Driving round Australia

[Techno-phile]

Day 15 of our Round Australia trip clockwise from Perth

Just 377 kms today from Timber Creek to Pine Creek with light winds, so we could drive just like an ICE.
This drive was through hilly country and gorges, so there were elevation changes which initially concerned the car, but we tried to re-assure her that our final elevation was not much different from the starting point.

Up until now, the car has known the next charging point each day, since she has been there before in 2020 and remembers all previous charges.
However she is panicking each day when she cannot return to her starting point, saying she does not know where she can charge. She needs a lot of re-assurance now .

We did stop for a loo break in Katherine and to check out their 3p sockets which we may need on our way south from Darwin to Mataranka in a couple of days.

Day 16 of our Round Australia trip clockwise from Perth

A short drive into Darwin, shopping whilst the car enjoys17kW, then touristy things, a dip in the Wavepark, and dinner at the waterfront.
The waterfront car park has some Tesla HWPCs but they are apparently often iced, but it doesn't matter since we have enough in the tank to get back to Katherine (300 kms away) where we have prepaid $15 for access to their showground chargers.
ALWAYS BROWSE for CONTINGENCY ( What is a better word than Browse for this extra 5th ABC? ).

As it turned out all three HPWCs at the waterfront carpark were vacant.

A lot of burnt areas and live fires on the way ( and at Katherine showgrounds).

 

[Techno-phile]

Day 17 of our Round Australia trip clockwise from Perth

We had 431 kms to drive today and left Darwin with 464 kms in the tank, so it should be easy, but we have an elevation rise and a headwind.
We had pre-paid $15 for a charge at Katherine show grounds and have an access code, to be sure to be sure since it is a Sunday. But since this is only an AC charge at 17kW, it will be still be quicker overall to drive slower.
But slower in NT is up to 110kph since some caravans travel at 130kph and we are not game enough to draft them at that spend.

We arrived in Katherine with the same 30kms buffer with which we started, but needed a walk and swim in the nearby hot Springs so plugged in anyway.
So we left Katherine refreshed and with nearly enough charge to get to tomorrow's overnight, in case of problems at Mataranka tonight.

The TOCA socket at Mataranka worked perfectly, so the car was fully charged by the time we had walked to the Mataranka hot springs and had a swim, and supper.

Lindsay has perfected driving on AP and never gets bumped off because of not "holding" the wheel enough. She wedges her arm and thumb into the niches just below the scroll buttons.
I am trying this now, instead of resting my arms through the wheel like the second photo.
It works really well, and I only now accidentally take the car out of AP into manual, which is much easier to fix than stopping and putting the car into park with my bum off the seat, if the car has bumped me off AP.


Day 18 of our Round Australia trip clock

Only 171 kms to Daly Waters pub, so we drove back to Bitter springs, paid our NT park fee and swam this long hot stream. A good current flow (but only single phase) and difficult to swim against.

Daly Waters historic pub was packed, but the barman was able to show us the TOCA 3p socket so we could plug in for the few kWh we needed and we will be full to 90% before supper.

Photos later when we have more data

 

[Techno-phile]

Day 19 of our Round Australia trip clockwise from Perth

We started with 463 kms in the tank today, for a journey of only 381 kms to ThreeWays.
There is even a 3p charging spot on the way at Elliott, but totally unnecessary, especially since we a following wind.
At one point we were driving at 133Wh/km with a projected range of over 600 kms.
So we arrived with over 125kms in the tank.

One issue today was the car did not recognise a 80 kph speed limit end sign and was convinced the speed limit was still 80 kph.
This means that we cannot have both Autosteer and Autospeed active. Normally I would simply override Autospeed by pressing the accelerator, but this stops Autospeed braking so is dangerous if drafting.
Today I manually steered like a caveman, which allows Autospeed to be set above what the car thinks is the speed limit. Then drove off into a deep rest stop and back out onto the main road, which forces the car to reassess the speed limit based on GPS, back up to 130kph!

Due to restricted data we are only able to post photographs to @teslawa , but this a public Facebook so anybody can view them there.

 

[Techno-phile]

Day 20 of our Round Australia trip clockwise from Perth

Today is theoretically the most difficult day, with a 447 kms drive to Camooweal. We have had several longer drives before, but there were 3p sockets en route which we could have used (but didn't need to).
Hence planning today is important. A headwind of 15kph is predicted initially increasing to over 20kph by mid morning, but an elevation decrease from 307m to 235m.

Our battery is charged to its full capacity of 89kWh. Hence we need to maintain an efficiency of at least 89000/447 = 199 Wh/km which should be possible, despite the headwind.
Further we have browsed comments for the charging point we intend to use in Camooweal and noted that we must ring in advance, and that it has been used recently successfully with a BYO UMC.
However the car spat out 4kms from her full charge of 461kms as soon as we told her where we were going in her nav system (her anxiety showing). So we left with only 457 kms in the tank.

Also the RACQ 3p charge point in Camooweal has not rung back or answered our messages, so this is in doubt.
Our trip to Cloncurry tomorrow is only 311kms, and we will be able to add 225 kms from 15 amps in our caravan park overnight, so if we arrive with 86 kms we will not need that 3p charge at RACQ.
So we decided on plan B, to aim to arrive in Camooweal with at least 100kms in the tank and set off at 70 kph at 7:00 in order to build this buffer.

We had a 200 kms buffer by 8:00, with an efficiency under 130Wh/km and a projected range of nearly 700kms, but knew that the wind was going to increase strongly mid morning. We increased speed to 80 kph with virtually no traffic on our side of the road, and the buffer fell back to 100kph, so we maintained this until a slow bulky vehicle overtook and latched onto him at 90kph.
However the wind got stronger, so our buffer fell to 50 kms, and we had to let him go and slow down to 75 kph, where the buffer stablished.

A roadside sign warned that headwinds increase fuel consumption, so we felt vindicated .
The previous evening a caravaner had asked us about towing and we said it could be done but would halve our range, and he replied that it halved his range too.
He overtook, having filled at Barkly Tablehand after 250 kms, asking if we were Ok .

Another bit of fun early in the morning was that our forward facing cameras were blinded by the low sun, so we had no AP and no traffic sign recognition until the sun rose sufficiently. Luckily we didn't have to negotiate any traffic lights.

We arrived at RACQ depot in Camooweal with 43 kms in the tank and the 3p was available, so we are back to plan A, with no worries.

Photos in TeslaWA public Facebook

 

[SalisburySam]

Headwinds will indeed adversely affect range, sometimes significantly. Your posts imply that you have pretty good wind cautions available to you that are fairly accurate. I’m envious. Over here, wind speeds, direction, and even existence is pretty much a guess despite best efforts. Other than the very local consistence mountain updrafts and hurricanes, here it seems winds are a meteorological afterthought in weather forecasting,.

 

[Techno-phile]

Day 21 of our Round Australia trip clockwise from Perth

A short day of only 311 kms to Cloncurry.
Shopping at Woolies Mt Isa, then charge at our overnight accommodation and a stroll through the Unearthed exhibition and Mary Kathleen park.

The Barkly Tablelands crossing was exciting for us yesterday because of the Easterly winds, but these would make the crossing quite easy from East to West.
We had to reduce speed to compensate for the headwind, but a tailwind would improve efficiency and increase range.
Also we did not follow another rule of long distance driving - if there is a choice of two chargers, stay at the slowest one and day charge at the faster one. (Can this be made into another ABC?).
So an overnight stop at Barkly Homestead caravan park on 15amps would make the journey easy and less exciting.

 

[Techno-phile]

Day 22 of our Round Australia trip clockwise from Perth

Although we have now reached the edge of the QLD DC network going south east, we are not following that route and are instead heading north again. We are not ready for the high-charging road yet and will go the low-charging road as long as possible (having not needed any DC chargers so far).

So it is a 455 kms drive today to Karumba with 459kms in the tank. There is an elevation fall of 180m and light easterlies early morning increasing a bit by mid morning.

But today we theoretically have a 3p day charge en route at Normanton. Applying ALWAYS BROWSE COMMENTS, we found that nobody has used this socket since 2019 and we need to book in with the Council. They said OK but the Rodeo ground caretaker has not rung back with any access or payment arrangements.
Hence, applying one of the new ABCs - ALWAYS BE CAUTIOUS (thanks Dave Robinson) we will drive to build a buffer so we don't need to stop there. In any case ADJUST BATTERY CONSUMPTION tells us that it is always quicker overall to drive slower if only AC charging is available en route. We should easily be able to avoid needing to charge in Normanton.

Keith Strib has proposed two other new ABCs to cover the principle of day charging at the faster charger and overnight charging at the slower one.
Afternoon Best Charger
Accommodation Bedtime Charger

We load our ration of fruit onto the central divider for each day depending on the length of the journey. Lindz has her iced coffee, and I have my exercise bands, one attached to the head rest and one loose. I do 50 repetitions of eight exercises per trip. We also do at least one walk at the mid point driving changeover, or for days over 440 kms, like today, 3 driving changeovers. We have downloaded our podcasts overnight, so have 6 podcasts in the android ready to play.

We decide our starting speed depending on the length of the journey. This is never over 110kph, so it is comforting to be out of NT with vehicles overtaking at 130kph. On more difficult days we establish a stable projected range in the Energy Graph by driving 50kms at a lower speed, then establish a 10% buffer (more if the headwind will increase, or there is an elevation rise). Then we increase the speed until the buffer stabilises at 10%.
We know that we can achieve tank range at 90kph (still air, no elevation change) and 25% less at 110kph and at least 25% more at 70kph. Efficiency still increases dramatically to about 50kph.
If there is a lot of traffic, we will end up drafting a bulky vehicle at 100kph, to avoid slowing down other cars.
There is no point in driving at 100kph to catch a bulky vehicle - either 110kph or 90kph will soon find one if there is lot of traffic.
But with virtually no traffic this is not necessary and we prefer to just drive slower and enjoy the landscape, which is especially lovely at dawn.

Today there is little traffic so we started off at 70 kph to establish our buffer, then increased gradually to 90kph to maintain it.

One of our loo stops was at Burke and Wills Roadhouse, where we discovered a 3p socket, unfortunately 4 pin without neutral connected. We offered them an AEVA 3p 5pin socket if they would install it.
We arrived at Normanton with a good buffer so checked out the 3p socket but didn't need it so didn't charge.
We had 65 kms left in the tank on arrival at our destination in Karumba, enough to drive back to Normanton if necessary - too easy.

Photos in Facebook TeslaWA

 

[Techno-phile]

Day 23 7175kms Round Australia clockwise from Perth

Day of rest in Karumba.

Yesterday's drive was one our most enjoyable so far. Different landscapes savanna, salt marshes, Jabiru, crocodiles, and very light traffic, which was good since there were several sections of single track tarmac. Our six year old car managed to drive 455 kms using only 459-65= 394 kms (86%) of her tank range. Her record was Kalgoorlie to Midland in Perth with a following wind and big elevation drop which is 567kms, but our battery has lost 10% since then.

The car is happily supping on 9amps and will be full by our departure time on Sunday.
There is a TOCA 3p socket (which replaced a previous 4pin socket) on Plugshare which has never been used, and we tested this with the owner Mark to discover neutral had not been connected. He says he will add the neutral shortly, and welcomes all EVs to stay at Ash's cafe and accommodation, which each have external 10amp sockets.

We are therefore walking everywhere and it is 8kms from Karumba Point (where the ocean and river meet) to the Barramundi hatchery in Karumba town further up the river, then 8kms back for a sunset cruise and croc spotting.

Karumba is my favourite place so far, sunset views (unusual over East), fresh local seafood especially salt-water barramundi and prawns, mangroves but no mozzies, less development than Broome, miles from anywhere (670 kms to Cairns).

Photos in Facebook TeslaWA

 

[Techno-phile]

Day 24 7550 kms Round Australia clockwise from Perth

Our sunset cruise last night was one of the best ever, starting with Croc, Kite and Jabiru spotting then a trip into the Gulf to a sand-bar where we were discharged to watch the sunset. Grilled locally caught prawns on the way home.

This is our last longish day before joining the main DC charging circuit down the East coast from Port Douglas.
So we will not be posting daily updates here (you can follow us in Facebook TeslaWA if you haven't had enough of us), since we assume the trips will be too easy from now on. We hope to see another EV or two, since we haven't seen any since we left Perth, just not in a queue waiting for a charger.

We would like recommendations for any funky motels with 3p sockets or HPWCs, or some favourite day charging spots. Please respond here or DM us.

Only 371kms to Georgetown today, but the car stopped filling at 448kms which might have been more a problem on our longest days.

We stopped at Mutton hole wetlands for a walk round the waterhole filled with lillies and birdlife (and maybe a ).
We arrived at Latara Motel and plugged into their 3p socket with 80kms in the tank.

It is probably tempting fate to list the safety gear we haven't used so far , especially only half way round our trip.
In addition to the Tyre gear mentioned in the day 11 report, the cables in our froot mentioned on day 1, we packed the following:

Safety Triangle, EPIRB, towing straps, blanket, first aid kit, window breaker/ seat belt cutter, toolkit, windscreen crack filler, windscreen replacement plastic and tape, fire blanket, torx head screwdriver for HPWCs, rat tests, masks, oximeter, prescription for Covid anti-viral.

 

[Techno-phile]

A Summary of our Trip round Australia just completed.

We drove 17,050 kms in 54 days, doing the West coast and the Nullarbor quickly since we had done these several times before.
We stayed two nights in only 3 places (Eco Beach Resort Broome, Ashs Holiday Kurumba, Sanctuary Cove Hervey Bay for the Fraser Island trip).
But if possible it would be better to allow at least 100 days to enjoy all the destinations more.

The total energy used was 3,055 kWh at an average efficiency of 179 Wh/km.
The highest mileage in a day was 865kms, and we only arrived after dark on two days (824 kms to Esperance because of reconnecting the DC chargers that day and 370kms to Robe because of two many walks during the day).
Our lowest tank SOC on arrival was 10kms (to Esperance when we were balancing range and time and kangaroos at dusk), but when there was no time pressure we arrived with over 24 kms each day.
There was only rain in Atherton, Port Douglas, Robe, and the last day into Perth, but we had strong winds in South Australia and a severe wind on the Nullarbor, which caused an extra 3 hours driving and charging.

Out of all the cables in our froot, only the AEVA Kohns 32amp, our UMC with 10amp pigtail, our T2 to T2 cable, and our CCS2 adaptor for DC charging, were used.
We didn’t meet any other EVs at 3p sockets, so we didn’t have to use our 22kW splitter to each phase to charge three EVs at 7kW simultaneously.
The only safety gear used was the glass glue for two windscreen chips.

Charging after Clare Valley to Williams cost nearly as much as all of the rest of the charging put together (our car does have free supercharging for life).
All 24 Tesla superchargers worked perfectly and only one was full but only for 5 minutes. Most were totally unoccupied apart from a few other EVs trying to get their Tesla apps working.
8 out of 9 QESH DC charger in QLD worked, one was occupied and at another the other driver said he was full enough when we arrived.
All 21 3p or 10 amp sockets worked perfectly and were unoccupied.
All 18 Tesla Wall connectors worked perfectly and only one was briefly occupied.
All 3 T2 stations worked perfectly and were unoccupied
All 5 of the DC chargers from Whyalla to Lake Grace worked, but some required restarting a few times, and all were unoccupied.

We logged into Plugshare every time, and Plugshare did warn us that one site was full, and of course the car warned of the one Supercharger which was full.

Accommodation cost just over $10,000, but breakfasts were in our rooms or at the first charging point (if day charging), and grazing lunches of nuts and fruit in the car (since we were generally driving then).
We made up for this with some great dinners and managed some sightseeing early morning at sunrise, at driver swaps on the way, or late afternoon after check-in, averaging 10,000 steps per day.

The Five ABCs will become less important, since the WA EV DC network is being installed rapidly.
There are six new DC chargers on route 1 since our trip, and all of Eucla to Kununurra will be completed soon – the world’s longest network. Also RAA will cover the Eyre peninsula.
But the Northern Territory and Central Australia will still need the ABCs until the Federal network is installed, so here they are again.
1. Always Bring Cables (Especially for 3p sockets).
2. Always Be Charging (Only plan to stop at charging points, and plug in the car first).
3. Adjust Battery Consumption (It is always quicker overall to drive slower if only AC charging is available en route).
4. Always Browse Comments (Don’t rely on stations without checking previous user comments on Plugshare)
5. Always Be Cautious (Have alternative plans in case charging points are occupied or not working).

Teslas are brilliant long distance cars, so let them loose in this wonderful big multi-coloured land.

The gaps in the Teslascope map are where the car looses mobile connection.

 

[LoudMusic]

That's incredible. Thank you for documenting and sharing the details.

 

[craigomatic]

Excellent writeup, thank you for sharing.