http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2013/05/14/3758617.htm?site=westernplains [image] On the road By Georgia Wilson 14 May 2013
[image http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/201305/r1115236_13596148.jpg Dugald Saunders takes a ride in the electric car audio http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/local/westernplains/201305/r1115252_13596636.mp3 Dugald interviews Chris Dalitz ] Mornings goes for a spin in an electric car. Mornings Presenter Dugald Saunders caught up with electrical engineer Chris Dalitz this week, who travels around 60 kilometres each day in his electric car, the only privately owned electric car we know of in the region. It may look like an ordinary car from the outside but as Chris explains, eveything from how it runs to it's battery and engine placement, related costs and even the kinds of sounds it makes while driving it, reveals just how different a vehicle it is. "It's one of only about three vehicles on the Australian market at the moment," Chris said. "We have had some electric vehicles in the area in the past, they've generally belonged to companies or fleets. Some years ago the local electricity people had a little red car that ran around for a while, but it was a conversion where this is a production car. "This is built and designed, ground up, as an electric vehicle." Going electric seems to have been a natural choice for Chris, given his lifelong interest in the field. "Always been interested in electric vehicles. I'm an electrical engineer, and when I studied at university, I studied electric cars, did my thesis on electric cars." "With some recent changes with our work vehicles, I had to get myself a vehicle to go backwards and forwards to work and my wife suggested to have a look at electrics. I was pleasantly surprised how the price had come down." "It's ideal for us, we're a two car family. If we need to do a long trip, we use my wife's car but for me to go backwards and forwards to town...and do those errands you inevitably do, this is ideal." Chris said he charges the car each night on the off-peak rates, using a little more than half a tank each day. "It just plugs into an ordinary power point, it does have a 15 amp socket...because it's a fairly heavy lead has a screw thread on to the wall to prevent it from falling out of the socket at home." Completely discharged, Chris said the car takes about seven hours to power back up with most nights requiring between four to five hours of charging. "Can get around 120 kilometres going backwards and forwards to Geurie." "Around town it'll do further, up to 150, that's because of the regenerative braking." "When you're slowing down, town driving, you're recovering that energy back into the battery because you run the motor as a generator and put the energy back in there instead of wearing out your brakes." "That's one of the other advantages of electric cars, they have to be serviced less often because there's less moving parts. There's not all the hydraulics and the engine lubricants and stuff like that. "In terms of the actual engine, it's just one moving part. There are some other things that need servicing, like your air conditioner, brake fluid, those sort of things but in terms of the actual motor, it's a very simple device." Hear Dugald talk to Chris further about electric versus conventional cars, as they take to the road for a cruise around town. [© 2013 ABC] For all EVLN posts use: http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/template/NamlServlet.jtp?macro=search_page&node=413529&query=evln&sort=date Here are today's archive-only EV posts: EVLN: AAA sez, go ahead make your day, go electric! Worries overdone EVLN: Columbia wants MO Leaf EVs EVLN: 2013 Toyota RAV4 EV Review EVLN: Why plugins could be sold like phones, boosting their sales + EVLN: Yeah, well, tough. Reach different conclusions of EVs’ value {brucedp.150m.com} -- View this message in context: http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/EVLN-Mornings-au-goes-for-an-iMiev-spin-tp4663036.html Sent from the Electric Vehicle Discussion List mailing list archive at Nabble.com. _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
