Electric vehicles shined, insured, and at your doorstep

The electric vehicle rental market is on a roll with big developers around the country signing up with electric vehicle hire companies.

Last week etransport and technology start up Ohmie Go flagged its swag of partnerships included with Mirvac, Blackstone, Frasers Property, GPT Group, Mulpha International, Sekisui House and Aria Property Group. And developers of historic property Merchant House in Sydney signing up deals for Tesla hire cars.

The idea? To make sustainable transport accessible to building tenants by bringing all that’s needed right to their doorstep.

Ohmie Go says in its agreement electric vehicle options will be available to rent out for a resident’s hourly or daily needs. With all the nitty gritty details – insurance, cleaning, and so on – taken care of courtesy of the rental company. In addition to providing an end-to-end solution, this level of service offers an attractive proposition for existing and potential residents.

Founder and chief executive of the EV company Kyle Bolto told AFR Weekend, “our view is that any building, whether it’s commercial, residential, or even holiday resorts and hotels, that has more than 100 people is a fantastic candidate for an in-house e-mobility hub.”

And they aren’t the only ones turning the wheels in this space.

At Merchant House developers Addenbrooke, Super Ocean Group and Phoenix Property Investors have installed communal Teslas courtesy of Outbound as part of its strategy to stay ahead of soaring demand for EVs.

The $400 million redevelopment of the building will be able to book and open the vehicles using the app from provider Outbound. Outbound chief executive officer  Luke Rust says “workplace providers are cluing on that parking is expensive, either for them or their staff. Thankfully, there is an alternative and that’s shared mobility.”

“The average car costs $17,000 a year to own and operate in Australia but sits idle 96 per cent of the time,” Rust says.

Powering our future with community electrification

In the pursuit of meeting clean energy targets, Queensland will soon be home to an Australian first in energy storage solutions, a large-scale iron flow battery.

The Queensland University of Technology has collaborated with Energy Storage Industries – Asia Pacific and the Future Battery Industries Cooperative Research Centre to bring this long-duration energy storage solution into reality, a necessity in supporting the intermittency of renewable energy such as wind and solar, according to project leader National Battery Testing Centre project lead Dr Joshua Watts in a recent media statement.

“This particular battery shows great potential in providing large-scale long-duration energy storage solutions to store energy for distribution when the wind is not blowing and the sun is not shining,” Watts says.

He says that the while lithium batteries are compact, cost can become an issue when looking to scale for long-duration and large-scale applications.

Whereas “iron flow batteries are well suited for long-duration applications due to the nature of the energy storage mechanism, which is achieved through dissolved metal salts in aqueous solution.

“Iron flow batteries [also] utilise a weakly acidic iron chloride solution which is non-toxic, simplifying the refurbishment and recycling process for these systems.

“It’s not the type of battery you would buy for the backyard, but more targeted toward large-scale solar and wind farms, or new community developments where they’re looking to build in more localised energy generation and distribution networks,” Watts says.

“Large-scale iron flow batteries are the cutting edge of the energy revolution, and that innovation is happening right here in Queensland thanks to the support of the Palaszczuk Government,” Deputy Premier Steven Miles said in a supporting statement.

NSW seizes opportunities for energy efficiency

Speaking of localised energy generation and distribution, we can’t go past NSW Treasurer Matt Kean’s recent announcement of $8 million to support the world’s first pilot of community electrification in an effort to combat inflation and decarbonise the economy.

Strongly endorsed by Rewiring Australia, its co-founder and chief scientist, Dr Saul Griffith, said the announcement was a strong step forward.

“Electrification of our homes, cars and workplaces is the fastest, most effective path to stop the planet heating,” Griffith says.

“The world already has the technology to remove fossil fuels from households. The Australian people have the highest uptake of rooftop solar in the world, and they know that a small push from the government will allow them to go further by installing the batteries, electric cooktops, heaters and water systems that free them of fossil fuel emissions and bills.