The NSW Government says it will invest millions in fast charging points for electric vehicles, trial electric bus services and buy more electric and hybrid government vehicles.
The Berejiklian Government’s EV/hybrid vehicle commitments include:
- 10 per cent of new vehicles ( general purpose passenger fleet cars) purchased or leased by NSW government agencies to be electric or hybrid vehicles from 2020/21.
- NSW’s first fully electric bus trial to evolve into a regular route to be trialed in Sydney’s Inner West from July 2019.
- Co-investment with charging suppliers and councils for fast chargers in regional NSW on major corridors.
- Co-invest in charging points in commuter car parks with view to investigating commercial operations.
- Adopt preferred charging standards and develop guidelines for installation of charging points in roadside service centres.
“More people are embracing electric and hybrid vehicles and we need to do our part to ensure we have the infrastructure in place so that people are confident to use these vehicles right across the state,” said Minister for Transport and Infrastructure Andrew Constance on Monday.
While ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) cars aren’t going to disappear from NSW roads anytime soon, electric cars will eventually roll over the competition. There’s certainly been a lot of interest in electric vehicles from owners of solar power systems.
The NSW Electric And Hybrid Vehicle Plan can be downloaded here (PDF).
The Election Cometh
Key to many of the Berejiklian Government EV/hybrid vehicle commitments occurring is it surviving the next election, to be held on Saturday, March 23.
The NSW Government has been pretty keen of late to demonstrate some green energy related street cred and to somewhat distance itself from its Federal counterparts in this regard. In the leadup to end of last year, a flurry of large-scale solar energy development applications were approved, including those for Narrabri South, Yarrabee, Mulwala, Gregadoo, Darlington Point and Suntop 1 solar farms.
Also on Monday, the NSW Government released its five-year plan for autonomous vehicles.
“Vehicles in the future will not only be electric but automated, so we need to jointly consider these technological advances that will deliver safer, more accessible and convenient transport options.” said Minister for Roads, Maritime and Freight Melinda Pavey.
Also announced was the first Australian trial of Yutong’s new electric bus.
The Chinese company was founded over 50 years ago and claims to be the world’s biggest manufacturer of medium and large buses; building more than 400 vehicles each day (all buses, not just electric). Yutong says it built its first electric bus in 1999. Last month, 20 Yutong full electric buses were put into service in Bulgaria.
About Michael Bloch
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Hi Michael,
Minister for Transport and Infrastructure Andrew Constance on Monday reportedly said:
“More people are embracing electric and hybrid vehicles and we need to do our part to ensure we have the infrastructure in place so that people are confident to use these vehicles right across the state.”
I think it’s about time governments started urgently expediting a transition ASAP to rapidly reduce Australia’s dependency upon petroleum-based fuels. Here’s why:
Per “BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2018”, pp12&14, the world’s top ten oil producing countries in 2017 were:
#_1 USA: _ _ _ _ _ 13.057 million barrels / day (annualised average), 14.1% global share, R/P 10.5 years;
#_2 Saudi Arabia: _11.951 Mb/d (ann. av.), 12.9% global share, R/P 61.0 y;
#_3 Russian Fed.: _11.257 Mb/d (ann. av.), 12.2% global share, R/P 25.8 y;
#_4 Iran: _ _ _ _ _ _ 4.982 Mb/d (ann. av.), _ 5.4% global share, R/P 86.5 y;
#_5 Canada: _ _ _ _ 4.831 Mb/d (ann. av.), _ 5.2% global share, R/P 95.8 y;
#_6 Iraq: _ _ _ _ _ _ 4.520 Mb/d (ann. av.), _ 4.9% global share, R/P 90.2 y;
#_7 UAE: _ _ _ _ _ _3.935 Mb/d (ann. av.), _ 4.2% global share, R/P 68.1 y;
#_8 China: _ _ _ _ _ 3.846 Mb/d (ann. av.), _ 4.2% global share, R/P 18.3 y;
#_9 Kuwait: _ _ _ _ _3.025 Mb/d (ann. av.), _ 3.3% global share, R/P 91.9 y;
#10 Brazil:_ _ _ _ _ _2.734 Mb/d (ann. av.), _ 3.0% global share, R/P 12.8 y.
The world’s top five oil producers represent almost half (49.7%) of global share, and the top ten represent more than two-thirds (69.3%) of global share.
USA, Iran, Canada, Iraq and Brazil are oil producers currently at pre-peak (i.e. still increasing production year-by-year). Saudi Arabia, Russian Federation, United Arab Emirates (UAE), China and Kuwait oil producers are currently at peak (i.e. production has plateaued).
Many oil producing countries are now post-peak, including Australia, which peaked in year-2000, and has declined since then, now producing only 0.4% global share (in 2017), yet consumes 1.1% global share. More than 90% of Australia’s finished petroleum fuels (e.g. petrol, diesel, aviation turbine) are now imported.
See: https://www.bp.com/content/dam/bp/en/corporate/pdf/energy-economics/statistical-review/bp-stats-review-2018-full-report.pdf
See also: http://crudeoilpeak.info/update-on-australian-oil-import-vulnerability-may-2018
A balancing act is occurring between declining and growing oil producing countries. The whole system will peak when US shale oil peaks (in the Permian Basin) because of geology, lack of finances in the next credit crisis, and/or other factors, and when Iraq peaks possibly because of social unrest or military confrontation in the oil producing regions. Added risks include continuing disruptions in Nigeria and Libya, steeper declines in Venezuela, and the impact of sanctions on Iran. Global ‘peak oil’ supply is inevitable; when is the question.
See: http://crudeoilpeak.info/what-happened-to-crude-oil-production-after-the-first-peak-in-2005
From Cassandra’s Legacy weblog post headlined “Peak Diesel or no Peak Diesel? The Debate is Ongoing”, dated Dec 16:
“Shale oil has changed a lot of things in the oil industry, but it couldn’t avoid the decline of conventional oil. That, in turn, had consequences: shale oil is light oil, not easily converted to the kind of fuel (diesel) which is the most important transportation fuel, nowadays. That seems to have forced the oil industry into converting more and more “heavy” oil into diesel fuel but, even so, diesel fuel is becoming gradually more scarce and more expensive, to the point that its production may have peaked in 2015. In addition, it has created a dearth of heavy oil, the fuel of choice for marine transportation. In short, the famed “peak oil” is arriving not all together, but piecemeal — affecting some kinds of fuels faster than others.”
See: https://cassandralegacy.blogspot.com/2018/12/peak-diesel-or-no-peak-diesel-debate.html
That perhaps explains why diesel fuel is now more expensive than petrol, even when crude oil prices drop. Scarce and/or expensive diesel supplies mean higher transport, mining and agricultural costs impacting on the whole economy.
See: https://aip.com.au/pricing/terminal-gate-prices
The sooner Australia rapidly reduces its dependency on petroleum-based fuels by transitioning to battery-electric and hydrogen-fuel-cell vehicles powered from renewable energy, the more energy secure we will be.