Re-examining private car ownership
The end of the fuel excise discount on October 1 signals an immediate need for the re-examination of car ownership and petrol vehicles. With prices set to increase significantly, in line with those seen prior to the excise discount, many are concerned at the rising costs of living.
Despite this, the Albanese government’s reintroduction of the full excise presents Australians with an opportunity to reassess private vehicle ownership and its cost economically and environmentally.
Car ownership as a concept
Traditional car ownership is undergoing radical transformation at present, with mobility solutions and community e-vehicle startups disrupting the car market. Consumers are slowly turning to EVs and ownership models which save on maintenance, petrol and insurance costs whilst also reducing emissions. However, the transition is not fast enough.
Despite the fallout of the Ukraine war surrounding fuel supplies and prices, the use of petrol cars remains the dominant choice for consumers. ABS data shows that Australia has over 20M registered vehicles on the road, with over 92 percent of households owning a car.
Petrol vehicles were the largest group by fuel type, representing over 71 percent of vehicles, and electric vehicles accounted for just 1.57 percent. Furthermore, an 2021 analysis of car ownership by insight’s agency ID, has revealed that 53 percent of households in Australia have access to two or more motor vehicles. However, most of these vehicles typically sit idle for 95 percent of the day and cost the average Australian family $22,000 per year.
And it isn’t just the economy which is impacted by car ownership, car pollution is one of the major causes of global warming, with the oil and gas industry representing 45% of anthropogenic GHG emissions. With the cost of living increasing, climate change worsening and petrol costs rising, why are we stuck on a model which is detrimental to the planet and our finances?
The future of shared e-mobility
Petrol cars and household ownership cannot remain with the climate and global economic market as they are. In fact, the Electric Vehicle Council recently announced that Australia should follow suit with the UK and EU by banning the sale of petrol and diesel cars by 2035. Though this has been labelled extreme, widespread disruption to the petrol car market is not a question of ‘if’, but when.
As urban environmental planners and developers move to greener and more sustainable models, greater options are arising surrounding car ownership. Businesses, such as ours, are pushing for more residential and commercial buildings to provide electric vehicles, scooters and bikes on demand, and for the concept of car ownership to change altogether.
Mobility solutions and startups which provide electric vehicles on demand are, undoubtedly, the way of the future. However, innovation in this space needs greater support from businesses, governments and consumers. Likewise, regional communities must not be forgotten in the move towards e-mobility.
The excise discount ending in October signals the urgent need for petrol car ownership to end, in order for our cities and regions to exist in a more sustainable and economically viable way.
ABOUT OHMIE GO
Ohmie GO is Australia’s first, and leading, electric mobility platform for buildings, which was founded in 2018. Ohmie GO is building the future of electric mobility and transport in partnership with Australia's most innovative and sustainable players in the property industry, changing the relationship between buildings and mobility.
Media contact: press@ohmiego.com
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Remove the friction of installing and managing EV chargers in your building. An end-to-end managed solution handling building make ready, installation, energy management, customer experience, and more.
The Electric Mobility Platform for Buildings
We've worked tirelessly with developers, earning the trust of the largest players in the property industry. Today, our solutions can be found in some of the most progressive buildings in Australia. Ohmie GO has always believed in offering more than just a service; we provide an end-to-end managed e-mobility platform for building residents. Our journey began in 2018 with exclusive on-demand access to shared electric vehicles, conveniently located in building carparks. In 2022, we expanded our offerings to include sought-after shared micro-mobility solutions, such as e-bikes and e-scooters. Now, we're taking the next logical step: removing the complexity and simplifying the process for buildings to deliver and scale world-class EV charging solutions without compromising the resident experience.
Ohmie GO is the first end-to-end electric mobility platform for buildings, designed as a modular, mix-and-match solution. This flexibility allows buildings to customise their solutions to meet specific needs, eliminating the need for separate providers and multiple apps for different services. We offer all electric mobility solutions in a single hub, delivering a seamless experience for users.
Introducing: Smart EV Charging
We're introducing two end-to-end managed smart EV charging solutions: "OUR Charger," a shared charger located in the building for resident use, and "MY Charger," a private charger situated in an individual resident's parking bay.
Both charging solutions include ongoing service and maintenance, charging history, payment processing, and much more. We spent time developing a resident experience that is consistent across all our e-mobility solutions, and unique to in-building charging. A building's electric mobility hub is available to residents via the Ohmie GO app. Here, they can book and access all their solutions, including charging, with the touch of a button. The only difference is that "MY Charger" appears exclusively in an individual resident's Ohmie GO app and is not visible to other residents.
Some of the key benefits include:
- Smart Energy Management: Install more EV chargers that intelligently share power to avoid costly upgrades and get the best charging experience.
- Billing & Payment: Easily allocate energy costs to residents for vehicle charging and provide access to usage history and data.
- Designed to Scale: Deploy a solution which reduces costly building upgrades in the future and provides a seamless experience for residents.
- NCC Compliant: Our solutions help buildings to meet the current NCC (National Construction Code) compliance forEV charging in Australia.
We're proud to announce that both "OUR Chargers" and"MY Chargers" are operational across several buildings in our partner portfolio. We’ll be releasing individual blog articles on a few of them in the coming weeks.
To learn more about smart EV charging solutions, click here. To speak to an expert and get started with Ohmie GO in your building, please click here.
ABOUT OHMIE GO
Ohmie GO is Australia’s first, and leading, electric mobility platform for buildings, which was founded in 2018. Ohmie GO is building the future of electric mobility and transport in partnership with Australia's most innovative and sustainable players in the property industry, changing the relationship between buildings and mobility.
Media contact: press@ohmiego.com
Ohmie GO unveils OUR Charger and MY Charger
Imagine having access to an electric vehicle, bike or scooter wherever you go – work, home, hotels. That’s the vision of start-up Ohmie GO, which has convinced some of the nation’s biggest developers, including ASX-listed Mirvac, to install “e-mobility” stations in its projects in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.
Click here to read the full article
ABOUT OHMIE GO
Ohmie GO is Australia’s first, and leading, electric mobility platform for buildings, which was founded in 2018. Ohmie GO is building the future of electric mobility and transport in partnership with Australia's most innovative and sustainable players in the property industry, changing the relationship between buildings and mobility.
Media contact: press@ohmiego.com
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Why your next apartment might come with an EV included in the deal
It started with a simple yet somewhat challenging brief, set by our CEO, to create the best shared eBike experience in the world. This means taking a wholistic view of the experience including the eBikes, the docking and charging system and the end to end app UX.
Partnering with Dutch-Australian eBike brand Lekker gave us the perfect e-bikes to fit our needs, cool, sophisticated and high quality. On the other hand, our team searched the world for a docking solution that also met our needs but simply couldn’t find anything that fit with our vision from a design, functionality and product quality point of view.
What this meant was that if we wanted the best solution in the world our engineering team would need to design, develop and build a solution ourselves. So our team set to work on a docking and charging solution that is simple, beautiful and left users with an outstanding experience, just as we have with our market leading Ohmie GO shared EV user experience.
Our design mission
Bike docking systems usually exist simply for functionality, without regard for design or aesthetics. The aim was to create a product which would be not only a technology leading solution but also visually appealing, from an industrial design point of view, so it could be placed in locations like hotel and premium building foyers.
Founder and CEO, Kyle Bolto said the team spent countless hours and effort obsessing over the details of the docking solution in order to get it right.
“In the same way that household names like Apple and Tesla differentiate their products through both technology and design, we set out to create a step change in design and style for an electric bike docking solution. We’ve named it the eDock,” - explained Kyle
“We thought long and hard about how an e-bike user on our platform would interact with our eDock from an interface point of view. Utilising instructive LED lights integrated into the eDock in conjunction with the Ohmie GO app to help guide users through each step of booking became a key design feature. From the moment you book an eBike on the app, you're met with design components that take you through the experience, with lights flashing when you first book the bike, to a pulsing green light when it’s time to pull the bike out,” - said Kyle
The final product
We set out to create a product which our large global realestate and hotel clients would be proud to feature in the foyer of their gorgeous buildings. In the eDock we have created a solution that is not only state of the art technology but also visually striking, yet maintains a beautiful end-to-end flow with users.
“We know users resonate with products that are not only functional but beautiful, why would shared e-bikes be any different?" - said Kyle
We’re excited to announce that some of our clients have already designed in our new automated electric bike docking and charging solution, eDock, and will be installed and initially offered with Lekker eBikes in some of the most amazing buildings across Australia in 2023.
To learn more about shared e-bikes, click here. To get started with Ohmie GO in your building please click here.
ABOUT OHMIE GO
Ohmie GO is Australia’s first, and leading, electric mobility platform for buildings, which was founded in 2018. Ohmie GO is building the future of electric mobility and transport in partnership with Australia's most innovative and sustainable players in the property industry, changing the relationship between buildings and mobility.
Media contact: press@ohmiego.com
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