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EV's and Back to the Future

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Published on 01 May 2019

I'm not sure what Labor's plan for 50 percent electric vehicles by 2030 will do to classic car values such as my '69 Mustang Fastback, but it will certainly devalue modern internal combustion models which comprise the vast bulk of almost 20 million vehicles on our roads today. EV's represented up a tiny 0.1 percent in 2018. I'm not against a gradual transition which is market driven, but not driven by government. For those who think it would be a good thing, consider a few facts. Electric cars are much dearer, and those at the lower end of the scale have limited driving range. When these cars need recharging it will take up 12 hours or more on a home charger or you could try to locate a fast charger such as the ones Labor says it will establish around Australia. Instead of waiting a couple of minutes to refill at a servo, if all goes well you will be plugged in for an hour or two if and when a vacant fast charger becomes available with many thousands, eventually millions of electric vehicles on the roads. This is what Wheels Magazine reported recently in its Electric Vehicle Megatest - " Driving just four electric vehicles to recharge at one of the country’s best-equipped charging stations was about as simple as taking a bath with a cat. "One of the cars couldn’t even plug in at the world-class station, requiring a slow 17 hour recharge from an up-rated 15 amp power point.... A short drive made all the more uncomfortable due to having the aircon switched off to save a few watts...." Great if you are on a trip, with Australia's vast distances. And where is all the extra electricity going to come from to charge all these vehicles? Coal is a no-no so too bad if it's cloudy, calm day or a wet fortnight and storage batteries are dead. Also what is Bill Shorten going to replace fuel excise revenue with? As the ABC reports:" It is a huge amount of cash. Total fuel excise revenue is about $18 billion a year, or 5 per cent of total revenue, according to the 2018-19 federal budget." There are so many holes in Labor's plan which includes 50 percent renewables and 45 percent emission reductions, you could drive a Mack truck through them. And the Greens are much worse with their call for 100 percent electric vehicles/100 percent renewables. If you happen to be in a flooded or cyclone prone area with power lines cut for days or weeks, as we saw in North Queensland recently, emergency services and regional residents will be saddling up the horse and buggy again in a few years when power fails, lines are down and they can't drive their EV's out of the garage. Back to the Future Part 4 ?