Electric vehicles (EV) are likely to be the way of the future, and forward thinking RPC are the first (and only) in town to have an EV charging station. For a little one horse town we think it's pretty nifty to have a car charger; our neighbouring much larger city Lismore have just the one themselves.
We installed this in 2018 and countless CO2 emissions have been saved with the use of our solar power as opposed to petrol. Open during business hours, this is a free service to the community and we welcome people to take advantage of their available time and take a quick tour of the premises while they are waiting ( COVID-19 safe of course).
Electric cars have been proven to produce less CO2 than petrol cars, debunking previous claims that carbon emissions from the manufacture of EVs and embodied energy usage outweighs the savings for the environment.
Electric car prices (in Australia) start at around $41,000 for the Hyundai IONIQ PHEV which has battery size of 8.9kWh and a range of 50km + petrol, all the way up to the Tesla Model X, which at $150,000 has a range of 594km (no petrol backup), and a battery size of 100kWh. A cheaper model Kia Niro EV is rumoured to be coming soon.
At RPC we have the 7kW 'type 2' AC plug charger; the type 2 plug has a seven-pin design. The addition of two extra pins allows these plugs to support three-phase charging. Type 2 is also the plug standard for all of Europe. Alternate names for this EV charger are: IEC 62196 and Mennekes.
This charger is now the standard for Australian EVs and is currently used by all other EV manufacturers. (The Type 1 five-pin plug design is the charger used by Mitsubishi and some pre-2018 EVs. It is the standard in North America and Japan).
Our charger is a 'destination' trickle charge type. More and more 'supercharger' locations are expected for Australia, but for the time being the 'destination' chargers are the most common. It takes several hours to fully charge your car, so you might want to come in the morning, enjoy a day in Nimbin, and leave all charged up in the afternoon. One customer came for a quote, and left with an additional 15% charge- free from the sun, one happy camper ...
Update to this. We now have our very own Tesla model 3 electric car! We are investing again in essential research and development; stepping up to satisfy our customers' growing needs when it comes to EVs and an ability to charge them through solar power. Sizing stand alone and grid connect systems to incorporate an EV charger, as well as best design and integration into existing solar systems, and troubleshooting potential problems, will all be taken care of by our team of experts; who are super chuffed to expand their knowledge around such a cool subject and service.
Come down and take a squiz; and in any case you will likely see us driving it around the town and Rainbow Region bearing our RPC logo ... because as one RPC staff member stated recently "it's sexy AF".
Some specs for the nerds and techies: Charging from grid 1.0kg of CO2 per kWh, charging from 100% solar 0.0 of CO2 per kWh.
Based on current vehicle use of 15,000 km per year 14.9kWh/100km. CO2 output from Tesla M3 = 0 kg of CO2 per year
Find an EV charger near you.