Nissan and Victoria team up on EVs
August 4, 2009 by David Twomey
The Renault-Nissan Alliance and the Victorian state government have formed a partnership to explore the development of a Zero Emission Vehicles program.
The two organisations have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) under which a working team of representatives from the Victoria Government and Nissan will identify potential areas of cooperation in promoting the use of zero emission vehicles in the state, primarily the recently revealed Nissan LEAF EV.
The LEAF is expected to go on sale in Australia in 2012, priced competitively against similar petrol vehicles.
“Today, Nissan is proud to partner with the Victorian government through the signing of this MoU,” said Dan Thompson, Nissan Australia CEO.
“Technology for zero emissions mobility is a reality and we are prepared to proactively explore ways to bringing this technology to the market with collaboration from the government.
“Our company is leading the world in the design and production of a battery-powered family-sized car and we aim to have this vehicle on sale in Australia by 2012.
“Today’s announcement of the signing of a strategic MoU with the Government of Victoria brings that reality closer,” Mr Thompson continued.
“The Nissan organisation recognises the importance of sustainability by limiting CO2 emissions and we are ready and able to partner governments in pursuing that role”, he added.
“The Victorian Government is looking at the benefits of introducing and expanding electric vehicle technology for our State,” Victorian State Government Minister for Environment and Climate Change, Gavin Jennings said.
“This MoU formalises discussions with the Nissan Motor Company which is among the global leaders in the development of electric vehicles and demonstrates our commitment to supporting electric vehicle technologies.”
The Alliance has formed partnerships with nearly 30 governments, cities and other organizations around the world, including Japan, the USA, Europe and Asia, to advance the deployment of EVs worldwide.
Print it: 
The Victorian Government forming a partnership to expand the use of electric vehicles – who says politicians don’t have a sense of humour !
The electricity to recharge these cars in VIC comes overwhelmingly from brown coal-fired power stations so recharging a ‘zero emissions’ vehicle in Victoria produces 10 times the CO2 emissions that recharging the same vehicle in Tasmania does (grams per km basis).
I think the figures are something like 13g CO2/km in TAS and 130g CO2/km in VIC. To put the VIC figure in perspective, that’s about the same emissions as your average new petrol or diesel powered small car.
Correct Rick – your tax dollars at work. Stop these knuckleheads before it’s too late.
I agree Rick,
Brown Coal (Lignite, the lowest form of coal) is low in energy and high in emissions compared to high quality Black Coal (Anthracite). The Lignite is mined and used to generate power in the Latrobe Valley, you can’t give the stuff away. The worlds worst polluting power station is Hazelwood Power Station, Victoria!
Also Lignite has roughly half the energy of Anthracite.
No other state in Australia generates power from Lignite.
I you buy an EV to go ‘Green’ in Victoria, go buy a pedal generator to recharge it with, or just go buy a pedal car or bike and be less trendy.
I think a MoMU (Memorandum of Mis-Understanding) would be a better description.
The vehicle would usually be charged with off peak base load power overnight which would otherwise go to waste is the other side of the arguement that usually doesn’t get revealed when this topic gets kicked around.
The nature of electricity generation other than wind,solar & hydro makes it difficult & impractical to shutdown when demand drops typically after 10-11pm.
A base load is essential for maintaining an electricity grid 24 hours a day so charging a vehicle overnight makes minimal impact on the environment,charging during the day will cost more & the electricity market prices according to demand which is nothing new.
Consider how much more power is used today for domestic airconditioning that did not exist 30 years ago as it was a luxury for the few.Charging an electric car is not significant compared to cooling an exposed,poorly designed & sited house.
Peak demand was Winter now it is Summer.
Lifestyle is the issue.
Once Electric cars are established and the demand for electricity has increased accordingly new power stations will have to be built or a black out schedual established.
As an government that opts for a black out schedual will not last beyond the next election it is safe to say new power stations will be built, and when they are the government could choose clean or low CO2 power sources. If they don’t then they are not interested in lowering the carbon footprint and can get stuffed from telling us to do so.
Electric cars also offer their owners independance from oil. After the recession lifts the benifits of this will become apparent.
RE: Today, Nissan is proud to partner with the Victorian government through the signing of this MoU.
Well Nissan be proud while it lasts, this is the Victorian state government you are talking about. Nothing will eventuate out of this MOU whilst our do nothing Premier is in charge.
Say what you will about brown coal power stations, but ANY coal-fired power station will have superior thermal efficiency than an internal combustion engine! Efficiency in a typical car is less than 25%, meaning that only 25% of the petrol’s internal energy will be converted into usable work. And then there’s the energy and losses associated with the life cycle of the petrol product, which is enormous.
A typical coal-fired power plant can reach 40% efficiency; transmission loss from the power plant to the grid to your home and into your EV will be minimal compared to petrol production.
For this reason alone, electric vehicles make a lot of sense. Not to mention that in Australia, coal is extremely abundant and power generation from coal is getting a lot cleaner.
I can see electric cars being sold in the future on mobile phone like plans. Electric cars will play a bigger role in the future of motoring than we might currently think. Every shopping centre will have a Nissan, Mitsubishi, whatever shop were you can swap and go after signing a new plan. If you need proof that what I say is true you only need to look at the evolution of the mobile phone, lap top computer, I pods, ect. “I’ll have a blue one this time thanks, do they come fully charged?”
“I you buy an EV to go ‘Green’ in Victoria, go buy a pedal generator to recharge it with”
Or just buy a 1kw PV Solar array to offset it.
If you use the mitsu MiEv for an example, this car would consume about 1500kwh of energy per year to run the average 15,000kms per year. The emissions would be slightly less (about 5-10%) than the colt which is of similar size with less torque. But then you consider the Co2 emissions from producing the petrol in the first place and where would you rather send your energy dollars (local vs middle east) then you can see the benefits.
To put this in perspective, an average Plasma TV at 500watts watched 8hrs per day would match the energy consumption of MiEv travelling 15,000kms per year. But yet I didn’t see anyone cry energy black out when the various Plasma TV Sales were on.
Australia’s energy production is dirty and needs to change, but this needs to happen regardless of what we drive.
Lazybones,
I was joking with that statement, green = healthy lifestyle apparently.
I am all for energy efficiency improvements, it is great to see EV’s makers get serious, about time. EV’s were available in 1912! First hybrid electric drive sumarines in about 1890! Yes i know technology has………
Australia is miles behind other developed nations as far as energy efficiencies are concerned.
I know you were joking Swampdawg :)
But you’ll be surprised how many people think this to be true. Some are quick to point out the emissions when generating power but not the biblical amount of emissions generated when pumping oil, then the emissions created refining it into petrol.