Category: EV Info

Posted on by

Electric Vehicles in NSW

Nissan is celebrating 5 years of the LEAF and Tesla Australia is celebrating 1 year in Australia. With the upcoming New year I thought it would be good to look back at the history of electric vehicles in NSW.

Growth

Lets look at growth in NSW Tesla don’t share their data with VFACTS, the industry body for new car sales reporting but RMS/RTA do keep registration statistics on how many cars of a particular brand are sold and what type of fuel they use. Using those statistics we can look at how many “pure electric” vehicles are on the road in NSW. The first production EV was the Mitsubishi i-MiEV launched in 2010 before then the 44 or so vehicles registered as electric with the RTA/RMS where most likely conversions.

NSW Pure Electric Registrations Graph
NSW Pure Electric Registrations

What’s included in this count? RMS count petrol/electrics separately so this count doesn’t include plug-in hybrids like the Outlander PHEV, Holden Volt or BMW i3 Rex. What it does include is listed below with their official release dates.

Release Dates :

  • 2010 August Mitsubishi i-MiEV (Limited selective client release)
  • 2011 August Mitsubishi i-MiEV (source: MMAL Press release )
  • 2012 June Nissan LEAF (source: Nissan Press release )
  • 2014 December BMW i3 (excluding the REX hybrid version)
  • 2014 December Tesla Model S (The amount of registered Tesla’s is shown in red)

Performance

If we look at registrations since 3rd Quarter 2011 when electric vehicles began sales to the general public we see 524 registrations to date at a rate of 33 vehicles per quarter. Breaking it down further we see three district rates of registrations:

  • 2009-2011  –  7.8 Registrations per quarter.
  • 2012-2013  –  28.5 Registrations per quarter.
  • 2014 Q1-Q3  –  5.3 Registrations per quarter.
  • 2014 Q3-2015 Q3 – 66.5 Registrations per quarter.

With the release of Tesla Model S we see Tesla alone contribute  52.5 Registrations per quarter,  all other makes and models only managing 14 per quarter since 2014. The best performing quarter is the fourth quarter of 2014 with 87 registrations 65 Tesla 22 others. The worst performing quarter since the release of the i-MiEV first quarter of 2014 with only 4.

Insights 

Tesla has landed on our shores and has been welcomed with open arms with the fastest “selling” electric vehicle in NSW. Nissan/Mitsubishi was a steady seller until 2014. However Nissan have not released an updated model since 2012 in Australia, maybe it’s time for a new model LEAF that sell overseas. Mitsubishi also no longer have i-MiEV at dealerships, concentrating their efforts on the Outlander PHEV.

In terms of charging standards we’ve seen Tesla enter with their own version of a type 2 socket which is Mennekes type 2 compatible. Where as everyone else has been type 1 J1772 it’s a bit hard to gauge a direction while 30% of pure electric vehicles are Tesla we don’t have accurate numbers for other type 1 J1772 plug-in vehicles like the Holden volt, Audi a3 e-tron Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, BMW i3 REX, BMW i8 and the hybrid offerings from Porsche.

Over the last year we’ve seen a significant growth in electric vehicles, installing a type 2 socket universal charging station to suit all vehicles at your office, shop, restaurant,  church or sports field will further enhance the growth of electric vehicles. Please contact us to discuss further.

Posted on by

Charging your EV or PHEV from Controlled Load or Off Peak

For starters let me say this post is not all inclusive you should consult your local electrician or network supplier.  I have put in some  inquiries with network suppliers and will update accordingly.

To know which rules apply to you you need to know who your network supplier is there are 3 in NSW, each supplier has separate rules but they are pretty similar.

Ausgrid

Service area is Sydney, Central Coast and Hunter. The terms and conditions for connections are stimulated in there network pricing Pages 32 to 36. I’ve summarised bellow.

Off Peak

For those on time of use pricing your electricity is charged in 3 rates Peak (2pm to 8pm weekdays) , Shoulder (7am to 2pm and 8pm to 10pm weekdays or 7am to 10pm weekends) and Off Peak (10pm to 7am). Off peak generally is 10-12c/kwh, 1/6 the price of peak and 1/3 the price of shoulder to make use of these prices all you have to do is charge your car during these times. You can make it more convenient by using timers.

Controlled Load

Controlled loads are power circuits that are remotely controlled by Ausgrid. Ausgrid can choose to turn these circuits off to reduce demand on the network. A single installation can only have either controlled load 1 or 2 not both. You can connect any appliance to controlled provided it has fixed wiring basically no power points. In the case of EV charging the EVSE is the appliance not the car, so provided you have a hardwired EVSE you should be able to use controlled load. Also interesting point is that the document does have a cause for battery charging Section 10.3.2.

Controlled Load 1

Controlled Load 1 tariff is available for supply that is usually connected for six hour duration between 10.00 pm and 7.00 am. (7-11c/kwh)

Controlled Load 2

Controlled Load 2 tariff is available for supply that is usually connected for sixteen hours per day including more than six hours between 8pm and 7am and more than four hours between 7am and 5pm (12-14c/kwh)

Endeavour Energy

Service area Sydney’s Greater West, the Southern Highlands and the Illawarra. The terms and conditions for connections are stimulated in there network pricing Pages 23 to 25.

Off Peak

Same hours as Ausgrid but the peak price isn’t as high average the off peak price is only 1/4 of peak 12-14c/kwh

Controlled Load

Controlled loads are power circuits that are remotely controlled by Endeavour. You can connect any appliance to controlled provided it has fixed wiring basically no power points except in the case of pool equipment. In the case of EV charging the EVSE is the appliance not the car so you can provide you have a hardwired EVSE.

Controlled Load 1

Controlled Load 1 tariff is available for supply that is usually connected for six hour duration between 10.00 pm and 7.00 am. (7-10c/kwh)

Controlled Load 2

Controlled Load 2 tariff is available for supply for restricted periods not exceeding 17 hours in any period of 24 hours  (11-12c/kwh)

Essential Energy

The rest of rural and regional NSW, Only document I can find is the pricing list, Off peak follows that of all the others above and controlled load has the same provisions of hardwired appliances only.

Essential is the most expensive service area with off peak only 1/2 peak prices but still 15-18c/kwh. Controlled load 1 11-12 c/kwh and Controlled load 2 17-19c/kwh

 

Posted on by

Manufacturer Charging Offerings

With electric vehicles finally beginning to take off in Australia I thought it would be a good idea to look at how the vehicle manufacturers are recommending you charge your car.

BMW

BMW i3 and i8

Mobile Cable: The cable included with vehicle has a normal household 10A/240V plug (I-type 3112) with a maximum current draw of 8amps (~2kW of power).

Home Charging Equipment: The BMW i Wallbox Pure is listed on the BMW website for $1750 (inc. GST, install additional), but only provides a maximum of 3.7kW instead of the 7.4kW maximum the car can take. BMW estimate the starting cost of install is $660 depending on site requirements.

The i Wallbox Pro doesn’t appear to be available in Australia yet, the pro has a LCD screen and provides load management functions similar to the top model keba when paired up with home electrical smart metering.

Fast Charger: In Australia BMW have decided on using the Combined Charging System (CCS) type 1, it also does not appear to be standard but is an optional extra. So far BMW have only installed one CCS fast charger in Australia at the BMW dealership in Brisbane.

Holden

Holden Volt

Mobile Cable: The cable included with vehicle has a normal household 10A/240V plug (I-type 3112) with a maximum current draw of 10amps (~2.3kW of power). This is a very popular unit with other EVs owners as a replacement only cost RRP $450 from Holden spare parts.

Home Charging Equipment: Holden did have a partnership with now closed down Better Place, but since then have not recommended or partnered with any other supplier in Australia.

Fast Charger: The Volt is not fast charge capable

Mitsubishi

Mitsubishi i-MIEV and Outlander PHEV

Mobile Cable: The cable included with vehicle has a 15A/240V plug (I-type 3112) with a maximum current draw of 10amps (~2.3kW of power).

Home Charging Equipment: Mitsubishi recommend a 15amp power point and using your mobile cable all the time.

Fast Charger: The i-MIEV comes with a CHAdeMO port as standard, the Outlander PHEV even though it has a CHAdeMO port in other countries Mitsubishi decided it added too much to the cost of the car for the Australian market. Mitsubishi have installed a CHAdeMO fast charger at their head office in Adelaide free for Mitsubishi owners.

Nissan

Nissan LEAF

Mobile Cable: The cable included with vehicle has a 15A/240V plug (I-type 3112) with a maximum current draw of 10amps (~2.3kW of power).

Home Charging Equipment: In Australia Nissan have teamed up with Chargepoint/Origin as their official provider of home charging equipment, they provide a CT500 6.6kW charging station for around $3000 installed. They have been moving focus away from home to commercial, and the purchase and install quotation page is no longer available on their website.

Fast Charger: The LEAF comes with a CHAdeMO port as standard.

Tesla

Tesla Model S

Mobile Cable: This is officially “Coming Soon”, we suspect it will be free with the car. This has been one of the early adopter issues with Tesla in Australia promises and not products.

Home Charging Equipment: Tesla provides a single phase 40amp charging station free with the vehicle, installation cost to be covered by the customer. This can supply 9.6kW of power, which is fine with the standard 10kW on-board charger, but is short of the 22kW of power that the Tesla Model S can use with the dual charger optional extra ($1900) . The 3 phase 22kW charging station is also “Coming Soon” with the promise of a free upgrade.

Fast Charger: Fast charging or supercharging in Tesla speak, comes as an optional extra at $3300. But unlike the other manufacturers mentioned Tesla actually do have public plans to increase the availability of superchargers around the country with 2 sites in Sydney and a plan to connect Melbourne to Brisbane over the coming years.

3rd Party Options

For home charging equipment Recharging NSW’s 3rd party options come in cheaper than nearly all the recommended units, except for Tesla where it’s included in the price of the car. Tesla and BMW are providing underpowered units, so if you want to use the full power of your car charger your only option currently is 3rd party units.