With official predictions being between 25% and 50% of all new car sales by 2030, is it time to be taking the Electric Car a little more seriously? According to the Electric Vehicle Council of Australia, EVs can be fun to drive, lower total cost of ownership, be good for the environment, are convenient, require less maintenance, and provide fuel security. So what does the EV future hold for Ballarat?

'Electric Cars in Ballarat' is an introduction to electric car use in Ballarat over the next 5 years. Presented by electric car owner and enthusiast, Jason Panosh, this free 1hr talk & discussion is aimed at people who may consider buying an electric car and want to know the issues involved.

Some of the topics covered will be:

• What electric cars are/ will be available in Ballarat in the next 5 years.

• What infrastructure does Ballarat need to support electric cars.

• What infrastructure do you need to charge / maintain electric cars

• What are the advantages of electric cars?

• What are the costs of electric cars?

• What is "range anxiety" and how does it apply to Ballarat users?

Workshop Date: Wednesday 15th May Time: 12.30pm to 1.30pm

Venue: Eastwood Leisure Complex, 20 Eastwood St, Ballarat Central

Free event, no booking required, but you can reserve a seat here: https://ballaratelectriccars.eventbrite.com.au

Other links:

http://www.breaze.org.au http://www.fb.com/smartlivingballarat

https://electricvehiclecouncil.com.au/about-ev/why-evs/

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-04-30/federal-election-your-electric-car-questions/11049084

email: tim@breaze.org.au

Coordinated by Tim Drylie for Smart Living Ballarat

Other fun facts:
The latest EVs under $50K have a 480km range.

China, the world’s biggest EV market, saw 580,000 EVs sold in 2017, while in Norway, half of all new cars sold in 2018 were EVs.

There are 19 EVs currently available in Australia with four more models expected in 2019.

Almost 2,300 battery and hybrid EVs were sold in Australia in 2017, a 67% increase from 2016.

Australia could eliminate 6% of our total greenhouse gas emissions if everyone drove a Battery EV (BEV) charged by renewable energy.

Vehicle pollution causes over 1,700 deaths each year in Australia.

There are almost 450 charging locations across Australia and many more are being built.

About Jason Panosh

Jason has assisted the Buninyong Smart Building and Living Expo with the electric car display for the past three years. He is currently the Information Services Manager at Ballarat Community Health, has worked in HealthCare IT for about 16 years and is very keen on improved health outcomes.

Jason became aware of electric cars about 5yrs ago and has his eye on the Tesla brand of cars because of their 100% electric focus. He currently drive the Nissan LEAF 2012 model (the only one officially imported to Australia) which he bought secondhand as an experiment to learn about electric cars and see if they would be suitable for his circumstances. He also has 1.5kW of solar on his house and currently gets $0.66/kWh feed-in tariff, but wonders if the extra solar investment would out-weigh the benefit of the feed-in tariff benefit and whether batteries would be a good investment as well.