Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Hunter Murray says he's working on helping to improve electric vehicle charging infrastructure in the NT to make them a better option for Territorians

Transcript

Hunter Murray says he's working on helping to improve electric vehicle charging infrastructure in the NT to make them a better option for Territorians · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Now we have got joining us on the line right now.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: We know that the electric vehicles, I think that there's
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: something that we'd all like to use in theory. They
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: still seem pretty expensive at the moment. There's still a
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: few myths I think you'd say, floating around when it
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: comes to electric vehicles. Now, Hunter Murray is driving his
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Tesla up to Darwin from Alice Springs. He's currently the
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: vice president of Australia Electric Vehicle Association and he joins
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: me on the line right now.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Hunter.
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  Speaker 3: Good morning Katy. How are you?
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, very well, So Hunter, where are you right now?
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: Well, I'm actually I'm in town. I'm in Darwen, just
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  Speaker 3: actually having a lovely coffee at the ryse Greend Cafe.
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  Speaker 3: There's a quick plug for them out of the industrial
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: area here and we're meeting with some great people to
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  Speaker 3: push on with increasing the charging network between here and
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: Alice and of course all the highways and then obviously
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: moving on to the communities after that.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: And so you've traveled from Alice Springs to Darwin.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: How accessible has it been to be able to charge
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  Speaker 1: your vehicle and be able to drive your electric vehicle
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  Speaker 1: that distance?
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  Speaker 3: Well, two things. I've actually been out there making it
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  Speaker 3: better because I am in the trade and we've been
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  Speaker 3: working with stakeholders like roadhouses and stuff like that to
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  Speaker 3: make it more accessible. But on the way up it
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  Speaker 3: did take a few extra days because I was doing
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  Speaker 3: a bit of work improving the network. But on the
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  Speaker 3: way back I should be able to get down to
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  Speaker 3: Alice in two days pretty well, just like a normal car.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Right, How accessible are electric vehicles in the Northern
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  Speaker 1: Territory because I think lots of us listening will think, oh,
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  Speaker 1: we'd love one, but it seems like they're quite expensive
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: at the moment.
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  Speaker 3: Well, yes and no, it kind of depends what you
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  Speaker 3: think is expensive. There's certainly some here to test drive.
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  Speaker 3: There's makes through Mazda and that sort of stuff that
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  Speaker 3: are available here to try. What I guess I want
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  Speaker 3: to plant the seed with people is that at the
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: moment in the territory we're right behind just typically we're
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: right behind the whole of the rest of Australia when
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  Speaker 3: it comes to the charging network and how fast we
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: can charge. But we've got to remember that every house
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: is a charger. We have a PowerPoint in every house.
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  Speaker 3: If we've got a little bit bigger PowerPoint, it's a
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  Speaker 3: little bit better charger. So just like we charge our
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: mobile phones every night, we could do the same thing
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: with electric vehicles. Ninety five percent of the time those
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: vehicles are sitting in either our workplace or our home,
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  Speaker 3: so you know, ninety five percent of the time they
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  Speaker 3: can just be sitting there trickle charging. And it's really
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  Speaker 3: only that five percent of the time when people want
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  Speaker 3: to take it on holidays and the long trips that
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  Speaker 3: we need this long range destination. So what I try
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  Speaker 3: to hint to people is to say, look, why don't
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  Speaker 3: you most people in Australia have two cars, why don't
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  Speaker 3: you make your second car an electric vehicle, keep you
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  Speaker 3: long range car for your holidays. I've got no problems
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  Speaker 3: with that. I'm not trying to push that on you,
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: but just the next decision you make on a vehicle,
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  Speaker 3: I think you really need to go and take an
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  Speaker 3: EV for a drive and understand what it is about them.
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  Speaker 3: The simplicity of them, the lack of pain trying to
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  Speaker 3: go through traffic, the easiness something does all way up,
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  Speaker 3: and of course there's the health benefits and stuff like
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  Speaker 3: that too. I'd love to go on to But I
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  Speaker 3: just want to pick on the evs themselves at the moment.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, sar enough are they becoming I mean, are more
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  Speaker 1: people inquiring about buying them?
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  Speaker 2: Do you reckon? Since those petrol prices of skyrocketed.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, well, unfortunately we've had to have a really good
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: war to make people really open their eyes about them.
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  Speaker 3: That's for sure. It's unfortunate. But to give you an idea,
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: were at the AVA probably used to take maybe two
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: or three calls a week in Fuirayes and there's now
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: gone to about ten calls a day or ten ten
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  Speaker 3: inquiries a day across the media obviously, so people are
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  Speaker 3: really keen on to try and get on the right idea.
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  Speaker 3: But I do recommend people to have a really look
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  Speaker 3: good at those myths that seem to be still going around.
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  Speaker 3: And at the moment, you know, the batteries won't last
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  Speaker 3: a year and all that crap. Excuse my French, they
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  Speaker 3: do last very long. They're cooled batteries. They are responsibly
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  Speaker 3: recycled and reused for house batteries. My battery in my car,
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: like my EV's eight years old now it's probably lost
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  Speaker 3: about fifteen percent of its range. But you know what,
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  Speaker 3: it's still going strong. And like I said, just drove
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  Speaker 3: it up from Alice. I've driven my other one actually
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  Speaker 3: halfway around Australia. It took about two weeks from go
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  Speaker 3: to Brisbane right up to Alice Springs originally. And look,
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  Speaker 3: they're very capable vehicles. I think people just need to
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  Speaker 3: understand that. They look at them a little bit differently.
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  Speaker 3: And I think you'll find once you start not having
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: to travel for a fuel station when you need fuel.
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  Speaker 3: These things are charged fully every day, they're going to
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  Speaker 3: see those sort of advantages.
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  Speaker 1: You said that you like that the association at the
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  Speaker 1: OMEN is receiving like ten queries a day or you know,
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  Speaker 1: ten ten questions a day, ten people getting in contact today.
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  Speaker 2: What are people mostly asking about?
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  Speaker 3: Well, exactly what you're saying is like how cheap are
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  Speaker 3: they and stuff like that. I'll give you an idea
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  Speaker 3: of the fuel savings. I guess you could call them
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: and stay here in the territory. We're paying about twenty
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  Speaker 3: seven cents a killer what hour. If you look at
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  Speaker 3: your power bill, let's round it up to thirty just
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  Speaker 3: to keep the maths easy. So that's thirty cents on
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  Speaker 3: a normal electric car that'll give you about five kilometers
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  Speaker 3: of range. Now, a normal combustion car, maybe you're talking
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  Speaker 3: ten liters per one hundred kilometers, so that's a one
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  Speaker 3: lead per ten kilometers, so one lead of cost. What's
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  Speaker 3: that at the moment? Now, I'm sorry, I don't know.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, of course about money, Well, it depends.
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  Speaker 1: If you've got a diesel car at the moment, at
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  Speaker 1: least two dollars eighteen a liter.
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  Speaker 3: There you go, so for thirty, say, if you double
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  Speaker 3: thirty cents to make it ten kilometers, that's sixty cents
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  Speaker 3: per ten kilometers two dollars thirty. So that's about five
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  Speaker 3: times the cheapness. And it's and this is the thing,
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  Speaker 3: it can you go up? I suppose we're pretty lucky
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  Speaker 3: in the territory that we have a pretty well government
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  Speaker 3: run and power generation. But you know what if you
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: start getting solar on your house or solar at your
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: business place, and now all of a sudden your boss says, hey, guys,
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: here's some electric ports for your cars. How about your
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: charge up off my solar in the day as a
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  Speaker 3: as a thanks to working for me, which I do
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  Speaker 3: with my guys, They all of a sudden they're getting
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: free fuel.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah right, well, there you go. It certainly food for thought.
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  Speaker 2: Now tell me Murray, why did or Hunter? Sorry, I've
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: got a mix share names up there, Hunt up round
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: to the boats. Okay, you probably get that a bit mate.
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  Speaker 2: Why are you so passionate about this?
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  Speaker 3: Oh? Look, I've seen it for a long time, and
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  Speaker 3: like driving the cars are just amazing, But I've seen
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: it for a long time. I'm actually an electronic electrical
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  Speaker 3: engineer by trade. I've been in communications most of my life.
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: And when I saw the cars coming along, and I've
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  Speaker 3: had PHVs and i've had HIV like h highbrid vehicles
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  Speaker 3: as well, and once I saw the technology really really
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: coming to fruition, that to me was an answer. It
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: was an answer to not only not losing our standard
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  Speaker 3: of living by going electric, but it's also our standard
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  Speaker 3: of health, you know, because we can get onto all
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  Speaker 3: the green reasons. But for me, it's about I can
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  Speaker 3: actually concentrate on green is really good solution, only part
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  Speaker 3: of the solution to what humanity has got at the moment,
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  Speaker 3: besides fighting over virtual chemicals. But to me, I can
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  Speaker 3: bring people to that solution, and I guess do it
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  Speaker 3: by example I have a couple of businesses in Alice
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  Speaker 3: that we've built up over the years there, and both
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  Speaker 3: of them are on full solar. I have three company vehicles,
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  Speaker 3: they're all electric. Obviously my house is on solar as well.
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  Speaker 3: So my thousand dollars or two thousand a bill from
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: electrical has now gone to minus one fifty and that
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  Speaker 3: includes my fuel for my cars. So I'm trying to
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  Speaker 3: show people that there's a way to do it. Yes,
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  Speaker 3: it cost me money to get there, but it was
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: business money, and the taxman helped me along. I'll be
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  Speaker 3: the first to admit it. But at the same time,
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  Speaker 3: there is a path to where we can all live
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  Speaker 3: a lot better. And I share that path with my employees,
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  Speaker 3: and I share my path with as many people as
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  Speaker 3: I can acting. And I'm really glad you're listening to it.
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  Speaker 2: Well, Aunt, I really appreciate your time this morning.
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  Speaker 1: I reckon it's you know, it's a bit of a
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  Speaker 1: different discussion, and it's always good to hear those different discussions. Look,
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  Speaker 1: I wouldn't mind an electric vehicle. I've just got to
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  Speaker 1: find myself some cash.
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  Speaker 2: Mate.
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  Speaker 3: Well, okay, so give you an idea just really quickly.
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  Speaker 3: I'll throw some prices out there, because I'm not making
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: any money out of selling cars. But you can pick
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: up you can pick up an MG what they call it,
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: mini Suv or qv for about forty five grand at
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: the mar.
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: Let.
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  Speaker 3: Me just sitch a one more thing. If I've got
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  Speaker 3: two seconds. We got two seconds, We've got two seconds.
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  Speaker 3: We do really need to hit our businesses and our
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: government sections to get more fleet vehicles, and therefore those
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: fleet vehicles will allow the possibility of selling secondhand vehicles,
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  Speaker 3: therefore making it cheaper for the long run for the
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: eighty five percent of Australians that always buy secondhand. We
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: do need to force the government and our and reward
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: the businesses for taking the risk. But I'm here to
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: say there's no risk. They are superb vehicles and they're
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: going to work in really, really well with our solution
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: obviously to climate change.
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: Well, Hunter, I really appreciate your time this morning, mate,
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: Thank you very much for having a chat with us.
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: You most welcome one more plug too. Oh mate, I'm
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: going to have to run with Thetaseless together on Saturday
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: if you want to. Are going to get the Tesslas
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: together on Saturday if you want to come have a look.
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: I don't know where they, so you're going to have
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: to get back to me.
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: On that worries. Thanks Mite, we'll talk to you again
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: soon