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In the mosaic of solutions to get Australia on the path to net-zero CO2 emissions by 2050 or earlier, electric vehicles are prominent. And for good reason. Diesel and petrol cars throw off significantly more emissions; when EV batteries can be charged from mainly renewable sources, we will have gone a long way to eliminating carbon pollution.
There is a caveat. Australia’s National Transport Commission estimates that Australian EVs emit on average 150 grams of CO2 per kilometre. The equivalent in Norway, which is best in class, is on average 60 grams per kilometre. So Australian EVs are currently 2.5 times more polluting than the world’s best.
Lightweight personal mobility devices use only around 10 per cent of the energy of an electric vehicle.Credit:AP
Australians want bigger electric cars, and battery capacity and vehicle mass are closely related. The bigger the vehicle the bigger the battery required to move it, and the more power needed to charge the battery. When most of your power is generated from fossil fuels that’s a problem.
But in my local area during the recent COVID lockdown I watched new forms of personal e-mobility proliferate – hover boards, e-scooters, e-bikes and others I don’t recognise, perhaps made popular by public health orders requiring us to stay within 5 kilometres of home.
Available data suggests these lightweight personal mobility devices use only around 10 per cent of the energy of an electric vehicle, which is not surprising given the vast difference in weight. But by any reading of the rules, anyone riding them on public space in NSW today is doing so illegally.
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It’s time to change that and with a new Transport Minister, Rob Stokes, in charge we may have the opportunity to do so.
Last March the Herald reported that the NSW government had “abandoned” plans for an electric scooter trial, with the minister at the time, Andrew Constance, apparently objecting to e-scooters for what I read as reasons of safety and street litter.
In August, the NTC proposed a framework under which e-scooters, subject to jurisdictions and local urban environments, would be allowed on footpaths at a capped speed of 10 kilometres an hour, and on residential streets at up to 25 kilometres an hour. Other states and territories are at different stages of advancement in regulating e-scooters; NSW is conspicuous for not having any framework.