Wheels Australia – August 2019

ReaderToddHoldsworthdroppedusa line:“We

hada goodrun.TheELFalconhasn’tbroken

downin the 15 yearsI’vehadit,andI’vegivenit an

absolutehiding.I’mgladthekeyringwentfirst.”

Atleasthe’snotsuingusfora lostkey.

@wheelsaustralia 25

Lordof the

(broken) ring

TILL

DEATH

DOWE

PART

SHIFTING CO 2

PROBLEMS
I’VE BEEN ENJOYING the latest edition of
Wheels and reading with interest your articles
on electric cars. One aspect of EVs which
doesn’t seem to get talked about is the CO 2
emissions generated during mains charging.
I did some maths around the Nissan Leaf
and according to Nissan, the 40kWh battery
gives a combined cycle range of 270km.
This equates to 6.75km of range per kWh of
battery charge. In Victoria, generating 1kWh of
electricity emits 1080g of CO 2 , equal to 160g
CO 2 /km. This compares with an equivalent
small car (Hyundai i30) which ranges from
120 to 150g per km.
By these calculations, charging an EV
from the grid in Victoria emits more CO 2
than driving an ICE car. I haven’t done the
maths for other states, but broadly speaking,
it seems driving an EV will not lower CO 2
emissions – unless they are charged using
renewables. No-one seems to look at this as
an issue, so I’d be interested in your view.

Jon Starks, email

Nice work on the Casio, Jon. Surely

the answer lies in the accelerated

adoption of renewables, which

in turn are being driven by their

increasing cost-competitiveness

versus new coal and gas – Ed

THINK OF THE

CHILDREN!
IN REGARDS TO the letter by Paul Ainsworth
(‘Keeping His Options Open’, Wheels, May
2019). Paul, no doubt you’re an excellent
steerer and your new Macan S will provide
superb enjoyment.
However, in a world where AEB, adaptive
cruise and other driver aids are becoming
standard for a generation of drivers – who are
generally less ‘mechanical’ and perhaps less
attentive drivers than we ‘boomers’ – I hope
you don’t lend the car to a youngster who gets
momentarily distracted and has a rear-ender
because dad didn’t spec AEB.
In my view, speccing a car without AEB is
short-sighted. No-one likes these interfering
driver aids – until the day they save a life!

Larry O’Toole, Murarrie, Qld

Hmm, not sure we want to buy into

this one, Larry. We may let you two

take it out to the carpark – Ed

ONE STAR DOES

NOT ALIGN

I MAY NOT be the head of a multi-billion

dollar automotive company, but I do feel

that Jeep’s response to the JL Wrangler being

slapped with a one-star ANCAP safety rating

was pretty poor.

No doubt the Wrangler can out drive

almost anything on a Saharan plain or up a

rocky incline in the Americas, but only a tiny

proportion will ever see anything so harsh.

For Jeep to say, “Testing protocols that

apply exclusively to urban scenarios may not

align with such a vehicle”, is like saying that a

toaster broke because you put bread in it.

A. Greenwood, Forestville, NSW

We’re inclined to agree. Automotive

safety is advancing rapidly and

ANCAP’s rating system is an

important tool in helping consumers

make informed buying choices – Ed

DRIVERS; THEY’RE

SO ‘LAST YEAR’

AS A FELLOW subscriber to the view that

there are a great many inconvenient truths

about electric cars, I read with interest Jim

Thorn’s views (Inbox, June).

Jim makes some great points, but surely

the most significant relates to the future of

motoring, especially in urban areas and the

way we will utilise cars and transport.

UBER and Lyft have made it clear with their

huge investment in driverless technology that

this is the future of taxis. Once they remove

the most expensive part of running a fleet of

cabs (the driver), surely the cost of personal

transport within cities will plummet, making

car ownership redundant.

Fleets of driverless taxis will roam the

streets, needing only to stop for recharging

and scheduled maintenance, making moot

the point about fast-charge capabilities and

lack of off-street parking for recharging.

People who live in apartments will never

have to own an electric vehicle. Reducing

personal car ownership will also reduce the

amount of waste at the end of a vehicle’s life.

Who can predict what the future is for

those in smaller towns and rural areas?

There may still be a need for individual car

ownership in the medium- to long-term,

but with further improvements to battery

technology negating range anxiety, and

Tesla’s desire to make its cars available on

ride-share platforms, the cost of deploying a

fleet of driverless taxis nationwide could be

shared amongst consumers.

Bill Dunk, Uki, NSW

You raise some interesting points, Bill,

but two issues: many experts in the

autonomy field, including Nissan’s

Maarten Sierhuis, suggest that

driverless cars are much further away

than some predict. You also write

about people not “needing” to own

a car, but as a society of conspicuous

consumers, the absence of need has

rarely stopped us ‘wanting’ – Ed

A BIG MAC WITH

ZERO CHANGE?

ANDY ENRIGHT GIVES us some great

insights into living with a supercar, via his

McLaren 570GT reports in Garage, but I look

forward to some intel on its service costs.

A former McLaren owner told me that the

first major service costs around $15,000,

and that a replacement battery and resetting

the electrics run to $5000? I wonder how

these figures compare with Andy’s previous

Porsche 911 GTS long-termer?

Nigel Watson, email

Perhaps an extra zero made it onto

that service figure, Nigel. McLaren’s

Australian representative tells us a first

annual service is around $1500 – Ed

JEEP’S RESPONSE TO

WRANGLER’S SAFETY

RATING WAS POOR

JUST OUT OF WARANTY, TOO

“