The ‘Big Electric Adventure’ in support of Variety, the Australian children’s charity, is under way and will last 13 days.
One Tesla Model Y and one Tesla Model 3 are travelling more than 10,000 km through Western Australia, Northern Territory and South Australia.
The trip started in Perth and the cars will loop north to Broome, east to Fitzroy Creek, north to Darwin, down through the heart of Australia with stops at Uluru and Alice Springs, down to Adelaide. then back to Perth across the Nullarbor.
The cars will be driven by Variety WA chief executive officer Chris Chatterton and Harald Murphy, secretary of the Tesla Owners Club of WA, who has made multiple laps around Australia in EVs.
NORWAY TURNS ELECTRIC
In a sign of the times, The Driven newsletter has reported that only 45 new petrol cars were sold in the whole of Norway in July. Full battery electric vehicles (BEVs) made up 91.9 per cent of all newly registered vehicles, up from 81.7 per cent in July 2023.
Hybrids and plug-in hybrids together made up another 4.8 per cent, down from 14 per cent last year.
Ten of the petrol cars were small Suzuki Swifts but there were 20 different models that only sold one vehicle each.
These included two different Aston Martin models, a Maserati, a Suzuki Ignis, a Suzuki Vitara, a Mazda CX-30 and a couple of amateur-built cars.
This begs the question of how much longer it will be economic to offer petrol cars for sale in that market.
By the end of 2022, the proportion of EVs registered in the country was more than 20 per cent.
It will be interesting to see how soon they are over 50 per cent.
LANDMARK FOR SEMI-TRUCKS
The Cool Down website reports another sign of progress in electric transport.
Volvo’s all-electric semi-trucks have reached the landmark of driving 50 million miles (nearly 80.5 million km).
In that distance, diesel-powered trucks would have used more than 25 million litres of diesel fuel and produced about 67 million kilograms of carbon dioxide.
Volvo first started delivering its all-electric semi-trucks in 2019 and in 2023 sales reached 1,977 Class 8 trucks.
In early 2024, Volvo had 56 per cent of the European electric truck market and 44 per cent in the US.
In addition to the climate benefits, there are benefits to child health due to the reduction in particulate emissions.
Transport companies benefit from the reduction in running costs.
ON THE CHARGE TO PROGRESS
In 2020, when my wife and I purchased our new Tesla Model 3 online, we were given the option of collecting it in Brisbane, with a face-to-face induction or having it delivered by truck to our home at no extra cost, with an induction by phone.
To save time and travel costs, we selected the latter option.
It worked well and we made a trip to Byfield on the day of delivery. For a few months, until we made a long trip, we were able to charge at home.
I now find myself full of admiration for our friends in Central Queensland who have collected an EV in Brisbane and coped with the 650km trip home in a strange car, finding and using the various highway chargers for the first time.
No one has been stranded to my knowledge, but I think we chose the easier option.
The Queensland Government moved quickly to install single DC fast chargers along the Bruce Highway and has since installed more along inland highways.
However, the pace of installations has slowed and single chargers are not going to cope with an increase in EVs.
Commercial charger networks such as Tesla, Evie, NRMA, BP and Ampol are installing banks of superchargers, but the locations are still too far apart, especially on inland routes.
Other states, including NSW, Victoria, SA and Tasmania are more advanced, with charger sites more closely spaced.
The ABC has just reported that the number of EVs registered in South Australia’s regional areas, currently 2,158, has increased along with more charging points.
A new Royal Automobile Association charging network, with more than 500 EV chargers at 140 sites, is almost complete, leaving only a few gaps of more than 200 km between charging sites.
In Queensland, there is a need for more strategic planning of EV charger sites by State and Local Government, in conjunction with commercial network operators and local businesses.
If Ampol proceeds with the installation of fast chargers at Stockland in Rockhampton, it will be less than 1km from the existing Tesla site at Red Hill.
Personally, I would like to see multiple chargers at the Saleyards at Gracemere so that cars could be charged during the sales, encourage country people to adopt EVs.
This site would also be near the new Rockhampton bypass.
If you have any questions, please contact me by email: arthurhunt@ozemail.com.au
