Mini Electric Vehicles

In Australia you do not need to and can not register your Mini Electric Vehicles.

In Australia you must not drive your Mini Electric Vehicles on a public road. It is only allowed to be driven on private property.

It is best to charge when the battery is down to no less than 20% charge (SOC). This is after around 65 km driving, depending on several driving factors.

When the voltage drops to about 57.5 volts while driving on the flat hard ground, it is time to recharge. When the resting Voltage (when you first turn the key on) drops to 61.5V it must be charged

When charged, disconnect the charger and use your Mini Electric Vehicles as soon as possible, the next day if not sooner, to use some of the top charge in the battery, as the special Lithium battery prefers not to be left fully charged.

When in storage, the Lithium battery should be at approximately 62-63 V, half full, or half empty, and make sure the Mini Electric Vehicles’s Power / Over Load switch is OFF, so there is no chance of accidentally drawing current from the stored battery.

If the battery goes below 49 volts, the BMS (battery management system) will switch off to protect the battery, and the battery will have to be returned to Ronica Trade to try and remedy the situation. There is a 250.00 fee (if successful) to attempt the resurrection, and no guarantees.

The Mini Electric Vehicles’ lithium batteries last around 500+ full cycles. To ensure the battery lasts as long as possible, follow the charging instructions as in the previous question.

One difference is that the voltage platform is higher for a Lithium battery, and thus there is more power produced by the motor.

Secondly, the power available (power density) is much greater, making the battery much lighter, thirdly the power is able to be delivered faster, and fourthly the overall cost of operation is much cheaper.

Lastly, the ideal temperature for all batteries is 25 C. Temperature limits are, for Lead Acid 0 – +35 C, for Mini Electric Vehicles Lithium -20 – +45 C. Temperatures below 0 C and over 35 C damage lead acid batteries.

The electric power cost for the Mini Electric Vehicles is approximately 1.3 cents/km.

As in all electric mobility devices, it is the cost of the battery that is the expensive part.

The total running cost of a Mini Electric Vehicles is about 13 cent/km plus any servicing.

You could use another type of battery in the Mini Electric Vehicles, but the type installed from new is by far the best for the job, as explained in the question above.

We recommend to only install the correct battery available from your dealer or directly from Mobility Scooters for Hire Sale Service.

Operation Instructions:

Connect outlet plug (60V) of the charger to the LEMS.

Connect the inlet plug (240V) of the charger to AC power socket, and when or if connected, turn the power 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 previous 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.

Some chargers have different colour light sequences, please check and note when first using.

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 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 A$28.7 billion in 2014-15.

Fuel excise contributed about A$11.03 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 Wieyun Motor Company for this article.

This article was originally published by The World Economic Forum in association with The Conversation.