A mighty effort from AEVA Tasmania

It's fantastic news! Although I'm not a part of the company (would be if I could afford it!) I catch up with a lot of these people regularly (at AEVA events). The spokesperson (Clive) is very experienced, knowledgeable and enthusiastic. We are lucky to have so many people in the group (the business has 8 investors at last count) who are both supportive and financially able to contribute!

 

Very pleased this is happening, and that someone is able to lead the way.

Is it an option for those of us with more modest means to kick in a few dollars (maybe as a group thing) to help? At first glance I'm assuming not if this is a formal commercial venture rather than a bunch of enthusiasts.

 

You probably want to talk to @bcashman about that! (if he doesn't respond to the tag - notice he hasn't been on TMC for a while - PM me and I'll pass on his email address)

 

A couple more radio interviews:

Mornings (at the 53 minute mark)

audioBoom / Clive Attawater, Treasurer of the Australian Electric Vehicle Association Tasmanian Branch

it's worth pointing out something that Clive mentioned in the second one - it isn't AEVA Tasmania doing this - it's Electric Highway Tasmania, a business formed by several AEVA Tas members. AEVA is a non-profit organisation and doesn't build charging stations.

 

Clive Atwater (and electric car talk) from Electric Highway Tasmania starts at 53 minutes through to 62 minutes.

 

Oops.. thought they may had edited the podcast but its still the same length... will edit!

 

Hi everyone. Definitely exciting times here in Tasmania! The project is a commercial venture, but we are looking at different ways we can get our enthusiastic EV community involved.

If anyone is interested, has ideas, or wants to know more, feel free to drop me a line at [email protected].

 

@nigwil points out in another thread:

Other good places to check are:
Council Meeting Minutes - Northern Midlands Council
Council Meeting Agendas and Attachments - Northern Midlands Council

These can be particularly painful because a lot of them comprise of PDFs of scanned documents - i.e. not readable as text, so you can't search for keywords easily. But it is there nevertheless

One thing is for sure - Campbell Town is almost definitely going to be the first supercharger in Tasmania, whenever it happens!

 

apologies for disturbing your other thread; I wonder if we should ask for a tag for state-level discussions on TMC?

I would suggest to Tesla that symbolically having a supercharger smack bang in the middle of Tassie would be an easy public relations win, even if it takes a while to get much patronage.

Now:

Superchargers Now by nigwil posted Jan 3, 2018 at 11:47 AM

Eventually...

Superchargers Eventually by nigwil posted Jan 3, 2018 at 11:48 AM

 

That's true, I think the challenge has been that Tesla superchargers are minimum 4-bay sites (4 stalls, 2 supercharger cabinets - they want 2 cabinets to allow for redundancy). But they have also installed 2-bay sleds in the past, originally only occasionally or to meet promised targets where a full site can't be completed in the requested timeframe. I think a single 2-bay would be more than enough capacity for Tassie for the time being!

Of course Tesla's map doesn't show it, but it also didn't show Adelaide or Clare last year either!

 

For those interested, at the AEVA Tas meeting on Wednesday we received an update on the Electric Highway Tasmania project:

Things are progressing a lot in the background. All councils involved now "get it", so far as the benefits fast chargers can bring to their region.
Many are contributing to the cost in the form of civil works (excavation, etc). Most councils need to get this into their 2018-19 budget, for works to be done in that period, except for one council (Hobart City Council) where they have a higher discretionary cut-off before this is required, so they will in theory be able to start earlier.
They are making use of the TasNetworks fast charger support scheme (TasNetworks is the state electricity network company - they are offering free advice on site and charger installation, and 50% discount on cost of electrical network upgrades for eligible sites).
Clive mentioned heading to Burnie then next day so it looks like the network will have good coverage!
He also mentioned they are planning to put future proof equipment in. My guess is 150 kW chargers? (Not that any cars today can take that, but the ones coming out in the next year or two will). Note that Tesla Chademo adaptors have been tested on 150 kW Chademo chargers overseas and it has been found the adaptors themselves are 50 kW limited.

 

This has been well known since they were introduced. The CHAdeMO adapter even says 125A DC Max right on the label.

 

When I posted this same update elsewhere there were a few comments asking if they could do more, so I thought I'd mention it here in case the same questions popped up!

 

This is quite encouraging, very glad to read about this strategy by our electricity authority.

Now we just need to get more EVs on the road...

 

@Chuq This came across my Twitter stream. Climate Council on Twitter
Is this an AEVA initiative?
24/7 charging in Macquarie Point Hobart.

 

A comment on the Adelaide Advertiser article credited AEVA Tassie but I could see anything on AEVA | The Australian Electric Vehicle Association or the Tasmanian branch pages AEVA | The Australian Electric Vehicle Association

 

I don't think so - they may have chatted to Clive (our state branch Treasurer in the picture) but it's not part of the DC charger project. Having said that, it's the next best thing - two Type 2 sockets, one Tesla destination charger, all 22kW (to my knowledge), free (except for the parking cost, but I'm sure Sydney/Melbourne residents will laugh at how cheap it is!), 24/7, never ICE'd (noting I've never been there on weekdays, only evenings and weekends), and close to both the city and waterfront - lots of facilities.

News on the DC charger network though:

- City of Launceston is installing a 50kW Tritium DC charger (2-3 weeks away from going live). This is inspired by, but not part of the Electric Highway Tasmania project. While EHT were just looking for site hosts, City of Launceston is buying, installing and operating it themselves. EHT are happy with this as they only want to "fill in the gaps" and this also keeps their funds available for other sites.

City of Hobart is planning a DC fast charger (slightly different location to the one in this article) which will be >50kW from what I can gather. I'm not sure if this is with EHT or going it alone (like Launceston).

- City of Burnie has just completed a call for EOIs for a DC fast charger. EHT had been speaking to them, I guess they decided to cover their ass legally by doing the EOI process.

A fair bit of activity

 

Can't see the Macquarie Point charger on Plugshare.
Does a local want to add it?

 

Is this it ?
PlugShare - Find Electric Vehicle Charging Locations Near You