Hi Gary & All,
From Tesla:
https://www.tesla.com/en_AU/blog/mod...ency-and-range
See image: More speed = increased electricity consumption leads to decreased range per charge. Little or no braking means the batteries are not being recharged via energy recovery which worsens the "all-round" consumption figure.
Nearly all (if not actually all) internal combustion engined cars with gearboxes use less fuel on highway cycle than they do city. But this is not a direct comparison. My point is that in a rural area and high speed driving, the range of electric vehicles, particularly those with regenerative braking, is less than in the city at lower speeds. Also the energy advantage they have that is recouped from braking is largely lost.
From the graph, fuel consumption is 200W per mile at 60kph and 300W per mile at 100kph -- that's a 50%
increase in "fuel" consumption per mile at high speeds over suburban speeds. It doesn't all come down to aerodynamic efficiency. Both petrol and diesel engined cars normally achieve a 15-20%
reduction in consumption in highway-type driving over city despite their unsophisticated aerodynamic design. But to emphasise again -- I'm not trying to make a direct comparison electric -v- internal combustion. What I am saying is that for electric, range will still be compromised as average driving speeds increase and the number of regenerative braking events (and the capacity to recoup energy and re-charge the battery) decreases.
I'm not agin electric vehicles. I do believe they have arrived as a niche vehicle for suburban and urban use for many people.
However the range issue, the fact that they are frequently re-charged from electricity produced from fossil fuels, current sticker price and lack of a spare tyre (in some cases) means they are not yet ready to replace all or most internal combustion engined cars -- particularly in rural areas. The number of places
at present that service electric vehicles in the city is quite limited and for all intents and purposes does not exist in the bush. Things will likely change in the future, but we're not there yet. I'm perfectly okay with the future and change but they're not there right now for the vast majority of people.
There was an article recently about a 4x4 dual-cab ute electric start-up in the U.S -- the Rivian. Works out the price for such a vehicle imported here now is about $140,000 AUD after import, luxury car tax, exchange rate, shipping and GST. For that amount of money, you could buy
two Mitsubishi Triton's and 13,000 litres (about 120,000 kms of driving) of diesel. Or one Triton and 430,000km of diesel. On that basis who would buy a Rivian
now?
Best,
L.