THE TRANSPORT ISSUE
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Ford F-150 Lightning .
THE ELECTRIC UTE
When you ’ re a tradie , electric vehicle means electric ute . Right now , SUVs are saturating the electric vehicle market , but whether it ’ s the Ford F-150 Electric , Rivian R1T or something from Great Wall , electric utes are coming to a job site near you .
“ We expect electric utes to come to the Australian market , and when they get here they ' ll be snapped up in whatever quantities they ' re delivered in ,” says Ross De Rango , head of energy and infrastructure at the Electric Vehicle Council .
The benefits of electric utes are much the same as other electric vehicles : they are convenient , require less maintenance , have a lower cost of total ownership and are kind to the environment . Plus , electric utes deliver full torque instantly , so you can accelerate much faster than in conventional vehicles . “ They ’ re just nicer vehicles to drive and to own ,” says president of the Australian Electric Vehicle Association , Chris Jones .
Electric utes can also serve as a power source . “ You can run a welder and you can run a table saw – you can do all sorts of things with power direct from the vehicle rather than needing to bring a generator to site ,” De Rango says . Nifty , eh ?
Ford F-150 Lightning ' s Mega Power Frunk with
2.4kW of exportable power .
World of opportunity
Good news alert : more electric cars on the road opens up a whole new world of commercial opportunities for contractors . “ It ’ s one of the amazing crossovers between the energy sector and the transport sector ,” says Jones . “ Previously they had very little to do with each other and now they ' re going to have everything to do with each other .” Electric vehicle owners need to recharge their vehicles at home and when they ’ re out and about . “ That means electrical trades need to deploy new transformers , do line work and install new switchboards ,” says De Rango . “ There ' s a lot of work for the trades in this transition .” Quick tip : he says wiring a house for an electric vehicle requires a 32 Amp RCBO and 6mm cable from the switchboard to the garage . Terminate the cable in the garage with an isolator . Include a label with your phone number that says something like , ' future electric vehicle charger installed here ' and you ’ re all set .
18 GEMCELL . COM . AU APR – MAY 2022