Electric Echo Blog

I received an email from Lis Shelley a few days ago. She explained that she lived in Switzerland for 8 years where it is common for people to “car share” rather than own a vehicle outright. Basically the way it works is you sign up and use your swipe card to gain electronic access to your pre-booked (internet or phone) car which is at one of many convenient locations. Then you get a monthly bill for total distances travelled and time used. Lis points out that there are now a couple of Australian companies that have got the idea, www.flexicar.com.au and www.goget.com.au .

This idea fits well with electric vehicles because the average consumer would occasionally like to travel more than the day range of an EV. EV’s make terrific second or commuter vehicles but don’t fit the quick refill scenario with today’s electricity infrastructure limitations. Statistics show that the average petrol vehicle spends most of its life doing nothing (parked) and then, when it is used, only for short trips (<50km) which are perfect conditions for electric vehicles.

So for those day trips to the beach you just pick up your nearest share car and return it at the end of the day, no human interaction required!

Australia’s multicultural public broadcaster, SBS, broadcast a short doco (20mins) a few weeks ago (on Dateline) about EV’s in the USA. It was a pretty good effort from solo journalist Chris Hammer and concentrated on the recently released movie “Who Killed The Electric Car?” and the local EV enthusiasts scene. It’s very cool to see John Wayland’s 12 second street legal EV blow the doors off a Mustang!

There’s a lot of talk in Australia at the moment about the impact of the current “drought” on our farmers and urban dwellers alike. Is this a typical multi-year drought or is this the multi-decade climate change we don’t like to talk about because we make so much money from exporting coal? I suspect we are experiencing drought on top of long term climate change. The map below suggests our farmers might need to move to the North West to be viable, if the soil is fertile.

Click on the image below to take you to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology Climate Change site and see what you think.

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve had visits from a few locals from nearby suburbs who’ve found out about the E-E. It’s nice to have some interest close to home, doesn’t make you feel quite so “out there” .

Alex and Sylvia were researching a more responsible purchase for their next vehicle and were deciding between hybrid or diesel. I think they see EV’s as the way of the future but where to get one?! While diesel is a better choice than petrol and if biodiesel is available; a better choice than hybrid, I think it is very important to encourage the development of hybrid technology. Once the plug-in hybrid option is available to the consumer the automotive industry is going to change forever, very exciting stuff.

Alex made me feel a bit old by making a cool little (3.7M) video (requires Quicktime) of their visit…with his phone! (Hey, who’s the telecommunications technician around here anyway?)

I get a steady flow of emails asking about the E-E and EV’s in general so I thought about a forum for some time because it makes more sense to have my ramblings in catagories rather than a linear log. However after some experimentation I realised that a forum was way too formal and required people interested enough to be involved in the discussions, otherwise it looked like I was just talking to myself (nothing new there). I hope you enjoy it.