Electric dreams on four wheels

IF you’re not convinced the future of cars in the Dubbo region is electric, then you need to seek out Chris Dalitz at the Sustainable City Expo this month and he’ll drive the message home for you.

An electrical engineer b i l i by trade, he did his undergraduate thesis on a DC Chopper for an Electric car in 1981, bought his first EV in 2013, a Mitsubishi I-MIEV, and today is an active member of the Australian Electric Vehicle Association and Standards Australia committee EM001 – Electric Mobility.

“The NRMA is rolling out their chargers. We’ve got one here (in Dubbo), it’s the 19th this week, and they’re doing 40 across NSW. I just need to get an adaptor for my car (Tesla) and then I can use the NRMA chargers,” Mr Dalitz told Dubbo Photo News.

“In Australia they are standardising the plug. In the early days there was a bit of VHS versus BETA but that’s been sorted now.

“All cars coming in now have got a standard AC and DC plug, and for those of us that were early adopters, we’ve just got to get an adapter,” he said.

Mr Dalitz explained every electric car comes with a 10amp plug to fit any regular power outlet.

“It’s just slower to charge. It basically comes down to ‘the bigger the plug the faster the charge’,” Mr Dalitz said.

“I always say about electric cars, ‘They’re safer, faster and better,’ – they’re just expensive to buy at the moment, but that will change. It’s like mobile phones and digital cameras. It will change as more vehicles come into the Australian market and there’ll be more choice,” he said.

Electrical engineer Chris Dalitz is a proud owner of a Tesla Model S and sees the region transitioning to electric. He’s pictured (main photo) at the Tesla charging station in Dubbo, and (right) during a visit to The Dish near Parkes. MAIN PHOTO: DUBBO PHOTO NEWS