It’s All About To Happen Down Under!!
Okay this is the news recording let’s hope this Works hello and welcome to Australian breaking news my name is Robert lell and I am the founder and one of the hosts of the fully charged show now regular viewers may possibly be able to tell I’m not in my usual Studio or indeed what could be classified as warm clothes
Mainly because I’m currently sweltering in 33° heat and it’s very sticky in the wonderful city of Brisbane in Australia I’m here for two reasons my Australian wife and I are spending some time with her wonderful family and in particular her mom who turns 93 in a couple of days
And I will be attending the everything electric show Australia which takes place on the 9th 10th and 11th of February at the Olympic Park in Sydney like fully charged you’ll love our fun-packed everything electric Expos around the world next up Australia and London remember energy and transport professionals Go free on the first
Day have we mentioned that before on the channel about the show in Sydney we have okay in the meantime there has been a lot of news as we leave 2023 behind and bravely and with renewed hope and vigor into 2024 of course the picture is never
All Rosy when is it ever in human life there’s always plenty of negative nonsense that’s being spread around and in this case it’s spread around like a toxic fungus by the fossil fuel industry but there are some amazing amazing bits of news that are leaking out between the
Torrents of big budget negativity here in Australia sales of electric vehicles Rose by one 161% in 2023 according to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald well-known tree hugging liberal rag that is it’s obvious since my last visit how much of that growth in electric vehicles is with
Brands other than Tesla Tesla have been here and been very successful for a long time I’m not denigrating Tesla’s mindboggling success in Australia there are thousands of model 3s and model y’s on the road here but since I was here last year I have noticed a really significant increase in the number of
Other brands of mg byd Kia Hyundai all their electric cars loads of them being driven round as is so often the case the charging Network the public charging Network in Australia is under a bit of a strain a lot of new Chargers are being installed but there’re still a long long
Way to go this morning I mean it’s a very I’ve got to mention it because it happened I tried to use a charger in an underground shopping center car park run by a charging provider in Australia that I’ve used before I’m not going to name them they’re very very good I’ve used
Their charges a lot I have an account with them I have the app the app is registered with my debit card but of course my phone didn’t have a signal in the car park it’s underground so I couldn’t use it I needed an RFID Card to
Go bip not touch to pay no other way of getting it I don’t have an RFID Card I don’t live in Australia in a few months RFID cards are going to be found in the same Dusty box as VHS tapes and eight track cassets that sort of frustration
Is incredibly damaging but even with that occasional annoyance things are getting better here I’ve used loads of other charges here without any trouble at all they all worked it’s just that one when it when you can’t use it thankfully I had loads of range anyway I
Was just topping up don’t want to talk about it anymore it is interesting to compare the two areas that I live in Australia is no without question behind Europe when it comes to public charging infrastructure but my goodness they are catching up fast the installation of New Rapid charges doubled last year
According to a report in the Australian Guardian the national EV strategy with investments from federal and state governments in Australia plans for a further 1,000 charging locations not just charges locations within the next 3 years it also in in aims to install charges every 150 km along the national
Highway Network and let me just explain for those of you who’ve never been to Australia the national highway network is quite long because Australia is quite a big country so that is a big big challenge but as always there’s hiccups along the way or in this particular case
Stink bugs on board what the what that is such this is such a strange story now Australia runs very tight bioc security very sensibly as the Australian continent is effectively isolated from many pests and diseases which afflict the rest of the world recently a cargo ship containing many thousands of new
Electric cars was ordered to stop off the coast of Brisbane before being turned around and returning to China the reason well they discovered a load of yellow spotted stink bugs that were hitching a ride with all the electric cars a recent guest on our podcast be Ari chief executive of Australia’s
Electric vehicle Council said deliveries of electric vehicles would have passed over 100,000 vehicles in 2023 if it wasn’t for this being turned around because of stink bugs it’s just very funny I mean the biocurity here is impressive it’s very sensible if I may say so don’t try and smuggle in a banana
If you’re visiting Australia you won’t get away with it but that is bad luck because 2023 was a record-breaking year for new car sales across across the board in Australia and yes electric cars really really did jump but let’s get real these EV sales are still dwarfed by
Comparison uh to the sale of massive heavy inefficient gas guzzling ludicrous SUVs and big chunky monkey Butch pickup trucks now I know I’ve ranted about this before when I’m in Australia but this fashionable fashion-based Car Choice really is a national disease what will this absurd fashion ever change will
People go I don’t really need a 2.9 ton pickup I probably could make do with a little hatchback an electric one yes little bit more efficient not much hope of that in Australia but maybe France has the right idea the French government have recently imposed a penalty tax the so-called
Malos ecologic for heavy and polluting combustion vehicles I don’t I don’t know why I had to make such a fuss when I was pronouncing that French phrase just the malice El really hard to say malice ecologic this tax was originally imposed back in 2022 but has recently been
Increased to discourage the purchase and the use of heavy polluting vehicles in France I mean it’s outrageous how dare they Crush people’s basic freedom to drive a 3 ton luxury diesel SUV to get a liter of Le it’s a basic human right to drive one of these massive tanks but that’s being
Curtailed in LEF France so it’s an endless struggle but things are slowly I would still argue changing for the better and it’s always worth remembering that there are multiple advantages that come from electric vehicles it’s not just a mode of Transport that’s a very important thing to remember and there was recently A
Perfect story to illustrate that right here in Queensland literally just down the river and down the down the coast down there they had really terrible storms and severe flooding in the state of Queensland over Christmas before we got here thankfully which resulted in widespread power Cuts now in the UK if
You’re in the dark and there’s a power cut it’s just dark and cold in Queensland it means everything in your fridge and freezer starts to go off your air conditioning stops working and you start sweltering because as is the way with weather after the storm when they
Still had power Cuts they had a massive Heat Wave apparently and there were many examples of this people were using their electric vehicles now let’s be specific their byd and Hyundai cars that come capable of vehicle to load to send the power from the vehicle into your home
Either to run their homes their air conditioning and freezers or to run and power their neighbors and that happened quite a lot you can also do this with a few other makes of EV but annoyingly you can’t do this with a Tesla and there’s loads of of Teslas here they just sit
Still doing nothing in a power cup H I wonder if that’ll ever change but this one story made the news this is a report from the Australian Guardian a woman called Kirsty Holmes used her byd electric car to power her 11-year-old son’s dialysis machine after their power
Shut off on Christmas day not any old day of the year Christmas Day at first Holmes and her husband used the car to plug in their fridges and those of their neighbors in adjoining units but when the power didn’t come back on quickly she started to wonder whether the car
Could handle the life-saving dialysis machine her son needed we ran it off the car home said I’m quoting from the newspaper here just to make that clear we ran it off the car home said we only needed to use it for the one night we could have run it for at least four
Nights and then we’d have to go and charge the car somewhere I just want to highlight what she said there she could run this dialysis machine from their car for four nights with no power from anywhere else I’m just saying that to underline it try doing that with your
Diesel car or your petrol car or your plug-in hybrid yes I know you could get a diesel generator and put it in your backyard fill it with diesel and go but seriously don’t try arguing that here next story now back in Europe and we’re going to be talking about diesel
Again for the first time since the dawn of the combustion engine how long ago now 140 years ago more people in Europe bought electric cars than diesel cars last year first time that’s the Tipping Point in action we we we should only be surprised about the fact that there are
People on this planet alive and breathing right now who in the last 12 months of human history bought a new not secondhand not second a new diesel vehicle in Europe where you can’t drive the damn things in many City centers already but so far everything electric
News has been all the reports I’ve been talking about about cars cars cars cars cars cars cars cars is that all you talk about lellan you Old Goat oh okay this next story high laap just how enormous The Wider electric ground transport sector has become and the massive Global impact it’s having but
First more cars uh this is from a fascinating report from the conversation which highlights the myths we all live with when it comes to our cars in the USA in the US OFA a staggering 60% of all car trips are under 10 km for people using old school measurements that’s
Just over six of your ancient miles in a day not 10,000 miles a day like some weird drivers like to claim in the comments no no no I drive regularly at least 10 ,000 miles a day and if I’d have to stop and recharge it would take
Me my lifetime yes whatever carry on roughly the same statistics apply in Europe and Australia and it goes without saying that all electric cars doesn’t matter which ones even the gwiz can manage a 10 km drive a day for pity’s sake however this report reveals how the biggest impact on oil consumption isn’t
As a result of ever increasing electric car use it’s from the 280 million electric scooters and motorbikes that are on the road around the world 280 million according to estimates by Bloomberg new energy Finance the popularity of electric scooters and bikes is already cutting demand for oil
By 1 million barrels a day that’s about 1% of the world’s total oil demand that kind of gives you an impression of what our total oil demand is it’s quite a lot I wonder if the world’s oil executives are aware of this I wonder if they are spending big money spreading negative
Stories about electric ground transport to try and stem this tide of change surely they wouldn’t do that decent human beings wouldn’t lower themselves that much surely that would be a ridiculous thing to claim and as a result of the research Bloomberg new energy Finance have also done some other
I’m going to have to say that again because I got that so wrong as a result of the research bloom new energy Finance have done there’s some other very revealing insights the average petrol car this is from their research not me saying it from Bloomberg new energy Finance people who can actually do
Proper research and Mathematics the average petrol car driving 12,000 m a year cost around $2,700 when you include fuel spare parts and the endless maintenance that combustion cars require I think that’s actually very cheap I’m impressed a similar sized Electric car again including charging and maintenance and spare parts costs around
$720 a year to run so it’s about $2,000 a year cheaper doesn’t matter what the car is to drive an electric car which we all knew and if you didn’t know that I’m telling you now an electric bike an electric scooter or electric motorbike doing a 20 km commute 5 days a
Week that will cost about $20 a year yes a year $20 a year a year just want to underline that $20 a year now I would argue that there are days when being able to get into a warm dry car to drive even a short distance is an incredible privilege and a luxury
It’s not going it’s going to be very hard to give up but I live in a damp cold country that said when I was in the car this morning and the temperature outside was 32° Centigrade it was very nice to over because it was very very sticky there
Are areas of the planet where using bikes and scooters is absolutely the norm and the electrification of these machines means that countless cities air pollution has reduced which will save thousands of lives because the toxicity of burning that much fossil fuel in a hot confined space of a city is
Disastrous and that’s why they are these bikes are so popular and yes we are often reminded how these Fancy Pants electric vehicles with their batteries require us to dig up and refine enormous amounts of materials yes yes we know about that but one thing I’ve learned
Over the past decade and a bit is just as you think you have a handle on what we need to produce a battery the whole thing changes again a joint venture between VW in Europe and a jaac Motors in China has just launched an electric car they’re not talking about launching it they’ve
Made it it’s on the road and this electric R has a battery and this battery contains wait for it no lithium no lithium none the car small and relatively lightweight vehicle is powered by sodium ion batteries which yes have a lower energy density than lithium ion but they are much much
Cheaper and they use very abundant materials and they work much better in cold climates interestingly car news China describes the car as having a 252 km or 157 M range from a 25 KW battery but that does seem a little bit generous from 25 KW anyway it’s not a long haul
Vehicle but it it’s going to be perfect for driving around cities and this car is going to be cheap no news yet just how cheap but hopefully Elliot Richards who’s our wonderful correspondent in Shanghai will be able to tell us later this year and while we’re on the topic
Of materials needed for batteries this story about a dried up Lake in California called the soul sea is quite interesting according to new research carried out by the US Department of energy there is enough lithium in the area to build the Batters for 375 million electric cars this lake has
Been destroyed over the last 100 years by extracting water for local agriculture so it’s human intervention that has caused this utter disaster in this Lake but now that damage might have positive side effects companies working towards a direct lithium extraction technology that can extract the Brine and separate the lithium from the other
Metals without having massive evaporation ponds but people who love to jump up and down screaming about how terrible electric vehicles are have stopped it seems whining about lithium or even about children digging up Cobalt in the Democratic Republic of the Congo because as we know a lot of that Cobalt
Is used in refining fossil fuel but now they’ve moved on from that now they they love battery fires oh that gives them so much reassurance and deep joy in their rattled miserable Souls if a petrol or diesel car catches fire no one gives a flying toss because it happens all the
Time and it’s just normal in fact when I was driving up here from Sydney we saw two count them vehicle fires one was a petrol car the other was a diesel truck both on fire on the side of the highway yes it happens all the time you barely
Notice it here’s a bit of data from you from London data obtained by air quality news through a freedom of information request revealed that in 2019 the London fire brigade and that covers a big area and about 20 million people live in that area dealt with just 54 electric vehicle
Fires compared to wait for it 1,898 petrol and Diesel fires none of which would have been reported in the newspapers now now you can say there’s more petrol and diesel cars than electric cars in cities yes there generally is but in London my goodness there’s a lot of electric cars there was
A recent incident on board a car transporter ship called the freemantle highway I’m just wondering whether you can hear that there is a noise in the background that is a petrol powerered leaf blower which I think is the Apex of insane technology that burns fossil fuel
Just saying that just in case you can hear it he blower for pity’s sake anyway recent incident on board an electric car transporter called the free manle Highway a big fire broke out when the ship was in the North Sea off the coast of the Netherlands one poor fellow was
Actually killed and a few members of the crew were injured now the old school press never mentioned anything about the casualties they were in ecstasy they were I won’t use anything Rudder but they were on the verge of a big thing that begins with an O screaming about
How it was an electric vehicle that caused the fire and they should be immediate L banned oh they absolutely loved this fire well now we know what actually happened the ship was carrying 3,200 petrol and diesel cars and 500 electric models now most of the petrol and diesel cars were burnt out
Completely gone burnt to a crisp nothing left just puddles of melted aluminium but on the lower decks where the electric cars have been stored there was no damage at all and all the vehicles were perfectly right and they were literally driven off the ship they were not damaged weirdly this story got zero
Coverage in the UK press I know for a sure the fire started in a diesel car just like the fire in the car park at luten airport that the Press also went into ecstasy about saying it was an electric car there were no electric cars in that carp literally none it was a
Diesel car I know I’ve mentioned this in previous episodes but I don’t care I will continue to harp on about it I will continue to ATT attack and and insult anyone who spreads this ludicrous lie about Vehicles I’m talking cars and trucks and buses and vans not electric bikes that’s a whole other
Topic but cars yeah it makes doesn’t make me angry at all I’m really happy about it all technology can fail but petrol and diesel cars are statistically more dangerous I’ve recently recorded a podcast with Emma Sutliff who is an actual Fire officer who has to deal with actual vehicle fires she knows what
Actually happens and it’s really worth a listen it’s on the fully charged Show podcast as with every other story in this episode all the links are in the show notes including the link to the podcast and now this is like a proper news show where there’s a lighter story
At the end it’s about a farmer in Western Australia who lives on a 1,750 acre property quite big not like super big in Australia but a big property in Malaya which is about 280 km north of Perth in Western Australia and this is for the poor old souls who are still saying in
Australia your EV may be okay for Sil use but it’s hopeless in the outback well this farmer Jeffrey Johnson invested in an electric car that he Powers with solar energy that he produces on his farm he said many drivers in Regional Australia are dismissing the technology unfairly when
It could deliver them significant fuel savings he’s driven more than 12,500 Kow in his electric mg and his annual fuel costs are basically zero now that is different to buying a liquid fuel putting it in a tank and burning it I don’t know if anyone’s wor that out cu you have to pay
For that liquid fuel so if you were to reduce that cost by let’s say 99.9% I think you’d notice and the car is adequate for what he needs he can drive around goes to the shops and I know what this Outback Australia is like there’s never a shop just around the
Corner it’s usually about 100 km Drive farmer Johnson said Australians in Regional areas should take time to educate themselves this is an Australian farmer talking about they should educate themselves about the technology and do the sums on how much they could save by using solar rather than liquid imported toxic filthy
Fuel there we go that story really cheered me up that’s it hopefully I’ll see some of you at the show in Sydney it’s going to be it’s going to be amazing you can’t miss it if you’re in the area but in the meantime if you have been thank you for watching
Ahead of this weekend’s first Everything Electric AUSTRALIA expo in Sydney, Robert has pulled together his selection of topical News stories, including some stinky goings on in an EV transport vessel, a V2L set up that saved lives and the bikes that are saving the burning of 1 million barrels of oil a day!
00:00 Intro
01:23 EVs up Down Under
04:53 Stopping The Stink!
06:45 French Toxic Taxes
07:53 Queensland Chaos
10:19 Deathknell for Diesels
11:13 Scooter Impact
15:47 Sodium Solution
21:43 Electric Farmer
23:24 See you in Sydney
Links to Stories:
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/fuelled-by-tax-cuts-electric-vehicle-sales-surged-in-australia-in-2023-20240111-p5ewkr.html
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/jan/14/how-the-humble-stink-bug-caused-australia-to-miss-a-major-ev-milestone
https://www.electrive.com/2024/01/09/france-tightens-penalty-tax-for-polluting-and-heavy-new-vehicles/#:~:text=The%20tax%20starts%20at%2050,pay%20a%20penalty%20since%202022.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/jan/01/amazing-queensland-mum-uses-electric-car-to-save-sons-life-with-dialysis-during-power-outage
https://theconversation.com/the-worlds-280-million-electric-bikes-and-mopeds-are-cutting-demand-for-oil-far-more-than-electric-cars-213870
https://www.engadget.com/the-first-ev-with-a-lithium-free-sodium-battery-hits-the-road-in-january-214828536.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAABI6om8UJEXM4Zid6kWOK73zIcBgYKPepu0VNrSSW-Rxclo4qqWXIOPH352ZLdL33sPfQ3D6MWkF6R880I0L7UpSPW4BvZMrukZiEiH65hAZxi1SfiMhFNaQ3W6uzmYwnz500ocIx8hIpmPXT9f6x0Ej_2vpP56Yb4B69d4i75_2
https://www.portstephensexaminer.com.au/story/8475178/farmer-urges-rural-aussies-to-consider-electric-cars/
Why not come and join us at our next Everything Electric expo: https://everythingelectric.show
Are you an Energy or Transport professional?
Grab your FREE tickets for the first day at Sydney here: https://au.everythingelectric.show/fully-charged-business
Everything Electric London – Energy & Transport professionals FREE 1st day tickets: Coming soon!
Support our StopBurningStuff campaign: https://www.patreon.com/STOPBurningStuff
Become a Fully Charged SHOW Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/fullychargedshow
Become a YouTube member: use JOIN button above
Buy the Fully Charged Guide to Electric Vehicles & Clean Energy : https://buff.ly/2GybGt0
Subscribe for episode alerts and the Fully Charged newsletter: https://fullycharged.show/zap-sign-up/
Visit: https://FullyCharged.Show
Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/fullychargedshw
Follow us on Instagram: https://instagram.com/fullychargedshow
To exhibit or sponsor, email: commercial@fullycharged.show
Everything Electric AUSTRALIA, Sydney Olympic Park – 9th, 10th & 11th February
Everything Electric LONDON, ExCel London – 28th, 29th & 30th March
Everything Electric NORTH, Yorkshire Event Centre – 24th, 25th & 26th May
Everything Electric CANADA – Vancouver Convention Centre – 6th, 7th & 8th September
Everything Electric SOUTH – Farnborough International – 11th, 12th & 13th October
Everything Electric EUROPE – RAI Amsterdam – Date Announcement Imminent
#fullychargedshow #everythingelectric #fullychargedlive #fullychargedpodcast
