Beyond Tesla: Remaking electro-mobilities for sustainability and justice

Presenting author: Declan Kuch (Institute for Culture and Society)

Other authors: A/Prof Amelia Thorpe (UNSW Law), Dr Sophie Adams (UNSW, Humanities and Languages)

Electric vehicles are objects in the making whose uses, meanings and value remains publicly debated. Building upon expert interviews, a road trip through regional NSW, analysis of public documents and online forums, this paper develops a typology of uses, beginning with the instrumental. These include (1) vehicles for regional development - whereby the NRMA and state-based regional charging networks combine nostalgic road trip discourse with older ideas of regional economic renewal; (2) commuting - which proponents claim makes outer suburbs sustainable; (3) 'battery' (for the home) - not only making suburban practices of going to the office sustainable, but home life too; (4) collective, grid-scale battery, solving problems of 'too much solar', and frequency and voltage issues. New flexible resource to be controlled by a third party.

We argue that these commonly mobilised use, exchange and cultural-symbolic value of cars - their efficiency, economy, quietness and green credentials - intersects with multiple, less appreciated forms of uses: such as subversion, resistance, and hacking.

Presenting author: Thomas Birtchnell (University of Wollongong)

Other authors: Theresa Harada (University of Wollongong)

As nations around the world move to adopt electric vehicles in order to replace fleets of fossil fuel powered automobiles a thorny issue is the suitability of the infrastructure in place for a diverse typology of users. Powered assistive vehicles are already mostly electric, notably mobility scooters, and users rely on their wits and ingenuity to navigate obdurate design principles in the public space that work against their safe passage. In anticipation of a transition to electric vehicles en masse, this presentation considers the role of mavericks in testing access and inclusivity and lobbying for change. Through the social theory lens of the mobilities paradigm the presentation explores how urban planners can draw on mavericks as a resource for mobility justice through research on mobility scooters in Australia.

Presenting author: Theresa Harada (University of Wollongong)

Other authors: Gordon Waitt

In this paper we reflect on the interconnected design elements that make up enabling and disabling urban environments. Within these environments we propose that physical impairment is a felt intensity that can enhance or restrain the capacity of a body to act. While there is much important work being done in accessibility design and planning for inclusion, we argue that we need to think more deeply about how differently abled bodies move through urban spaces. We want to open up discussion around the ways that people incorporate design elements into their everyday routines and practices that help them make sense of their lives. Interruptions and intrusions to daily routines through lifts that are not working, buttons at the wrong height, rough pavement surfaces, a lack of disability parking spaces, poorly designed bathroom facilities, and even the car boot give rise to intensities which are felt through the body of people with physical impairment as ‘disability’. It reminds us of the taken for granted way that urban spaces are designed around the able bodied subject. We provide examples from an empirical research project in Sydney, NSW that investigated the use of electric wheelchairs and mobility scooters in 2020. We argue that there is much to be learnt about designing for inclusion from the stories of people living with physical impairment. How they organise their everyday lives gives us insights into how they overcome the challenges of living in urban environments that facilitate smooth access for able bodies.