They have already made incursions into South Australia and Victoria and got sweet gov money to go national
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Aussie queues this long weekend
- Thread starter Gayle S
- Start date
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0xZoom
Member
We left Sydney at 5am Friday morning heading to Bribie Island with the kids and our dog so needed to stop every few hours for the 4 legged kid. We must have been lucky, not one queue. Stopped at Heatherbrae, Port Macquarie, Coffs and Knockrow. When we were leaving port there were three waiting, though when we got there there were two spots available and we only stopped 17 minutes. Thinking about how to do the return trip next Friday
In Adelaide we have had some advertising about something to do with NRMA and RAA being together or something. It’s a bit weird with no real context. Maybe insurance? Or some reciprocal arrangements, not sure if it’s related.
That's incomplete.
Evie own a lot of sites as well as providing app/management services to third-parties. Yurika own the entire QESH network. Electric Highway Tasmania own a bunch of DCFC sites in Tassie. The "WA EV Network" is owned by Synergy and Horizon power.
bay74
Member
Incidentally, other than Tesla's Superchargers, I've used almost only Chargefox chargers. Perhaps that's a function of driving mainly Mel<-->Adel, and until relatively recently there weren't any others along that route - now there are, e.g. the Evies in Tailem Bend, Beaufort, Kaniva, and Ararat (is the latter really a single 50kW plug as Plugshare suggests? WTH!).
NRMA stands for National Roads and Motorists Association. Not NSW Roads and Motorists Association.
A long time in the past the various Motoring Associations signed an agreement to not offer their services interstate.
One of the motivations of the demutualisation was to separate the Insurance Company so it can compete interstate, although at that point they were already offering interstate insurance.
The NRMA has had over 100 years to change the meaning of their name but have chosen not to.
The national EV charging network represents an oportunity to be National after all. I heard some noise early on that it was to be an initiative of the Motoring Associations as a group but have not heard that recently.
All of the state motoring organisations are members of AAA (aust automobile association). This is how they do their reciprocal arrangements as well as get a national cohesive voice, and how things like star ratings are controlled consistantly in australia. This is different to google star ratings, trip advisor etc. The terms 1-5 star in australia are a registered mark to AAA tourism.
South Australians now have access to NRMA insurance offerings.
The NSW Blackhole of Charging. Newcastle to Taree then Port. I drive to Taree about once a month but never on long weekends and school holidays. My observations over the last 18 months of EV driving that direction -
Tesla - Heatherbrae always works but very busy now.
Tesla - Central Coast always works.
NRMA- Wallsend. Hit and miss used twice on a return trip but always busy now.
Karuah - Nice that 3 chargers work now but for a long time only 1 or 2. (On last visit 2 cars plugged up and not an owner in site and both fully charged)
NRMA - Nabiac - I used about 3 times all the other times cars just sitting on it whilst they walked off to a long lunch) I hope by charging money this helps that soon.
Taree - EVIE - This is an example of how not to maintain a EV Charger. Some times works, Most times not or it works for 10 mins. (More luck with the RFID card)
This issue is I would love to drive to Taree then charge at a lower SOC but I would never risk it so forced to Top up @ Heatherbrae and do my business and that get back to Karuah or Newcastle.
It's great to See BP have added at a charger at Heatherbrae and EVIE at Cameron Park but what ever happened to the Taree 12 stall charger??
Lets hope the Raymond Terrace AMPOL , and the newer Raymond Terrace Tesla actually get built. This is a major highway like the Hume but the Hume is well served compared to this ??
Good on Tesla for building stuff in the first place?? Do not see any other manufactures building out a network anywhere.
Just imagine what things would be like if Tesla had invested the same as all the other manufacturers into Australian charging infrastructure- ZERO. What a mess it would be right now.
Well done Tesla!
Well done Tesla!
Absolute zero chance I'd take my M3 now on the same road trip I did with it last year at Christmas from Melbourne to Gladstone back to Gold Coast then home.
Was busy enough then but didn't have to wait at any chargers even with the multiple broken ones through QLD. Helped having a LR as I stopped in at Wodonga on the way back and I was number 12 in the wait que, so high tailed it to Euroa with 2% left with only a couple other cars there.
Hardly a cost saving either these days over a half fuel efficient ICE car if using DC chargers and non of the headaches of waiting or having to plan trip times and stops.
Would be much better if everyone wasn't buying standard range cars then attempting road trips and having to hit every charger and charge to 100% to make any sort of drive time with their terrible highway ranges. It's like taking a corolla on a 4wd trip. Just not what they are designed for.
Was busy enough then but didn't have to wait at any chargers even with the multiple broken ones through QLD. Helped having a LR as I stopped in at Wodonga on the way back and I was number 12 in the wait que, so high tailed it to Euroa with 2% left with only a couple other cars there.
Hardly a cost saving either these days over a half fuel efficient ICE car if using DC chargers and non of the headaches of waiting or having to plan trip times and stops.
Would be much better if everyone wasn't buying standard range cars then attempting road trips and having to hit every charger and charge to 100% to make any sort of drive time with their terrible highway ranges. It's like taking a corolla on a 4wd trip. Just not what they are designed for.
0xZoom
Member
yes, but QLD back at school tomorrow so hopefully won't get as many people heading north trying to use them with all us heading back to Sydney. I'm building a list of some contingency high speed chargers just in case there are queues at the Superchargers
0xZoom
Member
Would love to see a Supercharger install at Kempsey, but now its owned by Ampol maybe at least 5 or 6 AmpCharge there. Plenty of space and a reasonable set of food outlets and a nice position to do an undercut on Coffs or Port, depending on which way you are travelling.
Standard range Tesla,s have enough range. Most of my driving is city but I do country driving as well. It charges to 100 fast enough. Smaller battery less weight that’s what I prefer.
A LR for me was not worth the extra $$ but if it works for you that’s fine. Your money spend as you see fit. I buy a plane ticket to go interstate.
I like to charge from 10 to about 80 then move on. I often get about 330 driving at the speed limit if leaving home full but I need a break after 2 to 3 hours anyway.
The issue is the lack of chargers in some locations and people who sit on chargers like NRMA and Charge Fox and go and have lunch. A lot of centre of the universe people who assume the free charging they get with their new car means sit on it.
Most times I charge it’s only about 12 to 15 mins but depends where you are and where you are going.
But I have 2 cars 1 x EV 1 x ICE. The ICE will go when we have enough charging to travel Sydney to Brisbane without waiting in a line up.
Sydney to Melbourne is sort of ok now.
The ACT is wholly surrounded by NSW. It is therefore in NSW ;-)And the ACT!
Seriously though, this long weekend was not good. And it's a split long weekend, with Victoria getting the Friday off and ACT/NSW/QLD/SA getting the Monday off. That means Victorians travelling to SA or NSW will depart and return one day before anyone from SA or NSW visiting Victoria departs and returns.
Victoria should do this every long weekend, so they can cheap out on installing EV infrastructure! Oh, wait, they're doing that anyway.
I drove CBR to Wollongong on Thursday night, charging at Sutton Forest. It wasn't busy. No surprise there. Ditto Figtree on Friday night, again, no surprise.
But on Saturday morning, oh boy was Ampol Pheasants Nest a mess! I needed to use the facilities, and the queue for all the bathrooms went down the corridor. And of the 3 double chargers southbound, one was faulty. The rest were in use and someone waiting asked if I was leaving. So I unplugged and ducked under to the northbound side, which was quiet. Problem solved.
I then did some scouting on the way home.
Tesla Exeter and Evie Sutton Forest were very quiet around 11:20am Saturday, with only 1 stall in use.
Marulan also had 1 stall in use, and 1 queueing, around 11:45am Saturday. It was being hogged by a BYD owner aiming for 100%, while a guy in a Tesla who had some free BP charging credits and little spare range was asking to get 10 minutes so he could press on, after waiting there 25 minutes (according to his plugshare check in). The BYD owners were maniacally shouting at him as I arrived. They eventually unplugged at 95%, while still shouting.
I still can't believe BP thinks one stall is enough (though you can double back using the Marulan South Road off-ramp and the Marulan Weighstation off-ramp, in a crunch). Though this is the wrong thread to go down that rabbit hole.
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