Tuesday, March 31, 2009

550MW dip in power use for Earth Hour

Comment: TNB CEO claims the energy dip was equivalent to 14 million 40-watt fluorescent bulbs, but for how long? Just an hour?

PETALING JAYA: Electricity consumption dipped by some 550MW during Earth Hour on Saturday.

This, said Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) chief executive officer Datuk Seri Che Khalib Mohamad Noh, was equivalent to the consumption of about 14 million 40-watt fluorescent bulbs.

“Everything went smoothly and we were able to respond to the slightly lower demand without any operational glitches,” he said in a press statement yesterday.

He was commenting on the hour-long lights-out campaign to create awareness on the need to combat global warming.

However, Che Khalib added that demand picked up rapidly at 9.30pm to follow the normal Saturday night pattern.

Many Malaysians joined the annual campaign, which began in Sydney in 2007, by switching off their lights for an hour from 8.30pm.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

LCCT plans unveiled

By LESTER KONG - THESTAR Saturday March 14, 2009

PETALING JAYA: KL International Airport’s new Low Cost Carrier Terminal, located about 1.5km from the main terminal, will be able to handle 45 million passengers yearly.

"With the new LCCT, KLIA would be able to handle up to 90 million passengers a year" - DATUK SERI BASHIR AHMAD

A new 4km runway will also be built with the LCCT, which is expected to be operational in the third quarter of 2011.

Unveiling Malaysia Airports Holding Bhd’s (MAHB) plans for the new LCCT, its chief executive officer Datuk Seri Bashir Ahmad said work on the RM2bil project would begin in June.

“It will be designed to handle up to 45 million passengers a year and be connected to the main terminal via an extended Express Rail Link (ERL) and a new side road,” Bashir said at a press conference yesterday.

“With the new LCCT, KLIA would be able to handle up to 90 million passengers a year.”

The present LCCT would then be reverted into a cargo handling terminal.

The new LCCT, spread over 150,000 sq metres, would be larger than the main terminal with retail and food outlets to ensure passenger comfort.

There are plans for a 6,000-vehicle parking complex, parking bays for 70 planes and an integrated transport hub for buses and taxis.

“We are also taking the views of various airlines into account,” Bashir said, adding that AirAsia had requested at least 95,000 sq metres for the new LCCT.

Bashir said 10,000 sq metres of the space would go towards setting up AirAsia’s headquarters, which would be sited away from airport operation areas.

He said landing and aircraft parking fees and airport tax would most likely remain unchanged.

“The Government decides on all aeronautical charges and airport tax, not us,” he said, adding that MAHB would fund the project through loans.

“We have received letters of offers from several sources,” he said, adding that tenders would be called in the next few months.

Bashir added that KLIA’s master plan took into account long-term use of infrastructure and land to handle up to 120 million passengers annually. Currently, only 30% of the entire complex and land are used.

A joint proposal to build a new low cost carrier terminal in KLIA East@Labu, Negri Sembilan, by Sime Darby and AirAsia was rejected.

Bashir said the plan to build the new LCCT near the main terminal was part of the National Airport Master Plan for Malaysia to strategically develop all 24 airports in the country over 50 years.

“This is to ensure KLIA will grow into a significant regional hub.”

Biden rolls out $1.3 billion for Amtrak

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Vice President Joe Biden continued the administration's rollout of the recently passed economic stimulus package Friday, highlighting $1.3 billion in federal funding for Amtrak.

Vice President Joe Biden called Amtrak "an absolute national treasure and necessity."

Vice President Joe Biden called Amtrak "an absolute national treasure and necessity."

The money for the rail service, which carried almost 29 million passengers in the previous fiscal year, will go primarily to infrastructure repair and improvement.

The $787 billion stimulus plan includes a total of $8 billion for improvements in rail service, a crucial investment to help ease traffic in the congested northeast corridor running from Boston, Massachusetts to Washington, Biden argued.

It is "a necessity for a great nation to have a great [rail] passenger system," Biden said. "I'm tired of apologizing for help for Amtrak. ... It's an absolute national treasure and necessity."

The $1.3 billion will roughly double the size of Amtrak's capital investment program over the next two years, according to the vice president's office.

The largest single project funded by the stimulus money is the $105 million replacement of a movable bridge over Connecticut's Niantic River. The replacement of the 102-year-old drawbridge has been delayed for more than 20 years because of a lack of capital, Biden noted.

Leading Republican critics of Amtrak argue that the money is a poor use of taxpayer dollars and that the often-struggling rail service should instead be stripped of public money in an effort to force changes that would make it more profitable.

Amtrak is "poorly run and poorly managed," Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma, told CNN's Brianna Keilar on Tuesday.

"That doesn't mean we shouldn't have a train service, but we [shouldn't] give additional money and reward incompetency and inefficiency. If that's what the stimulus is about, we're in a whole lot worse trouble."

Amtrak's financial struggles are more a result of inadequate public support than managerial incompetence, responded Ross Capon, head of the National Association of Railroad Passengers.

"By and large, this organization has survived an incredible amount of low funding [for] years," Capon said. There is very little rail service in states like Oklahoma, "so it might not be surprising that one of Amtrak's fiercest critics comes from a state that, relatively speaking, would not notice it if Amtrak disappeared tomorrow."

Biden frequently commuted on Amtrak between Washington and his home near Wilmington, Delaware, during his more than three decades in the Senate.

In his remarks Friday, Biden argued that every modern passenger rail service in the world depends on subsidies. He also claimed that U.S. highways and airports are actually subsidized more than the railway system.

"So let's get something straight here. Amtrak has not been at the trough. Amtrak has been left out," he said.

During the 2008 presidential campaign, President Obama pledged to support a national network of faster passenger trains. He has proposed an additional five-year, $5 billion investment in high-speed rail as part of the administration's suggested fiscal year 2010 budget.

Amtrak, according to its Web site, was established by Congress in 1970 "to take over the passenger rail services previously required to be operated by private freight railroad companies in the United States." It functions today as a quasi-public entity that, while able to set its own rates and fares, is subject to strict governmental oversight.

An average of more than 78,000 passengers ride Amtrak each day, according the rail's press office.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

ATA Truck Tonnage Index Rose 3 Percent in January

February 27, 2009 2:30 PM American Trucking Association

Connie Heiss 703-838-8894

ARLINGTON, VA The American Trucking Associations’ advanced seasonally adjusted For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index climbed 3 percent in January 2009, marking only the second month-to-month increase in the last seven months. Still, the gain did little to erase the revised 7.8 percent contraction in December 2008. In January, the seasonally adjusted tonnage index equaled just 104.7 (2000 = 100), its second-lowest level since October 2002. In January, the not seasonally adjusted index fell 4.4 percent from the previous month to 97.2.

ATA recently revised the seasonally adjusted index back five years as part of its annual revision.

Compared with January 2008, the index declined 10.8 percent, which was slightly better than December’s 12.5 percent year-over-year drop.

ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello said that there was no reason to get excited about January’s 3 percent month-to-month improvement. “Tonnage will not fall every month, and just because it rises every now and then doesn’t mean the economy is on the mend,” Costello said. “Furthermore, tonnage is contracting significantly on a year-over-year basis, which is highlighting the current weakness in the freight environment.” Costello also noted that any sustained recovery in tonnage is still months away.

Note on the impact of trucking company failures on the index: Each month, ATA asks its membership the amount of tonnage each carrier hauled, including all types of freight. The indexes are calculated based on those responses. The sample includes an array of trucking companies, ranging from small fleets to multi-billion dollar carriers. When a company in the sample fails, we include its final month of operation and zero it out for the following month. This assumes the remaining carriers pick up that freight. As a result, it is close to a net wash and does not end up in a false increase. Nevertheless, some carriers are picking up freight from failures, and it may have boosted the index. Due to our correction mentioned above, however, it should be limited.

Trucking serves as a barometer of the U.S. economy, representing nearly 70 percent of tonnage carried by all modes of domestic freight transportation, including manufactured and retail goods.

Trucks hauled 10.7 billion tons of freight in 2006. Motor carriers collected $645.6 billion, or

83.8 percent of total revenue earned by all transport modes.

ATA calculates the tonnage index based on surveys from its membership and has been doing so since the 1970s. This is a preliminary figure and subject to change in the final report issued around the 10th day of the month. The report includes month-to-month and year-over-year results, relevant economic comparisons, and key financial indicators.

The American Trucking Associations is the largest national trade association for the trucking industry. Through a federation of other trucking groups, industry-related conferences, and its 50 affiliated state trucking associations, ATA represents more than 37,000 members covering every type of motor carrier in the United States.

LRT passengers’ journey derailed after blackout halts Kelana Jaya line

View: For all the improvements in mass transit, it is still in the mercy of the electricity grid.

Wednesday March 4, 2009 THESTAR

By KNG ZHENG GUAN and RACHEL LAU

KUALA LUMPUR: Several LRT stations were jam-packed last night when thousands of commuters were stuck for more than an hour due to the RapidKL Kelana Jaya LRT service being halted by a power failure during a storm. Some commuters were stuck in trains and only reached their destinations hours later.

Student Lai Yoke Yan, 22, boarded the train at the Asia Jaya station to go to Wangsa Maju. The train stopped for 40 minutes at the Universiti station and another 40 minutes at the next station before it moved again. The doors opened and closed intermittently while the train was stuck at the stations and some passengers left.

“I was standing for such a long time that my legs felt weak. It took me two hours to reach my destination,” he said.

Tan Siew Lee, 21, who was travelling with Lai, said she felt very angry, disappointed and tired.

Accounts executive Wong Kok Jen, 25, was equally upset as he was rushing to get to a dinner appointment.

“The Putra LRT is supposed to be the fastest way to travel within the city,” Wong said. “Instead, it took me nearly two hours to get from Damai to Bangsar. Normally it takes just 15 minutes.”

When he boarded the train at Damai, it did not move for 15 minutes and when the door suddenly opened, he got out of the cabin and waited at the station for about an hour before the train became operational again.

He noticed that the lights at several stations along the way were not functioning.

“The commuters nearer to the platform were calm, but those further back were frustrated as they didn’t know what was going on,” said Mohd Solehen Yusof, 17, who works at a store overlooking the KL Sentral LRT platform.

The system failure was apparently caused by a power disruption at a substation near the Kerinchi station at 5.58pm.

“When this happened, what we did was to bring all trains to the nearest station while we rectified the problem,” said RapidKL CEO Suffian Baharuddin.

“Due to the power failure, massive passenger congestions were experienced at the LRT stations along the Kelana Jaya line and it took some time to clear this jam,” he added.

Power was restored gradually from 7.15pm and train service resumed in stages with service returning to normal at 7.47pm.

RapidKL will investigate the cause of the incident.

How Better Place plans to revive the electric car

Comment: I found out about Better Place when I saw my friend talking about it on Facebook. Here's an interesting article to share

By Derek Fung on 11 February 2009

We sat down with the CEO of Better Place Australia, Evan Thornley, to discuss how his company plans to make the electric car a reality in Australia.

Bite-sized chunks

Last year we reported on Better Place's deals with various national and state governments, such as Israel, Denmark, Hawaii and California, to roll out infrastructure to assist in the take-up of electric vehicles (EV) from about 2011 onwards. This infrastructure will primarily consist of battery exchange stations, where drivers of Better Place compatible EVs can have their nearly depleted battery pack swapped out for a fully charged set, and EV charging points, located in homes as well as public places.

At the end of January, Evan Thornley was appointed as CEO of Better Place's Australian operations. Thornley was a founder of LookSmart and recently quit his seat in the Victorian State Parliament on the eve of his elevation to the ministry, raising the ire of the state's Liberal opposition. He and Guy Pross, the company's director of government affairs, sat down for a chat with CNET Australia about how Better Place plans to convert Australia's car fleet to electric vehicles.

CNET Australia: So why was Australia chosen?

Evan Thornley: Well, we think that this system works best for high kilometre drivers. So the best way to prove that was to target a country which has plenty of those.

Electric vehicles: pros and cons

Pros:
  • Near-silent operation
  • 100 per cent torque delivery from zero revs to the red line
  • Zero greenhouse gas emissions when recharged with renewable energy
  • Electric engines are about 90 per cent energy efficient, versus 35 per cent for the best petrol engines
Cons:
  • Limited range — around 160km on a full charge
  • Recharge times — up to eight hours for a full recharge
  • Cost of batteries — the Tesla Roadster costs a staggering US$109,000!
  • What will replace the rumble of a V8 or the thrum of a boxer engine?

Could you please elaborate on how your system "works best for high kilometre drivers".

ET: Once the recharging infrastructure exists and the battery's sitting in the car then, if you pay full commercial price for renewable energy, the energy costs of driving one kilometre down the road in an EV is about 1/7th the cost of driving that same kilometre using petrol.

Australia spends AU$20 billion to AU$30 billion a year on petrol, depending on the oil price and the currency. If we're able to convert the whole fleet over then the renewable energy costs to power that fleet would be around AU$5 billion a year.

Who do we create the most value for the quickest then? The people who drive the most number of kilometres because that's when we're displacing the largest amount of petrol. These drivers are the most attractive for us because, when you look at the lifetime cost of a car, much of it goes into the petrol tank not the vehicle itself.

But how is this going to work exactly?

Guy Pross: On current technology 160km is the range of an electric vehicle's battery on a full charge. Israel is approximately that size and so too is Denmark.

We'll electrify, say, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane giving drivers a 160km range around Australia's three major cities because we can already do that in Israel and Denmark. The big difference is that Australia is a very, very large country and there's about 1000km each between those three centres. We can electrify the Hume Highway between Sydney and Melbourne by putting in 20 battery swap stations. At about AU$10 million, that's not a lot of money to connect Sydney and Melbourne.

Australia is more than just Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Won't it cost too much to put EV infrastructure across Australia?

ET: I think there's about 13,000 petrol stations throughout Australia. Our preliminary deployment plan currently estimates that we need 500 battery exchange stations. They're AU$0.5 million each, so that's AU$250 million. It's not a trivial amount but it's not mind boggling. Plug-in points are actually a bigger investment as there will be millions of them at a few hundred dollars each.

We currently estimate that building the network of plug-in points and battery exchange stations will cost between AU$1 billion and AU$1.25 billion. When all of that is in place, the car makers can make electric cars with the confidence that they will always be charged.

How Better Place will attempt to eliminate the cons?

Better Place hopes to remove the cons holding back electric vehicles by owning the battery pack installed in Better Place-compatible vehicles — consumers will probably pay per kilometre driven, although the company claims an "unlimited number" of possible pricing deals. This should make the price of EVs price competitive with petrol/diesel cars. While the battery exchange stations should ease consumers' concerns about touring range.

500 battery exchange stations and 160km range doesn't sound like comprehensive coverage of Australia...

GP: Currently the battery range is 160km but before you know it, it's going to be hitting 250km, 350km, 400km and so on. When these batteries hit 400km, it's game over because, from the range perspective, it's equivalent to a petrol car. But until then we're a little more reliant on battery exchange.

If I buy a first-gen Better Place-compatible electric car with a battery range of 160km, and I'm still driving that car in five years time but battery tech has moved to 320km, will my batteries be upgraded?

ET: If that was your battery, it would suck. But it's not your battery, it's our battery.

GP: As batteries become depleted they can be repurposed to suit different target markets.

ET: Eventually ... we'll package them up into hospital emergency power packs and things like that. And when they're done, we'll mine the lithium, phosphate and the other materials out of them and repackage them into new batteries. The plastic, meanwhile, will be crushed, stripped and recycled.

[With us] you will never have that battery technology risk that you have if you bought your own EV or a Chevy Volt. Where, if you buy one with a lemon of a battery, you'll have to fight with the car maker to get a new battery. Or, if your mate buys one a year after you with 30 per cent better range, then it's bad luck for you.

(Note: in our initial interview Evan Thornley stated that Better Place would send depleted batteries overseas as needed. Subsequent to our chat, Guy Pross clarified those statements.)

Better Place infrastructure

According to Better Place's initial plans, the company hopes to roll out throughout Australia:

  • 500 battery exchange stations
  • Millions of plug-in points in public places, such as roadsides and public car parks
  • Charging points in EV owners' homes

Are there any other reasons why, with Better Place-compatible EVs, you guys own the battery?

GP: Separating the battery from the car is a key to our business. It not only takes that battery risk from you, but also saves you from purchasing the battery up front, which is a huge part of the cost of hybrid and electric vehicles.

What type of battery tech will be used?

ET: Lithium-ion technology is coming out as the winner right now.

What if you want to trek across the desert, can you do that in an EV?

ET: I'm sure, within about 20 years, we'll have 99.8 per cent network coverage. If you need to go through the Simpson Desert and we haven't put a battery exchange station on the Birdsville Track, then there will be a use for those types of specialised vehicles [powered by internal combustion engines]. Just like there's a use for satellite phones, in the very small number of places where the mobile phone network isn't there.

In the future that you envisage, is there any place for oil?

ET: We're a mission-driven organisation, we want to get the world off oil — there's nothing good about it, fighting over it, paying for it, running out of it or polluting the atmosphere with it.

ET: [When Shai Agassi was coming up with his initial Project Better Place whitepaper] he went through the stages of "how can we run a country without being dependent on oil?" He ruled out battery-operated planes, as well as ships, which pretty much left him with the land transportation sector, of which car transportation is a large component.

Electric vehicles

On sale now: Coming soon:

So what's the roll-out timetable?

ET: We haven't finalised a deployment plan. It will be rigorously detailed, down to every last plug-in point, which wind farms or thermal plants we'll be using, what the planning regulations are in each municipality, and our site acquisition strategy for the battery exchange stations. For instance, we could cut a deal with a particular chain of petrol stations, or we could put them in Coles or McDonald's car parks.

This plan is what we'll be working on over the next 12 months. As soon as we're confident we know what the answers will be, we'll unveil that plan in ever-greater levels of detail.

Israel will be the first deploy by the end of 2010.

GP: Depending on manufacturing strength there will be tens of thousands of electric cars by 2010 or 2011 in Israel. And then we'll be deploying in Denmark. Australia will be six months to a year behind Denmark.

We notice that Renault-Nissan has been announced as a partner. Who else will be making Better Place compatible electric vehicles?

ET: As we speak, Renault's tooling up a 2 million car [manufacturing] line in Turkey. And we're now in conversation with all the automakers. Once we get another one or two of those on board, in addition to Renault-Nissan, then there will be critical mass. As we announce another couple of major partners, we suspect the rest of the car makers will have to roll over.

A Better Place-compatible Nissan Rogue in Hawaii
(Credit: Better Place)

Let's assume everything rolls out as you see it, how will the car buying experience change?

ET: Walk into your dealer and, for at least a period of time, they'll have two versions of the car you're interested in buying: an electric version, and one with either a petrol or diesel engine. They'll look pretty similar. One of them will have a petrol cap, the other a plug-in point cap. If you open the hood they'll look a bit different, because the electric motor is a lot smaller and lighter but more powerful — it will also miss an exhaust pipe. Apart from that though they'll look pretty similar.

Take each for a test drive and you'll notice that the electric vehicle's a bit zippier, especially in the low gears because, well, it doesn't have any gears. And the regenerative braking will take a little bit of getting used to, but the EV will be quieter and zippier, handle similarly, have a similar top speed and the same cargo capacity.

Lithium-ion batteries: storm clouds ahead?

Lithium-ion batteries are seemingly the preferred choice for future electric vehicles, not to mention future hybrids and hydrogen fuel-cell cars. Among the many benefits cited by proponents of these types of cars is that they break "our addiction to oil". This not only implies environmental benefits, but also reducing our dependence on the countries which produce the oil, some of whom — Iran, Venezuela and, prior to the war, Iraq — are openly hostile towards the US and the "free world".

However, the world may be swapping one form of tyranny for another. According to reports in Time magazine and the New York Times, over 50 per cent of the world's known reserves of lithium reside in Bolivia. The country, led by Evo Morales, not only has strong ties with Venezuela, but shares its ideology. In the last few years, the government has nationalised many foreign companies, and is seeking to tightly control the extraction and use of its lithium reserves.

What about the day-to-day experience?

ET: When you decide to buy a car that runs on our network, we'll come and install a plug-in point for you at your home. You put the car in the garage, on the street or wherever and plug it in. When you drive off, you just unplug it and go. Arrive at work and you'll plug in there, or forget to plug in there — it doesn't really matter unless you've got a long drive to work. Drive it home at night and keep it charged; that's all you need to do, no petrol stations. You don't even need to visit a battery exchange station until a month from now when you go to visit grandma who lives up the coast.

How long will a battery change take?

ET: About three minutes.

And how long would it take you to recharge an EV?

GP: A full charge would take about eight hours, although we're estimating that you'll never have to do that, because if you're that close to the bottom, you'll just go to a battery exchange station.

How will drivers be charged for recharging their car's batteries?

ET: We can bill you once a week or once a month for the kilometres that you've done. I can promise you we'll bill you less than it would have cost you for the petrol.

We've read about mobile phone-style billing plans, where you pay zero dollars for the car but more per kilometre...

ET: We could probably offer you that deal as well because there's an unlimited number of ways you can price this system. The point is, you're not locked into a "you will fill this with 65 litres of petrol and you'll pay whatever the oil price is this week" as your only possible deal.

If you don't have a garage, where will you plug the car in when you're at home?

ET: We're going to work with local governments and the first plug-in points we'll be putting in will be in public spaces, such as public car parks, on the street-side and in retail areas.

As customers come on board, we'll put a plug-in point in their homes. We'll even put one in grandma's home too if they'll be heading there a lot.

Can I charge a Better Place-compatible EV by plugging it into any old power point?

ET: No.

What type of renewable energy will power Better Place's plug-in points?

ET: Based on current economics it will be wind power. Also, with most of the recharging happening overnight, it actually works better for us than, say, solar power.

Our greenhouse gases sources

According to the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory 2006, compiled by the Australian government's Department of Climate Change, this is the breakdown of our greenhouse gas emissions:

Stationary energy (power generation) 50%
Transport 14%
Fugitive emissions 6%
Industrial processes 5%
Agriculture 15%
Waste 3%
Land use change 11%
Forestry -4%

According to the department's figures, passenger cars constituted 7.4 per cent of our total greenhouse gas emissions in 2006, or 42.6 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent.

So will your plug-in points be on a separate electricity grid or the same one that everyone uses?

ET: It will be on the same grid, but it will be an intelligent network, and we'll have complete control over every plug-in point through the network control centre. There's a bunch of important reasons for this...

We'll know from the intelligence in the cars what the state of the battery is. This will give us a good understanding of what the driving patterns of that vehicle usually are and, therefore, how much charge is needed and when it's needed.

Through the network control centre we will be liaising back into the grid and our suppliers. This means we won't fill a battery or, say, a million batteries at 3pm on a 40-degree day when the grid is already at peak load. We'll actually help the grid out by taking some of the charge out of those batteries and helping load balance the grid, and put the charge back in at 3am the following morning when the wind farms are spinning and there's no-one taking the electricity.

By having an intelligent network we can control how much charge goes in, when it goes in, if it comes out, which makes us a very beneficial partner for our utility partners and makes us a certain customer for our renewable energy suppliers.

Are there any other benefits of having an "intelligent network"?

ET: It'll also make our cars cheaper to insure because if anyone tries to steal it, we'll shut it off the network and it can't go anywhere because we'll know where it is.

GP: We're in constant communication with the car and, because we've got a computer that's hardly used right now in the cars, what we're developing in Israel will allow all types of cool things.

For example, you can download content into the cars, so the TV screens in the back can show up-to-date TV content. You can also be connected to shops, so you can pre-order food and then just drive in and pick it up.

That will be generation one. Once we have the network [up and running] we can add more because we're a platform for new technology, like real-time insurance.

ET: For instance, your insurance company can offer you a 25 per cent discount because you're someone who actually doesn't speed, instead of being just someone who doesn't get caught speeding.

A Renault Megane EV next to a plug-in point in Israel
(Credit: Better Place)

That's somewhat scary. What if you don't want to be tracked?

ET: We're going to have a whole range of privacy protocols and protections in place, like the ones in place with your mobile phone carrier and ISP. These things are very important to people; we're not going to go around violating people's privacy, and we're not going to do anything that people don't know that we're able to do or that they don't agree to.

However, as with most of these things, the benefits of the network far outweigh any of those concerns and if you can make sure people are comfortable — and it's very important that they're comfortable — then you can deliver them a ton of value.

Who's working on this stuff?

ET: Us. We're the network operator, this is what we know how to do. We've got a bunch of guys who built and sold three software companies before they started here.

If you do convert Australia's car fleet over to electricity, how much will it increase the country's electricity consumption?

ET: You could power the entire fleet in Australia and get an increase of 7 per cent of load on the grid.

And let's say we're all driving renewable energy-powered EVs tomorrow, how much less greenhouse gas would we be putting into the atmosphere?

ET: The transportation fleet in Australia is 14 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions. It's a lot higher in most other countries, it's just that we're so appalling with our power generation, with all our coal-fired power stations.

And this is an incredibly energy efficient thing we're doing. You know an electric motor is a 90 per cent efficient device, while an internal combustion engine if it hits 35 per cent is one of the best engineered engines in the world.

Thanks for your time guys.

No FEBRUARY?

Uh Uh, I just realized that I haven't been posting any news for the entire month of February, when in fact so many things happened in the transportation world.