Renault announced today that its Fluence Z.E. electric car will be sold in Australia by the end of 2012, with a battery pack that can be exchanged in about the same time it takes to refuel a regular car.
The first-of-its-type deal will allow owners to exchange batteries in much the same was as barbecue gas bottles, driving in with an empty battery and leaving with a charged replacement battery.
The car can also be recharged at home, work or in public car parks; a network is being developed, and according to electric vehicle infrastructure company Better Place it will be the largest in the world by the end of 2013.
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Renault Fluence However that won't include the price of the battery, which will be leased through Better Place.
Along with networks in Israel and Denmark it will offer affordable charging deals depending on how many kilometres are driven annually.
"The Fluence Z.E. ... is proof that electric vehicles can be practical, feasible and, as we will detail closer to launch, eminently affordable," says Renault Australia managing director Justin Hocevar.
Capable of driving up to 185km on its battery pack, the made-in-Korea Fluence still has the issue of range anxiety, whereby drivers become concerned about being left stranded with flat batteries when they’re not near a charging station.
Battery switching technology The Better Place charging infrastructure will initially be offered in Canberra from 2012 as part of a deal with energy company ActewAGL.
However, Better Place says other major cities such as Sydney and Melbourne will follow.
Better Place CEO Evan Thornley says the "fundamental economics" of electric vehicles will ensure their take-up is infinitely faster than early predications, which suggest that at best 10 per cent of the car market will be for electric vehicles in a decade.
"By 2020 ... 85 per cent of drivers will be better off financially driving an electric car rather than a petrol one," says Thornley.
Renault said there were no plans to introduce other electric vehicles yet but it would consider them down the track.
"Today is just the start of a journey into the future of the automobile and personal mobility," says Hocevar.
Electric cars are yet to take off in Australia partly because there are currently no government incentives to fast forward their take up.
At about $250,000 only a handful of the electric-powered Tesla Roadsters have been sold, while Mitsubishi’s i-MiEV rechargeable hatchback is priced from a hefty $48,800 and expected to only account for about 60 sales a year.
While hybrid cars – which team a petrol engine with batteries and electric motors to halve fuel use – have been on Australian roads for more than a decade, they still account for less than 1 per cent of the 1-million-odd new cars sold in Australia each year.
Plug-in hybrid cars are also seen as a viable alternative to electric vehicles. They can be driven as electric vehicles for about 50km before using a petrol engine to recharge the batteries, ensuring they can cover vast distances when required yet create no harmful exhaust emissions for most daily driving.
Holden will next year begin selling its Volt electric car, which is expected to cost about $60,000, while Toyota is working on a plug-in rechargeable version of its Prius, still the world’s most popular hybrid car.
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