4wd and ute electric vehicles for Australia (1 Viewer)

[sunrk]

Ute = pick-up in the USA btw. Better clear that up.

I'm not a fan of EV's generally but I'm watching very closely what's happening with the Tesla Cybertruck (a toy EV not intended for real world use) vs the Rivian R1T and R1S (real EV's that are being developed for real world use).

Because of Australia's stupid laws, any imported 4wd EV will be considered a 'luxury vehicle' despite Australia not having had any local mainstream vehicle manufacturing since 2017. The 'luxury car tax' rate here is 33 percent. There's a fancy way to work it out that I don't completely have my head around for imported vehicles or vehicles sold locally.

Takeup of EV cars is really slow outside major Australian cities as there simply is not enough support for them to charge, and costs are still high, and range is still largely inadequate for the Australian situation. Currently no mainstream makers produce EV utes or 4wd's for the Oz market so things might change once that happens.

I don't know if/when Toyota or Nissan (even though Nissan is now part of Stellantis) will have an EV ute or 4wd, and there doesn't yet seem to be anything from the non-Japanese makers like Ford, GM (formerly Holden in Oz), etc.

What are your thoughts about all this?

Craig.

 

[White Stripe]

I think that's a good example of why Toyota really wants to go the hydrogen route rather than EV. EV is being pushed harder in the USA and still there is not much infrastructure here. With hydrogen you fill up similar to a petrol vehicle and go. I am not against EV, but I think the drawbacks are glazed over by the majority in the USA. Some people actually get rid of there EV after a while because it's a pain to recharge it.

 

[sunrk]

I wonder how feasible hydrogen is as a fuel long term? There's been a slab of research into fuel cells but perhaps they cost of making them and the low energy density makes them unusable in motor vehicles.

The big problem with EV's is two things - charging infrastructure and the 'green washing'. The charging stuff will eventually happen with the right pushes from industry and governments. The green washing is conveniently ignored. People are so blind to where all the electricity to charge their EV's will come from. It's either got to be solar or from the grid.