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How hard is it to drive a long trip in Australia (900+ Km)

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I did Brisbane to Darwin twice in an ICE. Even that is challenging. You hit a 550 km (280 mi) stretch from Camooweal to the three ways with no gas stations in between (let alone superchargers). There are signs warning motorists that a headwind may increase fuel consumption enough to strand them. The first time I did it was in a turbo diesel Hilux with a 100L tank. The second time I did it was in a Yaris carrying a 20L jerrycan. It wouldn’t be possible in my model 3 SR+.

My parents live in Queensland and have a model 3 LR on order. Plotting out routes with Australia’s sparse supercharging network looks pretty bleak.
 
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I did Brisbane to Darwin twice in an ICE. Even that is challenging. You hit a 550 km (280 mi) stretch from Camooweal to the three ways with no gas stations in between (let alone superchargers). There are signs warning motorists that a headwind may increase fuel consumption enough to strand them. The first time I did it was in a turbo diesel Hilux with a 100L tank. The second time I did it was in a Yaris carrying a 20L jerrycan. It wouldn’t be possible in my model 3 SR+.

My parents live in Queensland and have a model 3 LR on order. Plotting out routes with Australia’s sparse supercharging network looks pretty bleak.
Barkly roadhouse, you must have missed it because the fuel price is so high.
 
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SA governemnt has just announced funding for 530 new fast chargers to be spread around the state by 2023. 120 of them will be in the cbd. The stated aim by the minister is to remove any concerns about range anxiety.
I hope they put a number of chargers at the same location, around maybe some restaurant infrastructure or similar (like in Norway)

If they scatter them around a lot it doesn't help much for the future.
 
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So 900km is basically Melb to Sydney, which i've driven quite a few times in a day in a ICE. Thinking about the rest stops I did, it should be do-able in a LR Tesla (2 supercharger stops).

My wife has done Syd-Melb return twice in our Model 3 LR. It is possible to do it with only 2 stops if you leave on 100%, charge to 80-90% at each stop, and don’t get anxious arriving on less than 10-15%. Having 3 stops is easy peasey and possibly slightly quicker trip if you finesse it.

The most recent trip took about 10 and a half hours with two 30-40 minute SC charging stops.
 
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One of the few flaws with ABRP is that it doesn't have a plug type for 3-phase sockets. Without it, they can't be included. Not a problem in the more populated parts of the country but it will claim there are no options for certain remote routes. Need to use Plugshare (eurgh) as a backup in this case.
 
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Im putting together a you tube video at the moment that introduces the concept of the "Musk Line", and the lesser "Edison line".
Totally made up names by me, but...
If you drive inside the Musk line, you have ample choices of very fast chargers, so not too different from ICE cars.
If you venture past this, but stay within the Edison line, you still get DC fast chargers, but they are slower ( up to 1 hour), and often only single chargers available. Quite possible to travel out here like an ICE car, but riskier and any issues with charger means you are staying the night at a hotel.
Past the Edison line, EV travel is possible, but you'll be slow charging using hotel chargers, or 32amp sockets taking 4 hours to re-charge at best.

low-powered-lines.png
 
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Im putting together a you tube video at the moment that introduces the concept of the "Musk Line", and the lesser "Edison line".
Totally made up names by me, but...
If you drive inside the Musk line, you have ample choices of very fast chargers, so not too different from ICE cars.
If you venture past this, but stay within the Edison line, you still get DC fast chargers, but they are slower ( up to 1 hour), and often only single chargers available. Quite possible to travel out here like an ICE car, but riskier and any issues with charger means you are staying the night at a hotel.
Past the Edison line, EV travel is possible, but you'll be slow charging using hotel chargers, or 32amp sockets taking 4 hours to re-charge at best.

View attachment 757654
Nice one
 
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Ah, that map reminds me that OpenChargeMap doesn't have most of the Charging The Regions sites in north-west Victoria.

OpenStreetMap is more thorough but many are just "charging station" without specifics - needs a bit of work to add in details.

Map below shows all "charging station" entries - without separating DC and AC.

1642640208121.png
 
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Ah, that map reminds me that OpenChargeMap doesn't have most of the Charging The Regions sites in north-west Victoria.

OpenStreetMap is more thorough but many are just "charging station" without specifics - needs a bit of work to add in details.

Map below shows all "charging station" entries - without separating DC and AC.

Yeah, its not mean to hold up to too much detailed scrutiny. ;) Just an indication of the changes to trip planning as you move through the zones/lines.
And hopefully it will change over time, and the lines will push more westward.
 
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If every responsible forum member adds a missing one it will be "feature complete" pretty "soon" or even done in "two weeks"
OpenChargeMap should never have tried to duplicate the charging station information from OSM, it should just directly use it and concentrate on layering on the comments/photos etc that OSM doesn't include.

I tried to add stations a few times to OpenChargeMap, and found it to be a stilted, bureaucratic process that in the end didn't result in the station appearing.

So now I just add/improve them on OSM, if I feel so inclined.
 
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I tried to add stations a few times to OpenChargeMap
I guess I'm only using it as a workaround to get ABRP to scrape the location. There was another site that ABRP scrapes but that evades me at the moment.

I expect Google to eventually realise the potential of EV charging crowd and buy out someone or implement a competitive feature for EV charging/navigation.
 
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How’d you do the MEL to Wilsons Prom trip? My model 3 is suggesting I go via Moe - that’s a 30min detour and 40min charge. Not ideal.
We drive on Friday night to Foster or Waratah Bay, stay at a cabin or powered campsite, charge all night on whatever power socket's available, then leave at the crack of dawn for the actual Prom with a near-full battery. Might try Fish Creek hotel one day, they have actual Tesla destination chargers.

Yeah pretty lousy experience but I can't see any DC fast chargers going in down there any time soon given the population density.

Wouldn't be a problem in a Long Range but $20k extra was for us.
 
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