New Distance Record for Electric Car
An electric car that can plug into an ordinary household power outlet has smashed the world distance record for travelling on battery power alone, while the organiser of Australia’s first Electric Vehicle Conference (11 November, Brisbane) wants to alert the nation to the status of the industry in the world today and what vehicles are or will soon be on the market.
Barry Park in The Age (29 October 2009):
AN ELECTRIC car that can plug into an ordinary household power outlet has smashed the world distance record for travelling on battery power alone.
The $160,000 Tesla Roadster, the only one of its kind in Australia and owned by Adelaide-based internet tycoon Simon Hackett, drove 501 kilometres from Alice Springs in the Northern Territory to Marla in South Australia solely on battery power on Tuesday, smashing the previous world record of 388 kilometres.
The US-built car is competing in the Global Green Challenge, a 3000-kilometre run from Darwin to Adelaide that ends on Saturday.
Mr Hackett’s zero-emission record comes with a slight sting in the tail. The car travelled at 55 km/h and was followed by a diesel generator mounted on the back of a truck that can give the Tesla’s batteries a rapid three-hour recharge when needed.
Mr Hackett said he entered the Tesla in the challenge to prove that one day electric vehicles – with the benefit of roadside recharging stations – could drive large distances though Australia.
This year’s event, the 10th time the Global Green Challenge has been run, was won by a Japanese-engineered solar car entry which crossed the finish line late yesterday.
Source: www.theage.com.au
National Electric Vehicle Conference, Brisbane 11 November 2009:

Philippe Reboul, the organiser of the event and a management consultant with a lot of knowledge about energy and cars, wants to alert the nation to the status of the Electric Vehicle (EV) industry today and what vehicles are/will soon be on the market.

The first morning session will look at the EV industry, technology and manufacturers who are gearing up to market their EV’s and review current EV development worldwide, allowing the audience to assess performance and understand both cost and technology challenges.
Late morning will be time for Fleet Owners and Infrastructure manager to have their say. As more and more cities are gaining experience with EV, moving to a large fleet of EV may be challenging. The need for infrastructure investment and incentives is already evident.
After lunch the session will look at the importance of Network, Utilities and Policies. Even with sufficient charging points or battery swap stations, a key factor remains the capacity of the electricity network to deliver the required power at a given time with the costly risk of additional overloading at peak demand time.
ABC Carbon is pleased to be associated with the organisers and Ken Hickson will give an overview of where many countries in the world are at with developing policies that will facilitate the introduction of electric vehicles.
Agenda for the Electric Vehicle conference:
8:30 am Registration and Coffee
9:00 am Welcome and overview of the day
9:05 am Opening Address (TBC)
9:20 am The EV industry: Setting the scene
Dr Andrew Simpson, Research Fellow, Curtin University, Sustainable Policy
Institute
9:50 am Renault’s electric vehicles
Rudi Koenig, CEO Renault Australia
10:20 am Mitsubishi i-MiEV: technical highlights
Ashley Sanders, Manager, Certification and Regulation Compliance Dept,
Product Engineering Division, Mitsubishi Motors Australia Ltd
10:50 am Coffee Break
11:10 am Blade’s Electron EV and wireless charging
Ross Blade, Director, Blade Electric Vehicle Pty Ltd
11:40 am “An EV in the Darwin to Adelaide race”
Michael Gutteridge, Director, Deep Green Research
12:10 am Tindo, the solar electric bus
Jack Mazek, Senior Sustainability Officer, Adelaide City Council
12:40 pm Planning for electric vehicle in Australia
Dr Peter Pudney, Senior Research Fellow, University of South Australia
13:10 pm Lunch Break
13:55 pm Introduction for the afternoon session
14:00 pm Charge Point Australia: Fueling the electric transportation industry
Luke Grana, CEO, ChargePoint Australia
14:30 pm EV’s: Network boon or bane?
Glenn Walden, General Manager, Ergon Energy
15:00 pm Component technology and interaction with the grid
Dr David Finn, Managing Director, Tritium
15:30 pm Coffee Break
15:50 pm (Title TBC)
Conal Horgan, Research Consultant, University of Technology Sydney,
Institute for Sustainable Futures
16:20 pm EV policies around the world
Ken Hickson, the ABC of Carbon
16:40 pm Panel discussion on Policies
17:00 pm Nope Electric’s raffle to win a Nope Fold II electric bicycle valued at $1850 !
17:10 pm Closing address
17:15 pm End
EV Conference 2009 – 11 Nov 2009 Novotel Brisbane
This program is subject to change, please check www.evconference.com.au