Canberra's electric vehicles lead the charge to celebrate the first World EV Day

So basically these polluting vehicles would not exist but for taxpayer subsidies.

The statement that “the modern battery pack should easily last about 10 years” is unduly pessimistic. EV batteries from 8-10 years ago are getting a bit tired in some cases. However there are several factors contributing to that mostly don’t apply so much now.
The big one is thermal management. Vehicles of that vintage that have liquid cooling of the battery are generally still going strong, many with high milage. The ones that lost battery capacity are generally those that had little or no cooling.
Next there is battery size. A current car with bigger battery capacity goes through fewer battery cycles for a given milage and can avoid charging to 100% and deep discharge most of the time, both factors leading to improved battery longevity.
Thirdly, the battery chemistry has improved for greater longevity.
Finally, with larger capacities and longer range at the start, a car with slightly reduced range after a decade or more will still have an ample range for many usage patterns.
I expect a lot more than a decade of use from our 2019 electric car. I am only sceptical about one popular model that still lacks active cooling of the battery.

Thanks for updating your article to clarify the 8 hour charging comment.
Confusing information just allows the pessimists to obstruct the transition to electrified transport.

I disagree with the statement “Canberra has among the best charging infrastructure in the country.” The ACTEW charging network has had no expansion for quite a few years. There are three fast 50kW DC chargers, but two of those were fitted with CCS1 plugs years ago before it became clear that CCS2 was becoming the settled standard. It is not clear whether ACTEW have any plan to swap the plugs to make those chargers useful to the majority of vehicles.
Several shopping centres offer slower AC charging, which encourages an EV driver to linger, but that is not enough for people without access to charging at home.
However, most people, most of the time, will charge from ordinary power outlets at home. That is what I have been doing with various EVs since 2009. Charging at home does not need to be fast, especially as even the lowest range modern EVs have more than ample range to cover local trips. Unless I am planning a trip out of town, I have charging set to stop at 80% because it is good for the battery and that is more than enough range for local driving.
In practice, most drivers of electric cars will only need public charging on trips out of town. However, public fast DC charging is needed for out of town visitors and residents of apartments without in house charging.

I am pleased to see a correction has been made to this article that previous suggested that a Canberra to Melbourne would take a long time in an EV.
That distance is 665km. I have not driven an EV to Melbourne. However, I easily drove 800km in a day from Coffs Harbour to Canberra in our Hyundai Kona electric. We left Coffs with a full charge from the charger at a motel we stayed at overnight. We had several toilet/coffee/meal breaks during which we plugged into fast NRMA 50kW DC chargers for partial top ups. We did not charge to full at any of them. We only lingered for as long as we would have stopped for those toilet/coffee/meal breaks if we had been in a petrol car. We arrived back in Canberra with plenty of charge still having taken no longer than we would have taken in a petrol car.
The article’s reference to 8 hour charging applies only to AC charging at home. Unlike fast charging during unusually long trips out of town, most charging can be done conveniently at home or overnight at destinations such as motels at slower rates using a car’s on-board AC charger. This home and destination charging does not need to be fast. For trips of less than 400km, I would generally charge at home before leaving and overnight at the destination, and that charging does not need to be fast. Fast DC charging supports >400km trips. I don’t have a 400km bladder so stops are needed anyway.

Good overall article, a bit of misinformation as usual with inexperienced electric car people, be great to see you at the event so you can gain the real life experiences of actual people…. Boones ruined a weekend and towed trailers where needed. I wonder where you got some of the misinformation? It’s simply disproved in the comments. And from experience touring an electric motorcycle in the UK only using public charging. There’s alot more research needed… Good try

The claim that it takes “an average of eight hours to fully charge an electric car” is rather misleading. It’s important to distinguish slow and fast charging. Most home charging is slow because it’s lower current and we don’t really care if it’s charging overnight using a standard 10A or 15A socket.
The fast chargers being rolled out on our highways are much quicker and can return a nearly empty battery to 80% full within 15-30 minutes depending upon the charger current and the size of your battery.
Time for a break and a cuppa but probably not enough time for a game of Monopoly.

” but it does still take an average of eight hours to fully charge an electric car.”

“For a day drive to Melbourne, you’d either need a second petrol car or a game of Monopoly in the boot.”

It will take 8 hours to fully charge an electric car IF YOU ONLY CHARGE USING THE WALL CHARGER YOU INSTALLED AT HOME WHEN YOU BOUGHT THE CAR. The home charger doesn’t need to be high-power because it’s designed to top up your car after a day’s driving, which for most people is around 60km.

You can drive a Hyundai Kona Electric from Canberra to Melbourne in just under 8 hours, comprising 7 hours of driving and 1 hour of charging, at three different locations where there are high voltage DC chargers available (charging at rates of 50kW and higher). Use tools like A Better Route Planner to get the facts: https://abetterrouteplanner.com/?plan_uuid=5aeb6d8d-b64e-433c-8b95-0be4482f1675

If you are the type of person that takes a half hour stop every two hours of driving, using an electric vehicle will make no difference to your long distance trips.