Thread: Full Electric LDV ute

Originally Posted by 300CALMAN

Hmm interesting, I wounder how the rural power grid would cope with these. Water crossings or flood water here in Auckland? Towing a boat? Still lots of questions...

It has coped with rotating milk sheds.

I have done 3500 kms in my work ute, it’s going great, does what it should within its limitations, it’s comfortable and apart from the electricity I use from work everywhere else has been on free quick chargers.
I usually charge it after about 280 kms, because if I have an incident at work I need to be able to go, not tell everyone wait 40 minutes while I charge the ute.
It’s never going to be a solution for everyone but for my role at work, as a manager and sales rep it does the job fine, certainly have had a lot of people want to look at it, ask about it while at the charging station.
While it’s charging I usually catch up on emails and drink coffee.

Originally Posted by Konev

It has coped with rotating milk sheds.

Yes that's a requirement for dairy but that's only one type of property. In town the network people tell me we won't cope with many EV's as the system stands.

I think solar generated hydrogen or hydrogen based power is what we will need if we get away from diesel

I'm curious if anyone has good costings of what the average farmer would pay to install something
Land cost would be little or nothing if you have the space, solar panels are relatively cheap, the cost would be the extraction system and storing Hydrogen is rather difficult I understand

Why add all that extra infrastructure when you have the energy sitting there ready to go? Its why hydrogen wont replace batteries. All the backend is ready for battery, in order to put in hydrogen you then need generation, transport, storage and filling. Then there is the saftey bureaucracy that will come with all of that. End of the road, it will cost a lot more.

Originally Posted by Konev

It has coped with rotating milk sheds.

it is beyond me why it hasnt been mandatory for years,if you build a large farm building...well ANY building actually,the roof of at least one should have to be solar panels..... even if it only heated the hot water to wash out the plant and helped run the rest of the outfit...most ratary sheds have a huge roof that is wasted space. there are a few clever sheds around,including one that bottles methane?? natural gas made from the effluent and uses it for all sorts of stuff.
larger initial cost for sure,but long term these little bits add up. a how water heating bill in single figures each month is a HUGE saving for a domestic household..let alone cowshed where 800 litres goes down drain at a time.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

it is beyond me why it hasnt been mandatory for years,if you build a large farm building...well ANY building actually,the roof of at least one should have to be solar panels..... even if it only heated the hot water to wash out the plant and helped run the rest of the outfit...most ratary sheds have a huge roof that is wasted space. there are a few clever sheds around,including one that bottles methane?? natural gas made from the effluent and uses it for all sorts of stuff.
larger initial cost for sure,but long term these little bits add up. a how water heating bill in single figures each month is a HUGE saving for a domestic household..let alone cowshed where 800 litres goes down drain at a time.

Unfortunately payback is still marginal on some systems but yes, even just to give you some independence when the network goes down.

I thought this was interesting (OK I haven't read it all).

https://mro.massey.ac.nz/bitstream/h...3/02_whole.pdf

Its been mandatory for at least the past 40 years, for all new buildings in Israel to fit solar hot water systems on their roofs. That way if you (or your kids) piss the security services off they just drive by and shoot it full of holes. Voila! no more hot water for you

Originally Posted by Konev

Why add all that extra infrastructure when you have the energy sitting there ready to go? Its why hydrogen wont replace batteries. All the backend is ready for battery, in order to put in hydrogen you then need generation, transport, storage and filling. Then there is the saftey bureaucracy that will come with all of that. End of the road, it will cost a lot more.

Because the backend is not ready for higher capacity battery charging. Our infrastructure isn't capable of handling the increased requirements for more amps. I know of a building who's boilers are about f**ked, they're gas powered. They are not allowed to get replacement gas ones, but power circuits in the street don't carry enough power. As the requirements for EVs to have more range, more load (e.g SUVs and trucks) goes up, the infrastructure cannot cope. The whole thing is more complex that you might think.

Originally Posted by vulcannz

Because the backend is not ready for higher capacity battery charging. Our infrastructure isn't capable of handling the increased requirements for more amps. I know of a building who's boilers are about f**ked, they're gas powered. They are not allowed to get replacement gas ones, but power circuits in the street don't carry enough power. As the requirements for EVs to have more range, more load (e.g SUVs and trucks) goes up, the infrastructure cannot cope. The whole thing is more complex that you might think.

....not to mention the number of existing ICE vehicles on the road that could be retrofitted to run hydrogen - if the infrastructure was in place. Electric vehicles look to be more of a bad evolutionary joke (kind of like what a pug is in canine evolutionary terms) rather than a proper solution.

If you talk to the network people you will understand even as it is the system is stretched.

Originally Posted by Nickoli

...kind of like what a pug is in canine evolutionary terms

Pearler of a explanation

Its a dog...but not as we know it

Just like the Health system etc etc etc, our Electrical transmission is struggling just to deliver existing demand. Abso fricken lutely no ability to expand currently

Originally Posted by Nickoli

....not to mention the number of existing ICE vehicles on the road that could be retrofitted to run hydrogen - if the infrastructure was in place. Electric vehicles look to be more of a bad evolutionary joke (kind of like what a pug is in canine evolutionary terms) rather than a proper solution.

I'd love to have hydrogen, but as I understand it it comes with it's own issues around fuel storage - the stuff is hard to contain. Maybe hydrogen fuel cells will be the way forward.

Fuel cells still need stored hydrogen somewhere in the car. At 10,000 psi