Read any article around - the move to battery cars will be seriously underway in the second half of this decade. So whether you're day tripping or over-nighting - the vehicle is going to need a big charge after the long drive from Sydney or Melbourne. Thousands of cars at each resort. Often at scattered parking points away from buildings. Lots of electricity needed too - say 45 kWh per vehicle. And most vehicles needing a charge to get home unless you charged on the journey to the mountains. My question is - is the infrastructure associated with this even on the radar of the resorts ? The logistics and cost seem mind blowing. The 'user experience' implications seem just awful - queuing for hours for your turn at a charging station when you'd rather be on the slopes. How do we think they'll address it ?
Probably better to charge in the valley before you get to the snowline. A high capacity Tesla could get to Buller and back to Melb on a charge, could charge at Euroa on way home if a bit short. Would make sense to charge at Cooma, Bright/Myrtleford, Mansfield etc, then go to the snow and back on that charge and charge again on the way home. I'm gonna keep my V8 Diesel with a 100L tank for a bit though. I like 1300km range.
Inductive charging pads in the car park By NJo - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17581690
IMO most Australians will embrace hybrid versions of their cars. Especially as Toyota will make every model of their range in Hybrid.
Looks like there's a Supercharger at Ovens, so notwithstanding capacity constraints, a return trip from Melb to Falls/Hotham in a Tesla is doable.
Dunno I see a few at Buller and have a mate who spends a lot of time at Hotham with one. There are tons of Teslas in Norway due to government incentives, gets a bit colder there, they seem to have it sorted.
It's why I went hybrid instead of electric. A return trip to Sydney for me (let alone the snow) is 400 km. Most EVs conk out at about 300 km. To do a day trip to Sydney, which I sometimes do, would need a charge with an EV.
Not going electric until I can do a full weekend away skiing on one full charge. Also needs to be AWD.
what happens if ten cars all want to share three charging points? a forum member posted a youtube a few months ago - I think it was a Tesla Model 3, Sydney to Jindy there was an issue with charging at Canberra, which I think was a precautionary measure to ensure adequate range my current lease is up mid next year, and I'm keen to do something electric next time I'd reckon a hybrid might be the go in the current / foreseeable circs
First in best dressed I guess, though they penalise you for remaining at a charge station while not charging so the onus is on you to get moving ASAP. But like I said ‘notwithstanding capacity constraints.....’
Case in point Tesla Model S Long Range Plus $143K Highway - Cold Weather * 390 km Doesn't quite have the legs, too expensive.
Maybe some sort of mass transit from below the snowline would help sort this out? Imagine being able to hop on a bus to the resort from town. Total fantasy of course because nowhere in the world could successfully manage to implement a bus from town to the snowfields.
That wont be happening in this decade ,it will be the one after that with a moron like Morrison at the helm and his stupid comments about ruining the weekend with electric utes and his bunch of bogan minions who have range anxiety ,love their stupid mega ute turbo diesel coal blower that sounds like a mack truck ,who put him there and keep him there with no political alternative on offer, Australia will remain a dumping ground for personal ice vehicles . Good news is that Trucks and delivery vans en masse will be electric in this time frame
TBH sounds like getting dieslafter 8:00pm in Jindabyne is a PIA ATM anyway (BP being rebuilt, Shell now corporate run, have shortened opening hours) Imagine if you could just refill at home....
there are already very inexpensive ev cars suitable for urban use and can do the 30 km per day the ave aussie does in a car . The problem is none of the companies that I contacted have plans to bring them here . these would be perfect for most people and for the few long range trips per year hire an ice vehicle ,
The resorts will embrace the move to electric vehicles and will set up the charging in car parks, manage the demand across the power demand for the resort and effectively dump any spare power into car charging, sell the power at their price, take it or leave it. It will be a significant profit centre for the resorts.
That would be the “intelligence surface” and behind which are housed camera technology, radar and other sensors.
This resort charging discussion is based on the tech staying relatively stable. That's not sensible. It's obvious EV tech is rapidly improving with hundreds of billions more being thrown at it. Predictions are that by 2028 lithium batteries will have a range will be 650k and charging will 10 mins. And plenty of new tech potential Iike graphene batteries which have a 800k range and charge 30x quicker than lithium. I don't know where the tech will end up. But 2025+ will look vastly different and basing plans on the 2020 status is crazy
at Åre for the Alpine WC Feb 2019 Audi was the big sponsor and they had numerous e-Trons on hand this is where they charged them every night
Every carpark will have a socket, two way. So the resort will use the cars as a battery, but also charge them.
The one at Ovens is in the Ovens Hotel parking lot - increases their attractiveness as a stop-over point - smart business thinking. The Euroa service station has mutliple charging points which will also be servicing Melbourne - Falls/Hotham traffic.
Snowy Hydro powered electric vehicles - what’s not to like - the electricity will still be fresh From memory Li batteries are less cold sensitive...
Per @Zeroz comment, don't get stuck on how things work now in terms of solutions. Just look at how last year changed many businesses propensity to do things differently. Most people are at the ski field for what 6 hours at a minimum. There could be a charging valet area setup and the valets rotate the cars through the charge stations. There could be a shuttle service to have this away from the main parking. There could be an Epic add-on. There could be some incentive that means you score front row. So many ways that it might work out, but its unlikely to just be some charging stations in the existing carpark
I'm not seeing the advantage. I'd expect the charging grid to be separate. The variable will be how much juice is poured into that grid at any one moment: At times of peak infrastructure demand, none (or almost) will be available in the parking grid. But there is no advantage in relying on parked cars as a source of grid smoothing. They will need dedicated battery capacity for that.
On this (sort of), there is another (very: up to 450km range charge in 15 minutes!) high speed charging station just opened in Cooma next to the Snowy Hydro coffee shop. See https://www.chargefox.com/our-19th-ultra-rapid-site-is-now-live-in-cooma-nsw/ Cost 32c/kWh if you are an NRMA member, or 40c/kWh if not. My own decision 7 years ago was to wait a while (and still waiting now) for an all-electric car for skiing, and instead buy a plug-in hybrid AWD car. Ours does about 20km completely on electric, supercharged petrol engine when not, overall - snow and back (the petrol engine and braking recharges the battery) - about 7-8l/100km with 4-5 people, skis on top, etc. Will probably trade that car in on a Tesla soon actually, but buy another AWD plug-in hybrid (a cheaper one) for skiing and for long trips to places with inadequate (or possibly broken or over-busy) charging stations.
one thing that will change is an increased number of cars needing the charge so I'd expect it will still be the existing car park, with a new demand for many charging facilities - the valet idea is fine but a labour-intensive solution something self-serve would be necessary too
