Electric Car Network For Australia
Listening to PM on Radio National tonight on the drive home, I heard some exciting news! An American (of course) company is planning on building a huge electric car powering network here in Australia by around 2012. This is certainly a step in the right direction. AGL Energy has apparently promised to back the venture by supplying all the electricity from renewable resources.
I heard about the similar ventures in Israel and Denmark a few weeks ago, and thought we could only dream of something similar here in Oz. But, apparently we are intended to be the ‘flagship’ nation for the company, proving that if it can work in a country as big as ours, it can work anywhere. At the moment, they plan to power Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, and I think also Canberra - stating that rural areas will have to wait a while.
So, what do you think? I’d certainly be interested in buying an electric car if this infrastructure was in place - as long as the cars aren’t ridiculously expensive, of course.
Check out this article in The Age for more info.
October 24 2008 09:20 pm | Oil and petrol
October 25th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
This is exciting news indeed.
A pity it’s taking until 2012 as my wife as just bought a new car. It’s a Fiat Punto with a diesel engine that on paper at least gets better mileage than a Prius.
If this electric car network would be ready now, my wife would most likely have bought an electric car instead.
October 25th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
[...] to Jess at Sustainable Suburbia for bloggin this and linking to the article in The Age news [...]
October 27th, 2008 at 9:12 pm
At the risk of being labeled a cynical bastard, our governments aren’t even capable of running a medium-sized train network. How do you think they’d cope with electrical car charging stations?
The concept, notwithstanding my cynicism, is brilliant and should be adapted forthwith (alongside immense public transport provisions, outlined on The Greens’ plan).
October 27th, 2008 at 9:57 pm
Perhaps that’s why it’s being set up and run by a private company?
Profit makes the world… or in this case, the wheels of electric cars… go round, perhaps?