You don’t need a license to drive a mobility scooter.

Queensland is the only state where you need to register your mobility scooter. Every other state in Australia does not require you to register your mobility scooter.

Maintenance of your LEMS is minimal, but do not neglect at least a yearly or 1000 km check over by your local mobility scooter dealer or car mechanic.
And change the differential oil with SAE80W-90 Gear oil every 1000km. Your dealer can request any consumable parts as required, these should be in stock.
Dust and wash as required with a damp soft cloth, and oil all moving surfaces. Any questions, phone the business office.

While in use, charge Lithium batteries only once when SOC is at 20% or more. Remove the charger as soon as possible when fully charge. Follow the instructions on the particular LEMS page.
Read FAQ’s on your LEMS page for exact instructions.

LEMS Lithium batteries last 500-800 full cycles. To ensure the battery lasts as long as possible, follow the charging instructions as on your LEMS page.

The Lithium batteries are much better than the Lead Acid Battery, in many ways, including performance and overall driving cost.

Firstly, the Lithium battery has a higher voltage profile in use, meaning you get more current and therefore more power, so better performance.
Secondly, the Lithium battery has a greater specific power than a LA battery, so are much lighter for the same power stored.
Thirdly, the Lithium battery provides all the power at the full rate right to the end of its cycle, this is not the case with LA.
Fourthly, the Lithium battery lasts much longer than a LA battery.
Fifth and last, the Lithium battery has a wider temperature range (-20 to +50C) so tolerates the high Australian summer temperatures, while LA batteries are damaged at temperatures over 35C.

Lithium NiMnCoO2 (Ternary) batteries are best charged and then the charger removed. (charge only once) Do not let the SOC go below 20%.
It is best to store a Lithium Ternary battery at around 50% charged and make sure the Power switch / over-load switch is OFF, so there is no chance of accidentally drawing current from a stored battery.

LiFePO4 battery maybe be charged after every use. Remove the charger when fully charged or next morning. Do not let the SOC go below 20%. It must be stored fully charged, and charged monthly.

No. The batteries in the LEMS are special high current high capacity batteries. Standard mobility scooter batteries cannot supply enough power fast enough for the LEMS. Only install the correct batteries available from your dealer or directly from Mobility Scooters for Hire Sale Service.

Operation Instructions :
Connect outlet plug of the charger to the LEMS.
Connect the inlet plug of the charger to AC power socket, and when or if connected, turn switch on.
When the indicator light is RED it is charging (sometimes this maybe flashing at around one second intervals). When GREEN it is fully charged.
Charging time is proportional to the power required to fully charge the battery, and that is what was used since the last charging.

To disconnect the charger, turn off or remove the charger input plug from the AC power supply.
Remove the charger outlet plug from the LEMS.

Notes :
Do not use outside in the sun, rain or damp
Do not use in dusty conditions
Do not place on inflammable materials
Do not drop
Ensure the correct charger is used for correct battery type and capacity.

The world car markets

China, the world’s largest car market, is working on a timetable to stop the production and sale of vehicles powered by fossil fuels. India has declared its intention to make all new vehicles electric by 2030.

Like Britain and France, these two markets are looking to phase out the sale of petrol and diesel vehicles over the next 20 years or so.

Vehicle manufacturers, the oil industry and governments are starting to wake up to the disruption that vehicle electrification could bring about.

Even automakers recognise that they cannot afford to be legislated out of these lucrative markets.

Volvo, Jaguar and Land Rover, Volkswagen, Mercedes, Audi and BMW have all promised to roll out electric models over the next decade.

Electro-mobility now seems inevitable, but the impact this shift will have on jobs, the oil economy and even national tax systems will be profound.

The global impact on jobs

Electric vehicles, including their batteries, generally require less manufacturing labour than ones that run on petrol.

For this reason, among others, a phase-out of combustion engines by 2030 could cost an estimated 600,000 jobs in Germany alone, according to one report from the country’s IFO Economic Institute.

But it may not all be doom and gloom. According to the Australian Federation of Automotive Parts Manufacturers (FAPM), the ban may be good news for suppliers to the Chinese market, including Australia.

Although Toyota and other local car manufacturers have shut down their Australian facilities, as electric vehicles become easier to build the manufacturing process may become simplified and robotised, creating new manufacturing and business opportunities for the right investor.

The disruption of oil

Going all-electric by 2030 will place considerable budgetary stress on major oil-producing countries, and change the geopolitical map.

Stanford economist Tony Seba and his team push the vision of an electric vehicle revolution a step further, and predict that the disruption will come earlier, during the 2020s.

They argue that oil demand will peak at 100 million barrels per day by 2020 and shift to 70 million barrels per day by 2030. According to their 2017 study, net exporting countries like Venezuela, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and Russia will feel the greatest impact.

They also claim that the geopolitics of lithium, which along with nickel, cobalt and cadmium, is key to electric vehicles, are entirely different from oil politics.

Although there is potential for supply disruption, lithium is not as critical as oil in the life of a car.

According to Seba:

Lithium is a material stock and, in the electric vehicle industry, is only required to build the battery, while oil is a fuel required to operate an internal combustion engine vehicle. Lithium scarcity would only affect new vehicle production. Not having lithium is like not having a new engine; the existing fleet can still operate for years. Oil is essential to operate the existing fleet; thus, oil is a far more critical part of the value chain.

The impact on government coffers

By 2030, revenues from petrol taxes could be reduced significantly, with the shift from individual ownership of petrol vehicles to shared (and ultimately autonomous) electric vehicle fleets.

Governments whose budgets rely on this revenue stream could find themselves shifting to road pricing, such as charging per kilometer of travel or congestion charging.

Modeling by Seba and his team shows that US$50 billion from petrol taxes could disappear from the US economy.

In Australia, according to the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development, public sector road-related revenue totaled AUD28.7 billion in 2014-15.

Fuel excise contributed about AUD11.03 billion or 38%, down from about 44% in the early 2000s. This revenue will come under direct threat with increasing electric vehicle market adoption.

My research also shows that under some future scenarios of shared autonomous mobility, the car fleet size could shrink to around 80%, meaning less income from vehicle registration fees and sale taxes, maintenance, insurance and parking.

The future outlook

Although the detail of the bans in China and India are still sketchy, they represent just the kind of government policy shifts that are likely to make electric vehicles more pervasive.

Some groups, such as oil giants BP and Shell, would disagree that the end of oil is upon us.

It’s been argued that electric vehicles are not a game-changer, as oil demand will continue to rise in the developing world and improvements in fuel efficiency will deliver benefits that outweigh those from electric vehicles.

The sheer breadth of the potential disruption makes it hard to predict what will happen, especially when the mix of sharing, electric and self-driving technologies converge to disrupt the mobility ecosystem.

Auto manufacturers, governments and the oil industry will have to make some tough decisions and prepare. The petrol engine vehicle isn’t quite done, but its years of dominance on our roads are numbered.

Credit to Weiyun Motor Company for this article.
This article was originally published by The World Economic Forum in association with The Conversation.