We have just driven our EV from Ballina to Noosa using sunlight as our only fuel.
It’s worth taking a moment to consider how incredible that is. The endless positive stories of the benefits of EVs are usually only read by EV owners logged into specific social media accounts. The rest of the population are drip-fed a sensational account of the flaws inherent in EVs by the right-wing press and shock jocks. Pretty much every criticism they level at EVs is bullshit. Certain politicians take this malicious garbage to make political capital and to appease their donors. In the mean time the country has to pay a heavy price for our reliance on oil and now finds itself held hostage by madmen.
Even without solar panels, off-peak electricity is still a far cheaper fuel than petrol or diesel and is not so reliant on the limits of supply.
We recently bought our EV secondhand which was no more expensive than a new moderately priced family car, which it will almost certainly outlast. And no, the battery will not need replacing over its lifetime and the savings in fuel and maintenance will be significant.
Why a Labor government doesn’t incentivise the up take of EVs, reducing our emissions of carbon, pollutants and noise is a mystery know only to themselves and their sponsors.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
