Clarissa Bye: Politicians pushing EV despite unaswered questions

While politicians are busy trying to force everyone into electric vehicles, no one is talking about the hidden expenses and degradation of our urban environment, writes Clarissa Bye.

I drove to Victoria last week for a holiday visiting art galleries with my mum.

We stopped at Canberra, then toured the impressive towns of Ballarat, Bendigo and Shepparton, and Melbourne itself, stopping to put petrol in my Holden Commodore sedan three times.

We returned with half a tank, spending less than 15 minutes in total filling up.

Thank goodness Sydney decided to scrap trams back in the late 1950s. Driving alongside them was nerve-racking in peak hour Melbourne.

And I got the scare of my life outside the main National Gallery of Victoria when I made a sharp right hand turn - on the say so of Google Maps – to end up in a tram only section.

The intersection near the National Gallery of Victoria, which leads into a tram section, with little signage about the danger of turning right into the tram tracks.

“Don’t scream!” my mother suggested, too late. “Keep calm.” Coming straight at us was a tram, and I could see in my rear-view mirror another fast approaching from behind. I couldn’t reverse out as the traffic lights had changed.

Thank God there was enough space to complete the fastest three-point turn I’ve ever done in my life, and I barged my way back into the traffic queued up at the intersection.

I thought that was the worst of the day, but later our car wouldn’t start after I ducked into a shop, after I left my mum sitting in it with the airconditioner going and my phone plugged into Spotify.

After a call to the NRMA, and a minor kerfuffle about the fact we had the wrong car listed under the membership, a very helpful man organised for the Victorian roadside service equivalent to come.

Scrolling through my phone while waiting, I came across a news story about the astronomical price of replacement car batteries for electric cars.

Apparently, manufacturers are reluctant to reveal these insane costs. A new battery for a Lexus SUV is $43,476. My usually trusty 2016 car only cost $15,000 at a Pickles auction a few years back.

Electric car batteries are turning out to be very expensive to replace. A worker checks the cables on the battery for Ford Motor Co. battery powered F-150 Lightning trucks at Michigan Picture: AFP

Their argument for secrecy was that most electric cars have eight-year warranties and battery prices will supposedly fall in the future.

But as the average car in Australia is about a decade old, most long-term owners - and especially those unsuspecting second-hand EV buyers - will face a period when the battery is not under warranty.

When the roadside assistance arrived, he found our problem was a simple flat battery. He expressed amazement that it was the original one.

“Do you want me to just charge it, or get a new one?” I gratefully paid $310 on the spot for a new one. Despite the blow to my holiday finances, I considered it a bargain.

Safely back in Sydney, I drove to my local shops to buy groceries, and discovered there was one less parking spot at the crowded Mortdale shopping village.

The space has been reserved for electric cars to charge. What’s worse is they have put an indescribably ugly, giant metal box on the footpath next to it.

A new Jolt EV charging station in Cook Street, Mortdale. Picture: Supplied

The station occupies a large part of the footpath. Picture: Supplied

It’s a monstrosity. There’s barely enough space for pedestrians to squeeze past. It’s taller than anyone walking around. It’s made even worse by having two brightly lit advertisements on either end. It’s a giant 7 kW EV charger by the company Jolt, who plan to build another 230 around Sydney over the next three years.

Talk about urban blight. I thought the recent spate of Sydney residents running power cords into streets, draped over trees and on footpaths to charge cars was bad enough. But there’s been no warning about this horror.

People have spent years trying to beautify our urban environment, lobbying to put power poles underground and provide seats and trees. Who would have voted for this hideous electric box?

NSW Treasurer Matt Kean sure didn’t mention it when he said last year his plan was to have 50 per cent of new vehicles being fully electric by 2030. No hint when the ACT declared its ridiculous plan to end sales of petrol cars by 2035.

In the face of the totalitarian push to take our petrol cars away, what else are they going to do? Pollies are not answering questions about how it’s going to work out for those of us who live in flats, townhouses and high-rises or don’t have garages or driveways.

Tunnel fire demonstration in Sydney Harbour Tunnel, as part of research into electric car fires. The exercise involved a petrol car, but experts are warning about the need to research electric battery car fires. Picture: Supplied.

Even my husband airily says, oh, they’ll just put chargers in car parks, it will become common thing.

I can imagine those narky people who hover in their cars and don’t want to give up their good parking spots will have a new reason to never leave. It’s already a battle in Sydney finding a car spot at the shops or train station.

What it will be like with people hogging charging spots?

No more ducking into shops.

Maybe they’ll build thousands of underground carparks with chargers for each space. And who will pay for that? Or cover the cost of rebuilding our faltering electricity grid?

Let electric vehicles compete in a free market. Just don’t force them on us. And especially don’t spend our taxpayer dollars artificially propping them up.

Those pollies now foisting this on us will have shot through like the proverbial Bondi tram by 2030, leaving us stranded with electricity rationing, flat batteries and no way of taking the car for a spin to Melbourne.

Which is a scarier thought than being boxed in between two of their trams.

Originally published as Clarissa Bye: Politicians pushing EV despite unaswered questions