Australians are missing out on an ‘extraordinary’ opportunity by snubbing hybrid electric cars

MAKING this one change has saved a cabbie thousands every year, and he can’t believe more people aren’t doing it.

TERRENCE* has been driving a hybrid electric vehicle for more than five years now and he really doesn’t understand why more people aren’t embracing them — it has saved him almost $6000 a year.

The Sydney cabbie owns a Toyota Camry Hybrid, which uses petrol to get going but then runs on battery power that charges as you drive.

A Toyota spokesman said the hybrid battery continually recharges by capturing energy from braking, by using the electric motors and also by using excess power from the petrol engine to recharge the batteries.

“So it’s not creating energy from nothing but more efficiently using energy that would otherwise be wasted,” he said.

The cost varies depending on the terrain as the car uses more petrol when going up hills or having to accelerate quickly. Terrence said the most he would spend was $10 a day.

“I probably spend about $7 a day on petrol,” the taxi driver told news.com.au.

In his previous conventional vehicle Terrence said he was spending up to $30 a day (up to $150 a working week) on petrol, meaning he saves almost $6000 every year.

The Toyota spokesman said this was quite a high saving and official tests estimate an average driver would only save about 33 per cent off their current bill. This means a driver paying $30 a day on petrol would see their bill drop to about $20 using the hybrid.

“A taxi driver that drives in built up areas and spends little time on highways might notice a higher fuel saving as the effect of hybrid technology is more noticeable in these conditions,” he said.

“Low speeds allow the electric motors to be used more and the petrol engine used less, potentially leading to greater fuel savings than the official testing would indicate.”

While some people are sceptical about how reliable hybrids are, Terrence said he had never run out of power.

Terrence’s Camry cost about $34,000 and so after five years, Terrence reckons “it’s nearly paid for itself”.

“For cab drivers, it’s just a real advantage because of the cost-effectiveness of it,” he said.

Terrence has no complaints about the car, saying it’s relatively low maintenance.

“I love it, the calm and quietness of it, the simplicity of it — you just jump in and go. The maintenance is really low because there’s not a lot to do to it.”

Driving an electric car — a Toyota Camry Hybrid — is saving one Sydney cabbie $7000 a year.

The only difficulty is finding someone to service the car as there are not many mechanics who are experienced in dealing with them.

Terrence said it’s “extraordinary” that more drivers aren’t buying more hybrid electric vehicles and that governments are not encouraging this more.

“I think it’s absolutely silly — I think people have a view that you have to plug it in, which is not true,” he said.

He believes a lack of information about the cars may be stopping people from taking the plunge.

“It’s not promoted at all for the public to understand — it’s simplifying the actual owning of a car — you don’t have to do so many things to own it and run it, it’s just so much simpler. Why wouldn’t the government promote such a thing?”

WHAT ABOUT ELECTRIC CARS?

While hybrid cars still use petrol to get started, there’s a push to get more electric cars on the road as they are also cheaper and better for the environment.

UNSW Sydney postgraduate researcher Gail Broadbent has been looking into why Australians are not buying electric cars and she believes there are two main reasons.

The first one is price.

“It doesn’t matter what kind of car people are looking at, price is the first thing they think about,” she said.

Interestingly, many people don’t consider the savings made on petrol when assessing this.

“Research has been done that many people don’t think too hard about their weekly budget,” she said.

“They do have some sense of what they are paying for petrol, but not really. People don’t really think about it.”

Those looking to spend a lot of money on a car also want it to suit their lifestyle and Ms Broadbent said the limited number of models available in Australia made this harder.

“There are about 100 models (of electric cars) available around the world but maybe a dozen or so available in Australia,” she said.

“Buyers may want a certain number of seats, a boot or roof racks and if a car doesn’t satisfy those needs they don’t buy it.”

But she believes the price of electric cars will come down dramatically.

“In about five years it should be about the same price as a conventional car and as soon as that happens — as long as we have a recharging network — people will start buying them.”

Energy Queensland’s Charles Rattray helped launch the first fast-charging station for the world’s longest electric super highway in one state — at The Esplanade in Cairns. Picture: Justin Brierty

Ms Broadbent believes the current lack of a recharging network in Australia and the fear of running out of power while driving is other main factor stopping people from buying electric cars that need to be plugged in.

At the moment buyers have three options. The petrol hybrid like the one Terrence drives, a fully electric vehicle like the Tesla or the Nissan LEAF, and a plug-in hybrid which can drive for 50km on electricity before switching to petrol.

The petrol hybrid, which also includes the Toyota Prius, doesn’t need to be plugged in, but the other two cars do.

While the new Nissan LEAF can travel up to 400km, and charging a car overnight is generally not an issue for those using the vehicle day-to-day, it’s more of a challenge while travelling.

Generally a car can be plugged into any normal socket using an adaptor but Ms Broadbent said her car, which is a plug-in hybrid, takes about five hours to charge.

“This is great as it can happen overnight but if I’m on holidays I don’t want to wait, that’s why on highways you need fast rechargers.”

This can cut charging times down to 30 minutes for a Tesla or up to two hours for other models.

Last week the Queensland Government unveiled the first charging stations as part of its $3 million “electric superhighway”. Eventually the stations along 2000km of the coast between Coolangatta and Cairns, and west from Brisbane to Toowoomba, will make up the world’s longest electric vehicle superhighway in a single state.

The 18 stations will be able to fully recharge a car in an average of 30 minutes, and have been located in areas close to cafes and shops so people visit local businesses while waiting for their car to charge.

The Toyota Camry hybrid uses both petrol and electricity so doesn’t need charging. Picture: Toyota

In Western Australia, the Royal Automobile Club also recently rolled out 11 fast charging stations in the southwest.

Ms Broadbent believes more stations need to be built and it would also be great if a national standard was created for the plugs used so people didn’t have to carry around adaptors or search for specific recharging points.

Governments converting their own fleets to electric vehicles would also help, she said. This would give more people exposure in driving these cars as well as provide an incentive to invest in the recharging stations.

“In the past they may have wanted to favour Australian-made cars, but now that the country no longer manufactures cars here, there’s no reason they can’t change it over,” she said.

“It may not be practical to convert every vehicle, but there’s no reason why they can’t start making the transition.”

WHY ISN’T GOVERNMENT SUPPORTING THIS?

Electric Vehicle Council chief executive Behyad Jafari has called for a package of measures to reduce electric vehicle prices by up to $7000, including fringe benefits and luxury car tax exemptions, and the axing of stamp duty and registration charges by the states.

In an opinion piece published last month, Federal Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg noted the federal government already provides a discount on the luxury car tax threshold for low emission vehicles, offers carbon credit units to transition their fleets to electric vehicles, and funds programs for the purchase of electric vehicles.

He said state governments had responsibility for vehicle registration, stamp duty, government purchasing and were undertaking new charging infrastructure rollouts.

In the article, Mr Frydenberg foreshadowed more support for the electric vehicle industry.

“A global revolution in electric vehicles is under way and with the right preparation, planning and policies, Australian consumers are set to be the big beneficiaries,” he wrote.

“Better co-ordination of existing and future activities around research and development, charging infrastructure planning, vehicle fleet targets and financial incentives, will bode well for the industry in the exciting decade ahead.”

Mr Frydenberg predicted the number of electric vehicles would grow from 4000 to 230,000 within seven years, and to one million by 2030.

But his comments sparked a backlash from several Coalition backbenchers who warned against new tax breaks for electric cars, arguing that they were no greener than equivalent petrol or diesel vehicles.

A study for the Department of Infrastructure and Regional ­Dev­elop­ment more than a year ago found the high reliance on coal-fired power in Victoria, NSW and Queensland meant electric vehicles charged on the grid in those states “have a higher CO2 output than those emitted from the tailpipes of comparative petrol cars”.

But Ms Broadbent disputes this and says a paper has been published that shows electric cars are still better because they are more fuel efficient and produce less air pollution, which contributes to conditions like asthma.

“As more renewables come on board, batteries will get better and in time (carbon emissions) will get better,” she said.

“The figures for electric cars will get better but petrol cars are going to find it more and more difficult to make those improvements.”

Governments may also be reluctant to promote a product that will take money away from them. At the moment, motorists pay fuel excise every time they fill up, which helps pay for new roads and other infrastructure. Electric car owners can avoid this as they buy very little or no petrol at all.

Ms Broadbent acknowledged that this was a challenge but changes to driver’s licence charges or other fees could be changed slowly to adjust.

— With AAP

* Name has been changed.