Ampol AmpCharge network

[moa999]

So I think this is the best article I've seen on the Ampol/ Evos SB7 charger launch.

Ampol & EVOS Deliver EV Chargers For The Home - CleanTechnica

It was on the news! In our living rooms! On a commercial non-woke TV channel! Ampol is teeming up with EVOS to provide home chargers for electric vehicles. Ampol and EVOS. And, yes, this is a big deal. Although the news item only lasted 1 minute, it provided some tantalising information. Ampol...

cleantechnica.com

Seems to suggest that Ampol will be rolling these out to most petrol stations.

But also that they will be selling them to the public.
Unfortunately price is listed at about $2k which is at the premium end Vs the Tesla Wall charger and the reputed EVSwitch (EVDirect/BYD) device.
And I think pretty hard to recover the difference with any smart features.

 

[Hairyman]

Seems it’s most likely competitor is the Zappi. Similar function, similar price point.

Not sure a slow charging outlet is what they‘ll want for their service stations, as the article seems to imply. But we all know that the service stations are getting fast chargers and as others have also said, they are not places you go to spend time at.

It might be interesting to see if they are going to get into slow charging in car parks, but I haven’t looked to see if the chargers have billing functionality. JetCharge already have devices for this, so it will be interesting to see if the shopping centres and dedicated car parks can see a business case.

 

[Quickst]

Ability to add billing functionality would be great.

 

[RichardV]

New site at Baldivis, (South of Perth), WA.

 

[RichardV]

New site at Baldivis, (South of Perth), WA.
View attachment 960032

Actually, I think Cannington is the most recent. The other has been there a little longer.

 

[RichardV]

First Ampol Arena site at Greenacre to use dual CCS and they are going with a Hypercharge HYC150 here. And a first charge with a Tesla at 150kW which is a step up on the 180kW ABB which only gave around 70kW to a Tesla.

Also first AC Type 2 site for Ampcharge. In Brisbane.

No photos and not yet listed on plugshare.

Ampol Reedy Creek missing in action on the app. But a recent charge listed on plugshare...

 

[moa999]

AMPCharge app showing 50c/kWh for that AC charger which is on the high side for AC.

It appears to be in the Optus building, so I'm guessing it might be a private charger for building employees with carpark access.

 

[PC__LoadLetter]

Ah - I didn’t realise they built a completely new servo there. That means the motorway underpass comes out opposite the exit of the old station (off the right of the second photo). So I now understand the hesitation in driving ‘against the grain’ to enter the new servo.

Even when charging is built Northbound, it would be good to be able to safely drive to the other side and use the Southbound ones and vice versa. Because traffic along the M5 is mostly in one direction on the weekends - southbound on Fri/Sat and northbound on Sun, so when one set of chargers is fully occupied the other probably is not occupied at all.

Depending on what they do to the old Southbound site, it might solve the problem.

I really doubt it'll ever work nicely southbound. It's a long trek through the caravan parking area the wrong way before you even get close to either the old or new servo site.

Southbound travel (unable to charge southbound due to queueing & wanting to access the northbound servo) - re-enter the freeway, use the nearby Avon Dam Road exit, immediately turn right onto the freeway again, and then enter the northbound servo. You can then use the underpass to safely re-enter the freeway southbound.

Northbound travel (unable to charge northbound due to queueing & wanting to access the Southbound servo) - consider using the underpass anyway. I assume the construction fencing will be gone soon enough, giving ample space to loop back safely, presumably via the back of the service centre. Failing that, re-enter the freeway and loop back at the Picton Road off-ramp. However, this option will take forever, as those traffic lights are merciless to northbound traffic turning right. I usually turn left, left again, and chuck a U-turn at Milton Park Road & Berwick Park Road. Once finished charging, use the underpass normally.

And speaking of Pheasants Nest, Ampol just announced (via PlugShare) that Pheasants Nest northbound is open & available for use.

 

[Quickst]

At $0.69 its a bit pricey

 

[Futuretech]

At $0.69 its a bit pricey

Agreed, good when the 6 stall superchargers down the road are full I suppose

 

[Vostok]

At $0.69 its a bit pricey

If you arrived at a site that was fully occupied with a likely 30 minute wait time, and the one next to it had bays free but cost more, what would the cost need to be before you would not use it and just wait it out? $1/kWh? $1.50? More?

 

[Vostok]

I really doubt it'll ever work nicely southbound. It's a long trek through the caravan parking area the wrong way before you even get close to either the old or new servo site.

They should build a single contra-flow lane at either end of the tunnel to take vehicles to the normal service centre entry point. There’s plenty of room to do it. But I guess that costs money (more than it would cost to build more EV chargers) and also no-one cares…

 

[mukaibot]

If you arrived at a site that was fully occupied with a likely 30 minute wait time, and the one next to it had bays free but cost more, what would the cost need to be before you would not use it and just wait it out? $1/kWh? $1.50? More?

Indeed! I'd probably just grumble about it and pay up anyway!

 

[Quickst]

before you would not use it and just wait it out?

An opinion that it's a bit pricey is not the same as saying I won't use it

But it also means that it's not going to be the first choice

 

[cafz]

Reslec has posted about the West Gosford AmpCharge site nearing completion:

https://www.facebook.com/reslec/posts/pfbid031J1wCLfbELPJ9nLYUkyhUizRUhHEro65GMQDesqU8bK7f7fo4rdGh5VmutWXPeRJl

 

[positiv]

Hey I’ve been out of the loop. Are Ampol chargers still gimped to 80kW on Tesla and other 400V EVs?

 

[cafz]

Hey I’ve been out of the loop. Are Ampol chargers still gimped to 80kW on Tesla and other 400V EVs?

That's a limitation of those ABB units, I doubt they'll be changing those out in the short term.

Some newer sites are using a different Alpitronic Hypercharger unit that doesn't have the same limitation, though.

 

[moa999]

That West Gosford site looks like another ABB so also likely max 75kW or so.
Whereas Tesla's have reported up to 147kW at the new Pheasants Nest site which uses the Amplitronic units.

 

[Lachlan Smith]

Is there any way to get Ampol to show up in abetterrouteplanner?

 

[RichardV]

Is there any way to get Ampol to show up in abetterrouteplanner?

Ask @Chuq to update his spreadsheet.