Bull Bars

Sounds like you managed to get to the end of the article before you realised the date RMD. :)
Dave.

G'day David.
No not that way, just confirms they have little to do.
I knew what today's date was yesterday, March the last!

Don’t worry about bullbars, worry about the labor statement re electric cars and charging stations and what that really means and will cause in Australia and Billy BS stated it today.

I have a bit of trouble seeing the pessimistic view of the world where everything is put down and knocked.....so what does it really mean and what will it cause in Australia?

Ditto, I'd love to know myself. Politicians rightly cop criticism these days for being reactive rather than pro-active. Better to have a vision and give things a shot even if they don't achieve every aim along the way.

I saw the Unsealed 4x4 attempt at humour this morning. Got a few in, as does every discussion on changes to bullbar rules, but it failed because it was neither humorous nor witty imo. Too harsh?

Quote "Don’t worry about bullbars, worry about the labor statement re electric cars and charging stations and what that really means and will cause in Australia and Billy BS stated it today."

I don't think it matters much which side is running the country. What is being produced for the other countries is the vehicles we will be getting in the future. The other countries are so far ahead of us with electric vehicles that in a few years that is all they will be producing for themselves. They are not going to keep ancient production lines going for our few piddling few vehicles that we consume. Electric vehicles are going to be imposed upon us from afar.

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Then we are going to need some pretty long extension cords to do the Ann Beadell eh?

They have a long way to go to give us range in EVs and Australia needs range more than most countries.

Future problems could be the traffic jam at charging stations. Every vehicle on the road will have to stop for say 30 mins at least if you can find a vacant charging station or even just find a charging station.

What is the future retail value of our current diesel vehicles?. It will get to a point when they will not be saleable at all.

I tend to agree with Alan H, the only places in Australia where EV’s are a sensible proposition is in the major cities. Once you get into remote Australia, the distances between major centres is too great for EV’s to be practical.

Also, the cost of producing an EV is much greater than a fossil fuel vehicle. EV’s are definitely not Carbon Neutral. Not to mention the cost of producing & distributing the electricity and the infrastructure required to charge these EV’s.

Macca.

I'll give you the key to my diesel when you pry (or take) it from my cold, dead hand. CH.
Dave.

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LOL David. Mind you, the fuel tank will probably be empty!

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........"Traffic jam at charging stations"?

A smart operator would open a coffee shop with half a dozen charging stations out front........ and Free Wifi.

I can see it now. A line of electric vehicles at Ilkurlka Roadhouse being
Recharged at charging points being powered by a bloody big diesel generator .
Ross Nielsen

A Homegrown Brisbane based company is at the leading edge of technology on fast chargers for electric cars. They have supplied hundred’s across Europe and can charge a vehicle for 150 kilometres in travel in 5 minutes...

For sure, that’s a lot of chargers across the Anne Beadell and down the CSR ;). (Tongue firmly in cheek)...

I’ll leave it to others to debate the finer points of Outback travel in a world that is less reliant on fossil fuels, other than to say to many that visit the EO community - carry on as usual, I doubt it will be a problem in your (my) lifetime...

Cheers, Baz The Landy

There's a company in QLD already building their own brand of electric cars from flat pack carbon fibre components out of China. Aussie car manufacturing isn't dead.

If you are a long distance traveller you won't use a pure electric vehicle, you will use a hydrogen fuel cell electrical one.

Many in Australia are just a bit behind the times thinking the only vehicles will be plugin recharge cars or trucks.

Nikola, Kenworth, Toyota/shell are just a few developing them with Nikola to be on the road shortly. In the light vehicle area, Bmw, Hyundai, Toyota, Honda and Nissan are working on hydrogen.

Hydrogen can be manufactured cheaply, trucked and stored around the country, It can be produced during the day with solar, wind and at night pumped hydro. Refuel time is short, on an heavy around 15 mins. Instead of seeing diesel fuel tankers you will see Hydrogen fuel tankers.

Nikola in America are building 360 stations, Germany 500 are proposed and Japan has 80 working.

Hydrogen fuel cell cars are still very much in the experimental phase. But who knows, maybe they will eventually overtake EV's.

What I do know is, there have been a lot of over-optimistic predictions for automobile technology. I'm still waiting for the fully-autonomous LA to NYC drive to occur...Musk said it would happen in 2017. :)

Article here

Candace, I wouldn't even give Elon Musk the time of day as he has one huge mouth and that doesn't cut it for me.

I sat behind the wheel of interstate trucks for most of my life and if I wasn't in a a truck I was in a machine from tractors, dozers, cranes, backhoes, bobcats, loaders, excavators and scrapers. I have been involved with all the changes that have occurred over the years and many where put down as, they won't work..

From as long as I can remember people have talked about getting rid of the internal combustion engines and that is happening.

So what has to happen for Australia, is we have to cover all demographics of this country and that will happen. Times they are a changing.