Electric car parked in Manly, Sydney’s northern beaches raises major dilemma

Astonishing footage has put a spotlight on the potential dangers of electric vehicles amid fears they could become ‘a lawyer’s picnic’.

An electric car parked on a street in Manly, on Sydney’s northern beaches, was spotted being charged by a lengthy trail of power cord.

The cable loops over the front fence, which snakes from the road up a driveway and into a nearby home.

The owner even kindly installed a hazard cover over the section of the cord running across the public footpath so locals don’t trip over the cord while walking past.

A close-up photo shows the car surrounded by electrical cables.

Residents sent photos and footage to 2GB breakfast host Ben Fordham, who was left ‘amazed’.

He fears the issue could soon become a major dilemma for neighbourhoods where electric vehicle owners, who don’t have a garage or driveway, must park on the street.

‘It’s strange, you need to see it to believe it, it’s one of the longest extension cords I’ve ever seen,’ Fordham told listeners on Friday.

‘The person was lucky enough to find a park outside their home. What if the only parking you can find is on the other side of the street? 

‘Do you then run the extension cord across the street with a bit of gaffer tape over the top?’

‘What happens when there are 10 electric cars in the street?’

Fordham said he was also sent more footage of the lengthy cord trail which remains lying there even when the car isn’t there.

Local resident Mark believes it’s an accident waiting to happen.

‘It’s a trip hazard as well as an electrical hazard to children,’ he told the program.

The car owner has to run power cords from their house to the street to charge their vehicle

‘If someone trips over, what are they going to do. Are they going to sue the home owner because their home contents will probably have public liability cover but insurance companies will say ‘it’s outside your house, we’re not covering.’

‘The local council will say it’s not their problem so it’s going to be a lawyer’s picnic.’ 

‘The electrical cables are going to get wet at some stage.’ 

‘I think some council were looking to run the cables down poles but it’s going to be like spaghetti junction. It’s going to look terrible.’

The Electric Vehicle Council is pushing  for every state and territory to mandate targets for the sale of electric cars after the ACT recently became the first Australian jurisdiction to ban new and diesel vehicles from 2035.

Electric cars take anything from 15 minutes up to 20 hours to charge, depending on the battery.

The car owner installed a cover over the extension cord crossing the footpath so locals walking past don’t trip over it

Fordham called on authorities in Australia to work out how electric cars are going to be charged in the future with at least one council on Sydney’s north shore planning to get rid of driveways.

‘I reckon only 30 per cent of people in my street have a garage and a lot of councils are getting rid of driveways,’ Fordham said.

‘They argue that when you’ve got a driveway, you’re putting schoolkids in danger because you’re reversing out of the driveway when you’re got kids walking along the footpath.’ 

‘We’re reducing driveways and garages, so they’re are going to be fewer points to charge your electric vehicle, which pushes them out onto the street.

‘Then you’ve got to get the power from the house to the car on the street, which involve many, many extension cords.’ 

The power cables charging the electric car extend from the road into the property and loop over the front fence

Push to ban sale of petrol cars 

New petrol and diesel cars could be banned from sale in Sydney within the next five years if a radical plan from a think tank is given the go ahead.

The Committee for Sydney, an urban policy think tank made up of a highly influential body of business leaders and infrastructure experts, has set out a series of proposals to halve carbon dioxide emissions by 2030.

The committee released its Decarbonising Sydney report in August unveiling plans to ban the sale of petrol and diesel cars by 2027, and gas appliances by 2030.

Increasing the number of electric vehicles on the road is one recommendation along with no new gas connections and the electrification of taxpayer-owned schools, hospitals, housing and office blocks

Petrol and diesel cars could no longer be sold within the next fives years under radical plans to ban them from the roads and replace them with electric vehicles (stock image)

‘NSW’s climate policies are leading the nation, but this research is a wakeup call that Sydney’s not on track for net zero – we’ve got plenty of work to do,’ committee spokesman Sam Kernaghan said.

Diesel and petrol cars are the biggest driver of emissions in the area and should be replaced completely by electric vehicles, according to the report.

A blanket ban on the petrol guzzlers would follow in the steps of the ACT, which plans to phase out all emission-producing vehicles by 2035.

‘The NSW EV Strategy aims for electric vehicles to make up half of all new car sales by 2030, leading to approx. 15 per cent of the passenger fleet being electric,’ the report states.

‘Our Accelerated Net Zero Transition model shows we need a much faster ramping up: all new cars need to be electric by 2027, so EVs make up approx. 30 per cent of the passenger fleet by 2030 – twice as much as in the Steady Transition approach.’

The committee released its Decarbonising Sydney report in August revealing diesel and petrol cars are the biggest driver of emissions in the area (stock image)

The plan to ban petrol car sales in NSW by 2027 is more ambitious than other countries with Germany and the UK waiting until 2030 and California 2035.

The committee wants to increase the number of electric vehicles expected on the roads by 2030 from 470,000 to 850,000.

It also wants to replace all commercial and government fleets with electric vehicles by the same year.

‘A key reason EV supply is limited in Australia is the lack of fuel standards, along with no future ban on new petrol/diesel vehicles,’ the report states.

‘A petrol and diesel car sales ban, announced well in advance, would also send a clear signal to industry that EV charging, servicing and supply chain networks need to be in place.’