New Zealand Road Trips

[Miggy]

It maybe fun and helpful to others to post information on road trips around New Zealand. Travel tips and recommendations' of good hotels with chargers etc.

Easter 2022 went from Pukekohe to Havelock North and back, Total Distance 929km with Avg. Energy 145 Wh/km Charging Cost of $53.26

 

[Audietron]

Good initiative.

I had two over 200K trips so far:

1. Trip to Bay of Plenty
   • only 3 chargers at Tauranga, prepare in advance...
   • not many hotels provide chargers
   • Auckland to Tauranga hands free on FSD for 90% of duration....
2. Trip to Bay of Islands (Far North)
   • Only one slow (25KW) charger, few fast charger at kerikeri, all far north is well equipped with chargers.
   • Heaps of hotels provide charging facilities, most locations like paihia, kerikeri, cape, whangarei.
   • Auckland to Bay of Islands hands free on FSD for 95% of duration.... Tesla saved me 3 hours in traffic jam by consistently diverting via internal routes or back roads to avoid holiday traffic jams.

Soon travelling to Gisborn.... Auckland to Gisborn would be interesting drive.... shame I don't have my Cybertruck yet (no one does), else I was able to use it during some off-road drives.

 

[m3lol]

I’ve done the Welly to Auckland trip a few times now and some recent stats that may be useful for SR+ owners:

Welly to Mangaweka SC (220km) - avg usage 162wh/km

Mangaweka to Taupo SC (162km) - avg usage 149 wh/km

Taupo to Sylvia Park SC (275km) - avg usage 138 wh/km

Lifetime stats to date: 53k kms, 141 wh/km.

AP useful in some places but limited to 100kph on roads with no median barrier. I tend to just keep TACC on and steer manually. If the roads are mostly straight (Foxton flats) or Waikato expressway - i’ll use AP predominantly.

 

[Matt_NZ]

I did a day trip to Arthurs Pass from Christchurch over the weekend. No real need to charge with a Long Range Performance but there is a 50kW Chargenet charger (with Kea proof cables) in the village along with a BYOC AC charger. Unlike most AC chargers, this AC charger is pay per kWh and has a 60minute time limit.

 

[Miggy]

March 2022 we did a trip from Pukekohe to New Plymouth and return, only one night and stayed at the Devon Hotel which was great value and had free chargers. We left the hotel with 100% and arrived home with 17% or 80km.
No charging on the way home, however we did charge on the way down as a bit unsure. Charge was at New World Te Kuiti ChargeNet 50 kW charger with a cost of $10.10
Not a fan of these chargers that cost 25+25 as they cost more than the chargers that cost either 40c per kW for a 50 kW charger or even better 60c per kW for the 300 kw chargers.
We found the Devon Hotel good value and loved the free charge as New Plymouth only has one 50 kW charger for the whole city!

The Devon Hotel | New Plymouth, Taranaki | EV Station

Two 3 phase Tesla chargers and another which is Type 2. BYO cable for the Type 2. At least one park is marked EV, and staff will block a park with a cone or a staff car if you let them know in advance

www.plugshare.com

 

[jeffnz]

Last year we took a five week relatively unplanned road trip from Auckland ending up in Bluff and lots in-between of course. Mostly South Island. No issue with finding chargers anywhere we needed. The only place we worried we might have a problem was Wanaka to Franz Josef over Haast Pass and turned out we didn't end up going that way because by that time we were having to head more towards home.

Mostly ChargeNet 50KW but a few Supercharges (36 total charges). We drove 5790 km. Avg speed 63 km/h. Used 1.2 MWh. Overall 191Wh/km.

I agree that the 25+25 chargers end up being more expensive but they are prevalent

 

[Jordaneto]

The only place we worried we might have a problem was Wanaka to Franz Josef over Haast Pass

I've done that in my 2020 LRAWD Model 3. Left Wanaka with 90% and arrived to the Franz Josef Chargenet charger with 22% which is comfortable, but doing EV road trips in a Tesla is easy mode I suppose. The car originally estimated arriving with 34%, that 12% difference is by far the biggest miss I've seen from the cars estimates, prior to this everything I'd seen was always within 3% either side.

 

[BozNZ]

Great Advice From website, hopefully give someone a laugh

 

[Matt_NZ]

At first glance I was thinking that looked right...then I looked at your starting destination!

Thankfully, the car is smarter than Tesla's website

 

[m3lol]

it is the nearest supercharger

Coincidentally, last time i took the Model 3 onto the ferry, it stopped updating its location once it was on board. I wanted to take a silly screenshot from the app that I was in the middle of the sea, but the car wouldn’t have that.

 

[CAM3RON]

I just did Auckland to Cape Reinga - as someone else said earlier there are plenty of charging options up North, however, quite a few of the old ChargeNet 23kw chargers, which slows you down, and they cut you off at 80% charge. I am happy to have ChargeNet, but they are definitely going to need more than just the one stall at their locations, as more EVs join the fleet.

 

[Audietron]

I just did Auckland to Cape Reinga - as someone else said earlier there are plenty of charging options up North, however, quite a few of the old ChargeNet 23kw chargers, which slows you down, and they cut you off at 80% charge. I am happy to have ChargeNet, but they are definitely going to need more than just the one stall at their locations, as more EVs join the fleet.

Chargenet chargers up north have a selector button default set to 80% battery, once pressed it will set to Max battery setting (same as full tank).
Those are latest version of Charge-net chargers... slow ones like one at paihia, are sluggish but not too bad, considering one could have good food nearby.

 

[m3lol]

All of the 50kw chargenets default to 80% unless you press the ‘Max’ charge button

 

[Audietron]

All of the 50kw chargenets default to 80% unless you press the ‘Max’ charge button

Oh okay... good to know... always charge at home so never charged full there until recently.

 

[CAM3RON]

Good to know about the 80% button. Thanks, gents!

I noticed as well while using the older chargers that the ChargeNet app does not connect so well with the charger in remote areas (Hauhora charger), so swiping the credit card was needed to activate - I read the Plugshare reviews for the charger and many users commented that it was quite a "temperamental" charger.

 

[Audietron]

Good to know about the 80% button. Thanks, gents!

I noticed as well while using the older chargers that the ChargeNet app does not connect so well with the charger in remote areas (Hauhora charger), so swiping the credit card was needed to activate - I read the Plugshare reviews for the charger and many users commented that it was quite a "temperamental" charger.

I had that connectivity and activating issue before... I tried unplugging and re-plugging car, nothing worked until I kill the app and reopen charge net app, locate the charger again and went again... everything worked.

Ordered the fob, worth that $50 as no need for app and internet connection during next trip... If only Tesla was allowing to download movies offline on netflix so can watch movie while charging in remote location.

 

[m3lol]

I thought the chargenet fob was free? I’ve had one since the Nissan Leaf days - the EV dealer gave me two with the car. I wish Tesla would do this with the amount of cars they sell now and no more free supercharging included or available via referral.

Maybe pop into one of the specialist EV dealers, they might have them. Always handy to have in locations where connectivity is a challenge.

 

[FlyingKiwi]

I thought the chargenet fob was free?

Not free, but only $1 - $5 each plus shipping. Dunno where $50 came from.

 

[Audietron]

Not free, but only $1 - $5 each plus shipping. Dunno where $50 came from.

Thanks for spotting it... Typo added extra zero at the end :-(

 

[Miggy]

Not a big road trip but just an overnight weekend trip Auckland to Mount Maunganui return.
Trip 477 km Total Energy 61kWh Avg. Energy 129 Wh/km
Road works cut the speed down a bit, as it was cloudy and not too hot, we did not need to have the air-con on for 80% of the trip.
Charged overnight with a 3 pin plug. 20kWh about 9-10 hours.