As petrol and diesel race one another to $2.50 a litre, electrical automobile drivers should not have to fret about the price of their driving. Now we have simply returned from a 3,600 kilometre nice Aussie street journey which price us about $200 in gasoline … $50 on Chargefox and $150 on Tesla. Taking a sluggish journey from Brisbane in Queensland to the attractive Lakes Entrance in Victoria would have price us about $900 in petrol in our V6 Sonata.
Tesla Supercharger costs assorted from state to state — from a low of 52 cents per kWh to a excessive of 69 cents per kWh. Chargefox manages the Tritium chargers which can be offered by the Nationwide Roads and Motorists Affiliation (NRMA) in New South Wales. These price about 40 cents per kWh.
In fact, we needed to plan our journey, factoring in meal breaks on the high-speed charging spots and reserving lodging with Tesla vacation spot chargers — as we did on our Winton journey final 12 months. After which there was the dreaded blackspot, with no high-speed chargers from Narooma south to the Victorian border.
Knockrow — loads of Tesla Superchargers. Photograph courtesy of Majella Waterworth.
Our first cease was for morning tea and a cost on the Tesla Superchargers at Knockrow, simply over the Queensland border and into New South Wales. This venue is sort of a Tesla charging museum, with an outdated vacation spot charger, an outdated Supercharger, and a row of brand name spanking new Superchargers. The homeowners have constructed a photo voltaic cover to energy the EV chargers — the irony is that it shelters the petrol automobiles, whereas the glass-topped Teslas get cooked within the sunshine. The meals was nice and there was a scarcity of EVs, who had been additionally doing the good Aussie street journey.
Knockrow photo voltaic cover. Photograph courtesy of Majella Waterworth.
Then it was on to the attractive Coffs Harbour. Right here the high-speed Tritium chargers are positioned behind Gloria Denims café — a bit of exhausting to seek out amongst the skip bins. Lunch, espresso, and a rocky street smoothie made up for the lower than aesthetically pleasing charger location. A Kia EV6 arrived as we completed and we helped the brand new proprietor navigate the charging expertise.
Excessive-speed chargers among the many skip bins. Photograph courtesy of Majella Waterworth.
After an in a single day at Lake Macquarie at an EV pleasant motel (that they had a Tesla vacation spot charger), we headed for Karuah to the now acquainted NRMA quick chargers. Right here we shared the chargers with a Kona EV and met a disconsolate woman who couldn’t cost her Nissan Leaf as a result of that exact charger was damaged. The service station proprietor was serving to out with an extension wire and a trickle cost, however it appeared like she must spend the night time with a purpose to get sufficient cost to make it to her vacation spot.
Karuah charging with Chargefox and a Kona EV. Photograph courtesy of Majella Waterworth.
There was nothing we might do to assist, and so continued on to Sydney … the good Aussie street journey to be continued.
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