine can freeze and literally tear the engine block apart.
Circled in red are cracks in an engine block caused by freezing. A small heating element prevents this irreparable damage.
To prevent catastrophic freeze damage, they run a heating element inside the engine, which is plugged into mains power provided by the businesses that want both patronage; and their staff to turn up.
Supermarkets arguably cater for car charging in Alaska already.
Frozen car parks are full of these pillars. While some are paid for by parking subscription, culturally they’re just an accepted norm and those who try to avoid this social obligation can find themselves without friends, customers or workers.
Thanks go to Randy for explaining in the comments section recently how providing power is part of the social contract in Canada.
It’s Not All Apple Pie
To give you an idea of the energy involved, the North Americans face a structural obstacle to EV rollouts because their basic power sockets are only rated to deliver 10Amps at 110Vac or 1.1kW at most.
Outrageously American, put a B&W filter on a stock image and it’s “fine art”.
Engine warmers use more power than an aquarium heater, but low mains voltage is also the reason the 110V peasants yanks like drip feed coffee; their kettles are too slow.
Using 230VAC, civilised countries can deliver twice as much power, so for Australia it’s pretty easy to get 2kW out of the wall with 10% headroom in the standard 10Amp power point rating, so we’re winning there.
Plus or minus 40 degrees yeah?
So What About Australia?
Fortunately in Australia we don’t have to grapple with catastrophic freeze damage or low mains voltage.
Our main challenge, as I outlined recently, is to make it easier for people to charge during the day, so we can make the most of all the excess solar energy being generated.
Multiple studies have found more than half of home charging is done using a standard power point, and its these we need to roll out more of in work carparks.
This must become a perfectly normal sight, but for safety’s sake, there should be a hook or shelf to prevent the EVSE “brick” hanging on the plug.
In my lived experience, the greatest thing about “granny chargers” is they’re reliably simple and simply reliable. There’s no app, no RFID card, no platform outages, no car software issues or support calls required. You just plug it in and it works.
Screwed collar pugs are a much better idea. They will accept extra heavy duty, high current capacity cable and they can’t be accidentally withdrawn.
To ensure EVs are charging during the day we should have power available to every car park, just like the cold countries already do, as well as Hong Kong.
Ideally we want both a standard outlet and the more robust type 2 EV charging socket for redundancy. Not everybody will have both, but having options is priceless.
Hit Your Boss Up
If you’re driving a company car, then it comes with a company fuel card doesn’t it? Company power points are a natural extension that can eliminate anxiety about range. Even without a company car, the utility of leaving work with a full tank of fuel means a great deal more to morale than any pizza party.
Make The Most Of Happy Hours
With her Plug in Hybrid EV taken for repairs, my wife was given a conventional loan car; and she was heartbroken. After years of partial EV motoring, never before had she repeatedly spent $90 at the petrol station.
With retail plans offering free happy hours around the middle of the day, daycharging becomes an economic imperative. In fact, for limited time windows a proper 3 phase charger makes even better sense to gather free electrons while they’re available.
For more on the benefits on EV charging during the day to the grid, read Anthony’s deep-dive explainer.
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You can bet your bottom dollar if your employer provided you with electricity to charge your EV, Jim Chalmers would be looking for his FBT cut. And that wont be based on free grid power during solar excesses, it will be based on the dearest power sold in the area (if the way they charge FBT for spacing spaces is anything to go by).
But the biggest issue is the myth that Australians needs lots of range because 1% of the population regularly drives more than 200km a day… Even when i had 3 hours of commuting to get to work, most of that was spent parked, the distance was only about 110k.
Granny chargers is all that is needed for a parking lot where a car will sit for 9 hours a day. If that cant give you enough juice to get home and then back to work the next day in 9 hours, then well, shock horror, you will have to plug it in at home!
Andrew, like petrol in an ICE car, or the car space you are provided at work, it would be a fringe benefit from your employer. But it is tax advantaged because it is significantly cheaper than paying for electricity out of your post tax income – just like the company car or novated lease car. I do not see what the problem is with that.
Why would electricity be rated for FBT as some rate other than what the benefit provider pays for it? Maybe they have a large solar array on the roof or a very good electricity plan and it could be free in certain hours. The finance area would probably have to work out an average cost for typical hours parked.
As for the parking space variable cost, a space in the Sydney CBD, for example, costs vastly more than one in the surrounds of outer suburban Sydney.
We have power available in many places already that could be used for topups. This would reduce the need for larger charges at home (for those with the capacity or help those without it.
I’m sorry that isn’t Jim Chalmer’s decision, FBT on benefits provided as part of one’s employment is a tax law principle that has existed at least since I worked at the ATO in the 90’s and likely earlier. If an employer provides a benefit for staff working at their employ, it is usually FBT-able unless it is specifically excluded by law or ruling.
Yes, but the rules aren’t as strict as you might think. eg. Christmas parties are FBT free as long as they cost less than $300 per person. Which really isn’t that hard to get under. There are plenty of exemptions, including EV cars (or has that changed?).
Our problem is that our staff generally have to park on the street, otherwise there aren’t enough car parks for customers. Our customers only stay 10 minutes, so they wouldn’t be interested.
Yes, and that means each supply to each employee will have to be measured and reported.
It will be interesting to see how it is “assigned a cost” because when they built a public car park near work, the assigned FBT cost for us parking each day because we were within 1km of a commercial car park, was the same as what that car park charged. Not what it cost the employer to provide the car park.
Hi Anthony
I could not agree more with everything you say but granny chargers still need their own circuit which has an initial cost and that can vary dramatically.
We have had a 24kWh LEAF for 5+ years and almost exclusively charged with solar/granny charger during the day but on the occasion 4 years ago we tried to use that charger away from home it ended with tripping circuit breakers everywhere I tried it, lastly even at a BP service station that was being helpful.
Finally I found the nearby pub had new motel units with outdoor power points on their own circuit so I stayed the night, hot shower, cold beer and a hot meal, what’s not to like except effectively over $150 to charge the car !
I am pretty sure there are more fast chargers on the route now but the LEAF is a 2014 so will need a new battery but still fine for local travel up to 45 kms each way.
In fairness we have a diesel vehicle as well but it is lucky to 5000kms pa.
At the start of the end of the horse and buggy era, pioneer motorists pulled over to chemists to buy a tin of “spirits” to fuel their fire breathing vehicles. It took a while for better infrastructure to scale, and hand-pouring flammables to end.
At the end of primitive fire breathing vehicles, we again need to hasten the infrastructure transition, to make it all flow. I’m guessing late adopters will just say “That was easy.”, as it usually is in hindsight. It’s living through the renovations which grates like plaster dust in your coffee.
In the absence of a million shelves for granny chargers to fall off, perhaps manufacture the cable with more length before the brick, so it can lie on the ground, as mine does. Ample plastic => strong enough to drive over.
Last century, our Mech Eng lecturer was a retired Indian Army colonel. Up in the Himalayas, his men lit fires under the diesel powered tanks half an hour before starting their engines. (No power points up there, I guess. 😉
I feel an equal or greater “main challenge”, besides making it easier for people to charge during the day in town, is our sparseness and rural infrastructure.
Urban is easy in comparison.
The vast highways, distances, isolation, and importantly the volume of vehicle traversing those routes.
Coupled with very few charging stations, then very limited number of chargers at key points, with very limited grid availability to cope with vehicle numbers travelling, it makes charging on highway drives less practical as more and more EVs hit the roads.
It’s no good having people arrive to charge at a 10 outlet station, find with a full house and a queue waiting, that each charger is hobbled to share the grid available, making wait time to do an 80% charge untenable.
It’s also not practical or conducive to have any number of highway charging stations hooked up to diesel generators.
For now, EVs seem ideal for urban use, most homes where highway trips are common, still need a PHEV or ICE options.
It’s a great idea, but I’m not holding my breath.
It’s one of those “public good” customs that seem natural if you have them, because they’ve always been there. But if you don’t, you’ll never get them, because people have entrenched views and you’ll be howled down.
I asked AI for the Aussie equivalent and it gave me…
…public BBQs in parks. You know, the free or coin-op hotplate monoliths. Apparently unique to Aus and NZ. Dunno why, they’re great for a picnic.
If any other country decided that was a good idea, they’d never get up. Cost to build. Cost to operate (we’re just giving away free energy?) Food safety. Think of the children, what if they burn themselves??? If you want a BBQ, bring your own. etc. etc. etc.
So yes. A good idea, add it to the pile…
We moved from PHEV to full EV (Tesla M3) six years ago and have never looked back. It’s still absolutely fabulous, and does soo much more than when brand new thanks to constant updates. Ignoring tyres, it has cost NOTHING to maintain. (Of course if I live another forty years, I might need new brake pads 🙂 We still have a diesel SUV in the garage but it quite literally goes MONTHS without getting used. It’s “out of the ark” in comparison to our Tesla and the ONLY reason we keep it is for heavy towing (a 3 tonne caravan). It’s slow, noisy, expensive to run, expensive to maintain and much much more. My wife now refuses to drive it and I certainly don’t enjoy driving it.
If NOT for heavy towing, we would certainly have another electric vehicle (likely another Tesla) in the garage. (There are some real bargains now if you’re looking for second hand.)
Some people: “BUT you’ll need a new battery.” Rubbish!
We certainly are behind the game when it comes to charging.
Yesterday I watched a video blog by a German trucker driving a Mercedes eActros semi from Germany to Istanbul. At the plant where he had to collect his load, there was a charging facility for electric trucks which was rated at 300kw. He had driven some distance to the plant so he topped up to full while his trailer was loaded.
He proceeded to drive towards Turkey, about 2,500kms each way. Using a couple of apps and his installed Google nav he often stopped at specialised truck charging points coinciding with his rest breaks. These had great facilities and were often located in typical freeway services so had restaurants etc. The truck carried 20 tons and had a range of well over 600kms. Most of these chargers could deliver 300kw and some up to 450kw. And worked.
While we couldn’t cover all Australia in the foreseeable future with similar facilities, why not the major highways from Brisbane to Adelaide as a start?
Interesting, but I think you need to think even longer term.
Most places I know, car parking is in short supply. To put it frankly, car parking spaces are expensive for businesses to build, mainly because they take away from the space you can earn income.
I have never complained about it to anyone, because I see the solution in 10 years time is simply that after dropping you off to your destination, your self driving car will drive itself to somewhere parking is free, or at least cheap. Putting charging stations in there makes sense.
Minor correction: single phase basic power points in the USA and Canada are rated at 120 volts and 15 amps. Mexico is 127 volts and 15 amps.