Better Place Electric Cars System not suitable for Canberra

Sali Torgoman from Better Place talked about their electric car charging technology in "Why do Electric Vehicles make so much sense?" at Engineers Australia in Canberra, this evening. Unfortunately, Sali appeared to be using a set of standard marketing slides from Better Place, which were not suitable for a technical engineering audience. Despite this Sali dealt well with the technical issues raised. Some points I found of interest were that Better Place plan to give used batteries which no longer hold sufficient charge for cars a "second life" as stationary power stores on the grid. Sali described a typical new battery pack as costing $12,000, providing 20 kWHr, weighing 200 kg and providing a 160 km range in a vehicle. However, even with Better Place's technology, electric vehicles do not appear to make environmental or financial sense for Australia. Electric vehicles will remain much more expensive than internal combustion engine vehicles for the foreseeable future. Electric vehicles are only environmentally beneficial where clean electricity is available. Australia has minimal supplies of renewable electricity and abundant supplies of LPG and natural gas. In terns of energy planning, it would make more sense to invest in renewable energy to replace coal on the grid. Rather than electric cars, gas powered vehicles can be used. Better Place's automatic batter swap technology is an ingenious idea, but requires a widespread infrastructure to be usable. Even with large numbers of swap stations, long distance driving on Australia's very extensive road network would not be convenient. Sali gave the figure of 20 km or less as the typical distance driven each day by an urban commuter. With a 20 kWHr battery providing 160 km range, the typical commuter would not have to use a swap station and could use a home charger. However, that commuter could instead have a hybrid rechargeable car with a 2.5 kWHr could make the same journey on battery power and also make longer using its internal combustion engine. A useful alternative to petrol powered hybrid vehicles are natural gas powered ones, now being mass produced in Korea, which could use the existing natural gas grid in Australia, requiring little infrastructure investment. Better Place plans to provide a pilot program in Canberra. provided this is done as a purely private venture, then the experiment is worthwhile. However, this technology does not appear to suit Australian conditions and the ACT and Federal governments should not provide funding for this program. A better alternative for government attention would be alternative fuel vehicles, car-share schemes and advanced public transport systems using IT.

Electric Vehicles in Canberra

Sali Torgoman from Better Place will talk about their electric car charging technology in "Why do Electric Vehicles make so much sense?" at Engineers Australia in Canberra, 24 June 2010. I do not share Sali's view, having test driven the Mitsubishi i MiEV electric car and looked at the cost, I decided a petrol Suzuki Alto was cheaper and better for the environment.

Short Description
Venue	11 National Crct, Barton, ACT
Date	Thursday, 24 June - 5.30 for 6pm
Event Contact	Colleen Mays
Contact Email	cmays@engineersaustralia.org.au
Hosted By	SSEE

Sali Torgoman's B E. ELEC(Hons), MIL&B. as well as development of engineering requirements for the Australian market. Prior to joining Better Place, Sali was a Power Engineer in distribution construction at Energy Australia. She was the former v/chair for Australian Institute of Energy Sydney YEP division as well as the former treasurer of the South Sydney Youth Services until 2009. She is founder and director of Sydney French Theatre and is reading for a Juris Doctors in Laws focusing on energy policy. Abstract: This presentation focuses on the need to deliver a network and services that will make an electric car affordable to buy, easy to use, and amazing to own. It will also share the ripple effect of building a new industry in our economy and the role Electric Vehicles play in shaping the future of our nation using the example of its capital city: Canberra.

Short Description	Why do Electric Vehicles make so much sense? How can a start-up accelerate the global transition to sustainable transportation.
Venue	Engineers Australia 11 National Crct, Barton, ACT
Date	Thursday, 24 June - 5.30 for 6pm
Event Contact	Colleen Mays
Contact Email	cmays@engineersaustralia.org.au
Hosted By	SSEE

Sali Torgoman's B E. ELEC(Hons), MIL&B. Sali Torgoman's responsibilities at Better Place include the deployment of Charge Spot infrastructure, as well as development of engineering requirements for the Australian market. Prior to joining Better Place, Sali was a Power Engineer in distribution construction at Energy Australia. She was the former v/chair for Australian Institute of Energy Sydney YEP division as well as the former treasurer of the South Sydney Youth Services until 2009. She is founder and director of Sydney French Theatre and is reading for a Juris Doctors in Laws focusing on energy policy. Abstract: This presentation focuses on the need to deliver a network and services that will make an electric car affordable to buy, easy to use, and amazing to own. It will also share the ripple effect of building a new industry in our economy and the role Electric Vehicles play in shaping the future of our nation using the example of its capital city: Canberra.

Electric vehicle recharge network starting in Canberra

Company Better Place, have announced they will roll-out an electric vehicle recharging infrastructure in Canberra. The system will use leased lithium-ion battery modules which can be quickly swapped into a car at “Battery Switch Stations” as well as charge spots in homes, offices, shopping centres and other public car parks. This assumes that electric cars will be available at an affordable price and be adaptable to use Better Place's battery module. It also assumes that there are government incentives for the use of zero pollution vehicles and there is an infrastructure to provide them with zero pollution power. It should be noted that Australia has large reserves of low pollution LPG and natural gas and an existing infrastructure to deliver it. A combination of LPG and natural gas would deliver many of the benefits of electric cars, at a lower cost. Existing Australian made petrol and diesel vehicles can be easily converted to gas in Austrlaia using Australian technology. The need to build renewable power stations will considerably add to the cost of electric cars

Better Place Australia, the leading electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure and services provider today announced that it has chosen the nation’s capital, Canberra, as the site of its first city-wide roll-out of electric vehicle infrastructure in Australia. The decision was announced by Better Place founder and Chief Executive Officer, Shai Agassi, with Evan Thornley, head of Better Place Australia and ActewAGL Chief Executive Officer, Michael Costello, the ACT’s electricity retailer and distributor. “Canberra is a great city to start deploying our vision of zero-emissions mobility. Canberra has a mobile population that demands a viable alternative to allow for both short commutes and longer trips” said Mr Agassi. “There’s proven demand for EVs in Australia and the people of Canberra are ready for a more sustainable future. That future is electric.” The initial roll out will involve an investment by Better Place, which will go towards building out the infrastructure, services and systems to support the first several hundred electric vehicles in Canberra. The investment will cover: • safe and completely recyclable lithium-ion batteries that will power the electric vehicles and be provided as part of the service to drivers, reducing the up-front costs of purchasing an electric vehicle; • charge spots in homes, offices, shopping centres and other car parks where drivers can plug in to keep their battery fully charged; and • “Battery Switch Stations” where motorists can simply drive in and have a depleted battery automatically exchanged for a fresh, fully charged one. “We aim to start construction on our charge spots and battery swap stations in 2011 and start supporting customers in 2012” said Mr Thornley. “From Canberra we will then begin to roll out across the whole country.” Better Place will work closely with ActewAGL to plan the infrastructure deployment. “A significant influence on our decision to choose Canberra was the enthusiasm and support we have received from Michael Costello and his team at ActewAGL” said Evan Thornley, Chief Executive Officer of Better Place Australia. ActewAGL will be responsible for sourcing and distributing the renewable energy that Better Place will use to power its electric vehicles within the ACT. “It’s important that we work together closely so that we can be sure we have the right levels of power available in the car parks and similar locations where the electric vehicles will be charging” said ActewAGL Chief Executive Officer, Michael Costello. “But this is a great opportunity for Canberra to make a huge dent on its greenhouse gas emissions, so we’re very keen to co-operate to help make it a reality.” For further information on Better Place’s plans for Australia please visit www.betterplace.com. ... From: Better Place Australia announces Canberra as starting point of national roll-out of electric vehicle recharge network, News Release, Better Place, 24 July 2009