📅 Posted 2019-11-25
(and why an electric car without a huge range could make sense for 99% of trips)
I’m collecting information about electric cars because I’m fascinated to see just how far we often drive - it surely can’t be that far. I figured if I’m collecting this information, I might as well publish it too.
Today’s blog is a simple collection of some of the most frequent and recent trips we’ve done in our polluting petrol-powered car.
‘Typical’ Weekends
Here is a random selection of recent trips around the place where we didn’t travel all that far in one day. Often, multiple destinations would be involved as we loop around places before getting home.
| Trip Route | Distance (km) |
|---|---|
| Home - Chatswood - Home | 20 |
| Home - Penshurst - Hurstville - Home | 38 |
| Home - Darling Point - Mascot - Home | 40 |
| Home - Marrickville - Maroubra- Home | 40 |
| Home - Parramatta - Home | 41 |
| Home - Ashfield - Maroubra - Home | 50 |
| Home - Lane Cove - Terrey Hills - Home | 56 |
| Home - Galston - Home | 67 |
| Home - East Kurrajong - Home | 140 |
| Home - East Kurrajong - North Kellyville - Dural - Carlingford - Home | 150 |
Longer Trips
These usually occur a couple of times a year. Let’s go with 4 trips a year.
| Trip Route | Distance (km) | What’s there? |
|---|---|---|
| Picton / Thirlmere | 173 | Train museum |
| St Albans | 182 | Nice old sandstone pub in a quiet valley |
| Katoomba | 195 | Lots of restaurants in a steam-punk architecture town |
| Bowral | 224 | The pleasantries of the Southern Highlands |
| Kiama | 252 | The blowhole |
| Rydal | 300 | Daffodil festival |
| Hunter Valley | 317 | Wine, olive oil and cheese |
| Jenolan Caves | 340 | Um, caves? |
| Taralga and return via Oberon | 506 | Nice country drive |
| Perisher | 972 | One of Australia’s alpine resorts |
The Summary
Pretty much any trip above is achieveable in the average electric car on the market today (see A Comparison of Electric Cars in Australia under $100k) if you exclude some of the bigger trips like the Snowy Mountains or Taralga. That’s pretty good. So, confirmed, 99% of trips would be fine in an electric car of today.
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