The Topic for Tuesday night’s meeting was a real thought provoker. Would You Buy an Electric Car? We had 27 members including one from RC of Hawthorn join the Zoom Meeting. With so many questions marks regarding fossil fuels and their future I am not surprised that we had such an interested attendance.
We were fortunate to have Andrew Rothfield, who is the husband of Thelma Hutchison be the presenter, he has had a very interesting career background, first studying Computer Science and Statistics, followed by Medicine with 20 years in obstetrics, he then retrained in Conveyancing where he runs his own business. With the love of the outdoors and renewal energy it is not surprising that their home has a lot of solar appliances and that they “share” a Tesla Electric car.
Andrew had a cut away diagram of the Tesla and the main components that make the car so different from the conventional fossil fuel cars, like there is no motor, a drive screen feeds the driver with so much information. We were told that the most amazing sound when you start the car is that there is No Sound, this has a concern as the general public do not hear them coming and have been known to walk in front of them (I have heard that Tesla are working on a device that will make a noise outside the car). It was interesting to hear that many countries are setting targets for the elimination of fossil fuel cars. Most of the car mass is in the batteries on the floor of the car with a weight of approximately 250kgs, we were told that this gives a safe driving range of about 250 kms. The manufacturer advises the owner to keep the charge between a minimum of 30% and a maximum of 80%. The car has a range of adaptors depending on how quickly one requires a charge, a Fast Charger uses DC and takes about ½ hour. An Ultra-Fast Charger, the battery cooling system has a problem with this. The Slow Charger uses AC, a lot of retail precincts have them available where it takes about 2 hours to charge. House Charges can be taken straight from solar panels, if available and take about 4 hours to charge.Tesla provides support on line and answer any queries owners may have. A straw pole was taken with many at the meeting indicating their interest in electric cars. So many questions were put to Andrew that we ran overtime. He thought that with the growth in electric sales, with the resultant loss of revenue to the government of excise, may see a charge on registration.
Andrew and Thelma have a race to get out of the house first to see who gets to drive the Tesla! Thank you, Andrew for a very informative address.
Michael Berry
Chair