FOSSILISED DRIVING
Can New Zealand blaze the trail again?
I’ve been thinking of upgrading my ride. Actually, it’s more like adding to the fleet. I currently drive a two-door flatdeck diesel ute. I need it; I move a lot of material and, with a lifestyle block, I am often moving large quantities of timber, gravel, rocks, lime, fertiliser, etc.
In fact, I want to upgrade the ute and add a tipper deck. However, I also want a smallish runabout to do all the day-to-day running around that doesn’t require a lot of carrying. I like diesel — it’s efficient, less polluting, and more economical, although the RUC tends to even out the savings.
The issues
Naturally, I have considered electric vehicles (EVs) — specifically, a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV). I can charge the car at home from my solar array and it should be able to allow me to run into town and back on one charge, as long as I drive at 50kph. Two things have changed my outlook on that.
The first is the major weakness of all EVs: their battery. Most of them are designed to last for either 10 years or 150,000km and naturally the only affordable second-hand models are around eight years old. They will soon need the battery reconditioned or replaced, and replacement is around $20K. You can recondition one for less but it’s still an additional cost. The other drawback is the government rebate. Naturally, dealers took it as a green light to raise their prices by the same amount.
So, I have had to put off my plans to be green. It’s just not affordable. The models I want all cost more than a nearly new petrol or diesel vehicle and they are up to five years old. I can get a diesel vehicle for half the price. Admittedly, the running costs are higher but you will have to pay RUC for your EV in 2024, and by then it would need a new battery.
EVs are not the answer
I think our dear leaders have grasped the wrong end of the stick. Our future will not be secured through electric cars. EVs, for all their virtues, have one major flaw: their reliance on battery technology. Batteries simply don’t last forever and, even though they are getting better, they still have a life of around 10–15 years and there is not yet the technology to recycle them safely and reliably.
Many EV pioneers are now concentrating on hydrogen-powered vehicles. Hydrogen makes sense in many ways. It can be used either as a gas fuel or as a fuel cell generating electricity.
Its only by-product is water vapour. There is an existing distribution system that could be converted to hydrogen. We could produce vast quantities using renewable energy. Plus, there is the very real prospect of upgrading the existing fleet to run on hydrogen rather than simply dumping millions of perfectly serviceable vehicles. New Zealand, of all countries, should know about running cars on gas; we were a world leader in doing so.
We can do this
Hydrogen has its issues: although a great fuel, it needs to be transported, often in a compressed format, and that is intrinsically dangerous. But there is feverish research going on worldwide to solve the problems. Liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHCs) could be the answer to the problem of hydrogen storage. This is a method of storing hydrogen in a liquid at ambient temperatures in such a way that the gas can be retrieved safely and you could effectively fill up at a pump just as we now do with petrol.
We have the ability to produce vast quantities of hydrogen cheaply, and oxygen as a by-product. We could be world leaders in the field, especially while our cousins across the ditch have their heads up a coal mine. We do need an alternative to fossil fuel, and soon. Both my wallet and the planet depend on it.
Naturally, I have considered EVs