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Australian fuel quality standards

The FCAI has welcomed the Federal Government’s consultation process on Australia’s fuel quality standards stating that the move was necessary to lower emissions from Australia’s light vehicle fleet. “Automotive manufacturers have been calling for an improvement to Australia’s fuel quality standards for more than 10 years,” FCAI Chief Executive Tony Weber said. “Currently, we have some of the worse quality petrol in the advanced world. We are pleased to see the Government flag action on 95RON petrol as their preferred option in this consultation process.” Mr Weber added that it was pleasing the Federal Government was beginning to take action to address emissions in the light vehicle sector. However, the FCAI believed that the quality of 98RON and 91RON needs to be addressed.

Rolls will roll out an electric Rolls

Charles Rolls prophesised an electric future for the motor car. Having acquired an electric vehicle named The Columbia Electric Carriage, he foresaw its suitability as a clean, noiseless alternative to the internal combustion engine providing there was sufficient infrastructure to support it. RollsRoyce CEO, Torsten Müller-Ötvös, made a public commitment to electrification by announcing that he would bring a fully-electric Rolls-Royce to market within the current decade. The car is the Spectre.

Savic Motorcycles two major milestones achieved

EV pioneer Savic Motorcycles has achieved two major manufacturing milestones on the road to commercial production with the successful completion of its customised Anti-lock Braking System (ABS) with Bosch Australia, and the first all-weather road tests on urban and semi-rural roads. The ABS tuning phase was carried out over several months.

Deakin employs the sun to test drive ASCEND

After almost three years of lockdowns, Deakin’s dedicated engineering students are finally at the stage where they are test-driving the car they designed and built for the 2023 World Solar Challenge. Having spent the last few months finetuning the build and measuring the cars’ power through dyno testing, the team is ready to hit the road. The 2023 Bridgestone World Solar Challenge will be held on 20-27 October 2023 and is a 3000-kilometre race from Darwin to Adelaide. Young engineers from all over the world compete with solar cars over five days. Deakin’s entry, codenamed ASCEND, will be competing in the Cruiser division.

Update on topping up EVs in Australia

There is an assumption that the demand on the electricity grid by many users charging their EVs at the same time will place the system under pressure.

According to case studies compiled by the Electric Vehicle Council, the expected impact of EV charging at times of peak demand will top out at about 250W per EV under the ‘convenience model’.’ This ‘convenience model’ assumes there are no tariffs controlling or incentivising when to charge – drivers will simply charge when it’s most convenient. This is half as much as a small refrigerated air conditioner (500w) and a quarter of some higher-end desktop computers, assuming 80%+ efficiency (700-1000W). With computers being used during the day by people who work from home this represents a significant cost over EVs. The University of Queensland undertook a study of 239 Tesla vehicles over a six-month period, showing the impact per EV at peak times is within the 150-300W range. Typically, one kW of charge adds one kilometre of range to an EV every 10 minutes. Put simply, a 10kW charger will give a vehicle 60km of range after charging for an hour. At present, most home chargers are limited to 4.8-7.6kW. Detailed modelling by the CSIRO says that 250W per EV is about a fifth of the impact forecast under the convenience model. However, the convenience model does not line up with real-world behaviour, as most drivers would charge their vehicles at a charging station during the day (as they’re on the road) and at home at night-time. The University of Melbourne predicts that 250W per EV is one eighth of the impact forecast under the convenience model. This assumes 80 percent of drivers will use 7kW chargers at home, with a typical 2kW excess on the grid during peak times on weekdays. Most drivers are willing to avoid peak time charging, as it costs less. The EVC and Tesla Owners’ Club of Australia ran a survey in 2022 and showed a majority of Tesla owners charged during the nightly off-peak of 12am2am, and the middle of the day (10am-2pm) when solar production is at its best. As of January 2022, there are only about 3,000 public EV charging points in Australia. This comprises AC “trickle” charging with 291 rapid (above 50kW) charging stations and 1,580 regular (below 50kW) charging stations available around the country. About 700 more fast and “ultra-rapid” stations (300kW+) are planned for development within the next five years.

Subscription features in cars are here for good – or bad

As car manufacturers increasingly turn to the controversial concept of subscription services, vehicle connectivity expert VNC Automotive questions whether consumers are as against the idea of subscribing to vehicle features as many believe.

Rather than paying for an expensive option at the point of sale, there’s the potential for customers to switch on or deactivate options according to their needs and budget. For instance, it’s likely that heated seats won’t be necessary in summer months but could be activated for winter driving or simply as and when required for seasonal road trips. Subscription features also make the car more configurable for subsequent owners, allowing them to specify features as they would with a new car. Additionally, customers switching between vehicles could have their subscribed features move with them, with options activated according to each driver’s subscription package. New figures from YouGov show customers are more tolerant and accepting of rented vehicle access. Three in 10 (30 percent) of Brits and Americans agree with the statement: “I don’t want to be locked into owning a car because my needs may change.” The same survey shows a shift towards acceptance of car subscription models such as ‘Care by Volvo’, which allows users to choose vehicles according to their lifestyle requirements. Younger drivers are tending to shun the ownership model, seeing vehicles as a transient commodity.

Smart charging through a smart phone

According to a new report by specialised site EV-Volumes, global EV sales reached 6.75 million units in 2021, 108 percent more than in 2020.

This volume includes passenger vehicles, light trucks and light commercial vehicles. Moreover, the number of electric vehicles on the road should reach at least 145 million units by the end of the decade as per the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates. At Groupe FIRALP, the move to electric vehicles has been underway for several years. To support this transition to electric vehicles, the group, through its subsidiary EREC, has chosen PcVue Solutions for the supervision of its charging stations. The project began in 2020 with the aim of managing internally the hundred-22kW charging stations at FIRALP’s 50 branches, offering a flexible solution. The number of charging stations is currently sufficient for the number of e-vehicles, but a strong desire of the FIRALP group is to expand its fleet and this may make access to the stations increasingly difficult. The main problem that EV car drivers encounter concerns cars remaining connected even after a full charge, making the charging station inaccessible for other waiting vehicles. To solve this challenge, PcVue Solutions offered a solution that allows e-vehicles drivers to sign in with their cell phone when they arrive at parking lots and to indicate the desired charge rate. PcVue stores the information regarding the charge need and rate and when a charging station becomes available, the PcVue platform is able to notify the driver on his mobile of the charging station to use. Once the vehicle is connected, PcVue will trigger the charging. A configurable time-out is also available if the driver decides to finally not charge his vehicle. It will be possible for the driver receiving the charging authorization on his mobile to transfer it to a third person in case of unavailability, or simply to postpone it. These mobile and intelligent solutions allow the parties involved: vehicles, charging stations and drivers, a perfect match between availability, charging and time.

Six fully electric BMW models by 2030

BMW announced a US$1.7 billion investment in its US operations including a US$1 billion investment which is to prepare for the production of electric vehicles at the company’s existing manufacturing facility in South Carolina. And a US$700 million to build a new high-voltage battery assembly facility. By 2030 the company says it will build at least six fully electric models in the US.

“Going forward, it will also be a major driver for our electrification strategy, and we will produce at least six fully electric BMW X models here by 2030. That means: The ‘Home of the X’ is also becoming the ‘Home of the Battery Electric Vehicle’”, BMW Group Chairman of the Board of Management Oliver Zipse said. “In addition, we can showcase BMW Group’s ‘local for local’ principle: Our newly developed sixth generation battery cells, which were specifically designed for the next generation electric vehicles, will be sourced here in South Carolina - where X goes electric.” The BMW Group aims to purchase battery cells for its electric vehicles where production takes place. The company has found a partner in Envision AESC, which will build a new battery cell factory in South Carolina, to supply Plant Spartanburg. Envision will produce newly developed round lithium-ion battery cells, which were specifically designed for the sixth generation of BMW eDrive technology and will be used in the next generation electric vehicles. The annual capacity of the battery cell factory will be up to 30 GWh. BMW Group has already announced that four additional battery cell factories will be built in Europe and China to meet its demand for next generation battery cells. The cell factories are being built by partners and will each have an annual capacity of up to 20 GWh.