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Speaking of Lithgow, I was driving from Sydney to Bathurst a few weeks ago visiting from WA. Gee that road is very windy and slow. I suspect there was more traffic given Bells Line from Windsor was closed due to the severe weather. Has there been discussions of a faster connection between Penrith and the Blue Mountains?
The Kuranda Range in North QLD would be a similar setup, but a bit shorter. Thereâs been talk of a tunnel through the range since Adam was a boy.
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The NSW Government has committed to build a road tunnel in the Blue Mountains region, but no mention about a second road between Penrith and Blue Mountains.
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Yep, traffic through the Blue Mountains is shocking. I call it the âGreat Western Parking Lotâ and joke that it takes longer to traverse the mountains now than when Blaxland, Wentworth and Lawson (and those before them) crossed.
The GWH is not too bad once you get past Lithgow (the road was improved here in the 1990s). I donât really have to use that road now; the drive to the Central Tablelands from the Canberra region is awesome by comparison, passing through the Oberon Plateau or Abercrombie Caves.
As an aside, glad to see youâve completed the set. Perth has the Great Northern, Great Southern and Great Eastern highways.
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Leaving drivers stranded for seven hours is totally unacceptable. Queensland Police and the motorway operator should apologise to the drivers and review their emergency procedures.
Are there emergency access between the carriageways along Logan Motorway? If the answer is yes, then these drivers would have been able to be diverted to the westbound carriageway and leave at the nearest motorway exit.
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I agree. Itâs a complete joke. However it doesnât surprise me. I live in SEQ and have lived in other states, and I have to say the way the police and emergency services handle incidents on major motorways in SEQ is astoundingly bad. They leave these major arterials closed for hours while they investigate the accident. Long after the injured are taken to hospital they spend hours pontificating and photographing the incident instead of prioritising clearing and re-opening the road. Itâs totally unacceptable. Once the injured are off the scene the priority should be to re-open the road as soon as humanly possible. People are often stuck for hours in the scorching heat while they faff about. Itâs completely unacceptable people were stuck in cars overnight in the middle of winter. Just clear the cars and open the damn road.
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The double whammy of going back to full excise and the potential end of U91 is going to reflect very poorly on Labor.
The other, unspoken problem with EVs is that global car manufacturers have far less of an appetite to produce and sell them in right hand drive markets, and the big Japanese brands like Toyota that dominate the Australian vehicle market still arenât really interested in EVs.
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I thought Toyota had an EV coming out soon?
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They have an EV that theyâve collaborated with Suburu on (Toyota bZ4X / Suburu Solterra), which has significantly reduced range and features compared to others on the market.
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What about UK? If they dont make right hand drive EVs theyâll be selling zero cars there from 2030.
Also Toyotaâs first global electric car comes out next year.
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There are a few things that are going to work against EVs (at least in the short term) in Australia
- Weâve left our run so late that many manufacturers simply arenât interested in trying here, they know they can sell EVs in a lot of other markets without much issue. There is also no incentive to sell EVs here because our fuel and emission standards are so lax the manufacturers arenât having to meet mandated targets.
- Our desire and need for greater range has (and will) turn people off or make them wait - this is an area where there needs to be better education around expectation and reality - while many of us would like vehicles with a much greater range, the real need for them is probably not as great, most peopleâs driving requirements are satisfied by the EV range that currently exists
- The types of vehicles that we tend to buy havenât gone EV yet - utes in particular - but I suspect weâre on the cusp of seeing some come to market real soon
Cost is starting to become less of a barrier to entry for EV or PHEV (although Iâm not sure that the MG EV is a great buy) - weâre also seeing electric vehicles that are less like the Tesla (thats trying to reinvent what it is to drive) and more âtraditionalâ but with the modern gadgets that people are starting to expect.
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As a VW fan itâs been frustrating to watch and wait, and wait, and wait for them to even consoder releasing an EV.
I hope Honda do more EVs. Theyre pretty much the only other brand Iâd be interested in buying from.
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Add to thatâŚ
- Inferior charging infrastructure
- Impractical recharging times for the distances we travel
- Our reliance on coal somewhat means (to a degree) we are just moving emissions from exhaust pipes in our cars to exhaust stacks at power stations.
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VW has basically written off Australia as an EV market in the immediate future - which is a great shame because not only do they have decent EVs, theyâre capable of doing it at a scale that will have an impact. Theyâve been vocal about the lack of need to sell EVs here too
There is to an extent, but EV requires a bit of a rethink about how we ârefuelâ - with a shift towards doing it at home (where possible) - the focus on charging infrastructure needs to go into how we get it closer to home (mandating new builds are capable of charging an EV, having infrastructure that allows for kerb-side charging for those who donât have the capability to charge at home)
This is improving (and will continue to improve) - but we canât expect it to be exactly the same as a conventionally fueled vehicle.
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There is talk that future EVs will have exchangeable batteries so they can swapped out and replaced with a fully recharged one, but this will be years away, if it does happen.
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