The Climate, Environment and Energy Thread

[LP]

What exactly is that ?

I'm with [member=57]ElwoodBlues1[/member] on this issue, as light commercial type vehicles EV are well off the mark.

EVs don't have the range or the flexibility under light commercial use conditions, I think the trick for the light commercial market will be Hydrogen / Hybrid type vehicles. Most trade types do a fair bit of travelling to and from sites, usually on freeways, typically fully loaded, the EV performance and range plummets under those conditions.

I do get that most utes are sold to weekend warriors who mostly drive between home and Bunnings, but to get the commercial business a different level of capability is needed that EVs do not deliver at the moment.

Secondly, there is the Toyota issue, there are reasons certain utes, 4WD and vans dominate the tradie market, it's because they are ubiquitous, if you drive 600km to a job and break down you can find spare parts around the next corner.

I suspect agriculture will arrive at a similar conclusion, hydrogen / hybrid. OS it looks like EU countries are making big strides in this direction, with heavy transport heading towards hydrogen. If it works for trucks, it should work for tractors, van and utes.

I did see a nice solar PV pump application recently, solar PV is well suited to applications with short repetitive cycles like a farmer running a lift pump to fill water troughs. You can charge the batteries when the sun shines and use the pump on demand as required. But the ROI is long, it takes a few years of not buying fuel to get to the break even point. I saw it's primary benefit as more of an automation, time management issue.